Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks Genre: Live-Action Comedy Adventure Photography: Color Running Time: 92 minutes Country: United States Release Date: December 14, 2007 Directed by: Tim Hill Written by: Janice Karman Ross Bagdasarian Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Starring: Justin Long Matthew Gray Gubler Jesse McCartney Jason Lee David Cross Cameron Richardson Jane Lynch Next film: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Alvin and the Chipmunks is a 2007 American live action/animated musical comedy film about Alvin and his chipmunk brothers directed by Tim Hill and it was distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Plot

Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are back following the further adventures of the world's most adorable singing trio. Songwriter Dave Seville (Jason Lee) has been struggling to gain recognition in the music industry for some time, and despite the fact that his former college roommate (David Cross) is now a high-profile powerbroker at Jett Records, Dave still can't manage to get a break. Things soon start to look up, however, when Dave discovers three singing chipmunks hiding out in the branches of a Christmas tree in Jett Records' world headquarters. Realizing that these woodland crooners could prove to be his ticket to the big time, Dave does his best to transform Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler), and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) into the next great pop sensation. As adorable and talented as they may be, though, these bouncy little critters aren't quite domesticated just yet; they still have a wild streak in them a mile wide, and it isn't long before Dave's life, home, and career are in utter chaos. But staying mad at such lovable little creatures is next to impossible, no matter what kind of mischief they might get into.

Why It Sucks

1. It has lots of adult humor and too many fart jokes in a family film.
2. Bad grasp to the original source material.
3. There are even some inappropriate jokes, such as the one near the end of the film when once Alvin and his brothers hear Dave calling for them, they tear off their outfits and leave themselves naked, which is very disturbing for younger viewers and even adults.
4. It has a lot of pop-culture references including films like The Matrix and etc.
5. A lot of product placement like the Xbox 360 and companies like Apple and Samsung.
6. While the CGI for the Chipmunks aren't too bad, the other uses of special effects look outdated and uncanny.
7. While the chipmunks still were their trademark clothing, Alvin's design is wrong: he doesn't wear a hoodie in the original source material, nor does he wear a cap like he did in the 1980's until the end of the film. They also wear a poorly made sequin outfit that is just nothing but sequins and that's it.
8. It wastes the talents of Justin Long, Matthew Grey Gubler, Jesse MaCartney, Jason Lee, Jane Lynch, Cameron Richardson, David Cross and others.
9. The three actors who voice the trio (Justin Long, Matthew Gray and Jesse McCartney) are adult aged but the producers thought that their actual voices didn't fit in with the Chipmunks, so they sped their recordings to make them sound like chipmunks with poor results.
10. It has gross out humor like in a scene where Simon eats Theodore's feces, thinking they were raisins. (Although Simon was forced to eat the poop by Dave to prove to him it wasn’t poop at all, which is just as gross).
11. Jason Lee pulls off Dave Seville's popular catchphrase "ALVIIIIIIIIIIIN!" poorly, as it sounds very watered down and not angry enough which sounds normally as a normal loud scream. He also sounds like he has a problem with a vocal cords.
12. Clair Wilson is an pointless and unnecessary love interest as she is never seen again and never appears in any of the sequels that followed after that.
13. The Chipmunks' redesigns are unnecessary and poor. Not only do they look smaller, but they look more like actual chipmunks rather than mutant kids born with chipmunk faces, voices, fur and tails.
14. A few of the characters aren't portrayed all that good compared to the source material, like Dave for being portrayed as rather unlikable, and Alvin not having much of a personality.
15. The Chipmunks' high-pitched voices can become irritating to listen to from time to time. As mentioned earlier, the voice acting is coming from adult actors (Justin Long, Matthew Gray and Jesse McCartney), but it's hard to tell who is even voicing them due to being sped up, making it pointless as Fox could have used anyone else for the roles and speed up their recordings and it will still be the same.
16. Lackluster musical score.
17. The Chipmunks sing covers of songs that are just popular songs (e.x. "Funkytown" by Lips and "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter) which seem more like rip-offs rather than using original songs in the film.
18. While their trademark theme song known as "Witch Doctor" is featured, it doesn't sound anything like the original and sounds more like a rapping version.
19. False advertising: Simon and Theodore have sunglasses and hats on the poster but they are never seen wearing them in the movie.

Redeeming Qualities

1. A few cute moments.
2. Some good jokes.
3. Low number of pop-culture references compared to its three sequels.
4. The clothing the chipmunks are wearing is faithful to the original source material, the exception of Alvin's design.
5. As mentioned above, the CG for the Chipmunks is pretty decent, despite the poor redesigns.
6. The new version of "Christmas Don't Be Late", though modernized, is admittedly pretty catchy.
7. David Cross's performance as Ian Hawke is one of the most hilarious and enjoyable parts.
8. Unlike most live action films, they actually reveal what happened to the Chipmunks' parents.

Trivia

.Development on a Alvin & the Chipmunks film adaptation started in the mid 1990s when Universal Pictures made an announcement that they talked about the idea of a live action Alvin & the Chipmunks with Robert Zemeckis, (yes, the same director behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Back to the Future trilogy and Forrest Gump) who was chosen to direct, but then it was scrapped in 2000 due to the characters creator, Ross Bagdasarian Jr, filing a class action lawsuit against Universal Studios.

.Ross Bagdasarian Jr was to reprise his original role as Dave Seville, but due to his middle age, the younger Jason Lee was chosen. Tim Allen, Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, John Travolta, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray were also offered, but all turned it down.

.The original voice actors Ross Bagdasarian Jr & Janice Karman were to also reprise their roles as the chipmunks, but were rejected for promotional reasons. However, Janice Karman's singing was still kept in the film.

.Brian Posehn, Patton Oswalt and Tom Cruise were all considered for Ian Hawk.

.Drew Barrymore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Hayek and Jennifer Love Hewitt were also considered for Clarie Wilson.

External links

• Alvin and the Chipmunks at the Internet Movie Database
• Alvin and the Chipmunks on Rotten Tomatoes