Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
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Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked is a 2011 American live action/animated musical comedy film and the third instalment in the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, directed by Mike Mitchell and distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Plot
Playing around while aboard a cruise ship, the Chipmunks and Chipettes accidentally go overboard and end up marooned in a tropical paradise. They discover their new turf is not as deserted as it seems.
Why It Sucks
- Once again, most of the jokes consist of toilet humor, bad puns (this even includes the title), and jokes that seem a little too adult for a G-rated film, such as Ian commenting on how he saw Snoop Dogg light a joint with two carrot sticks.
- It has lots of cliches, like the "being stranded on a deserted island" cliche that has been already done to death.
- Some plot holes, like Simon in his Simone persona being hit on the head by a golf ball somehow turns him back to his normal personality, when it was a spider bite that actually gave him the Simone persona.
- Like the previous films, It also contains so much pop culture references that it even includes references to jungle films like George of the Jungle (1997), Tarzan and even survival films like Cast Away.
- The film cares so little about its cruise setting that it doesn't even tell the audience where the Chipmunks and the Chipettes are even sailing to. (The International Music Awards might be the place their going to, but it is never really explained where it is actually taking place).
- The skimpy, flowerish bikini like outfits the Chipettes wear throughout the other half of the movie all look ridiculous, weird and disturbing as they are actually underage. It is also never explained what happened to their previous outfits and aren't seen again until the mid credits scene.
- Certain plot points, such as Eleanor breaking her leg and especially Simon developing a alternate macho persona named Simone (more on that later), go mostly nowhere.
- A massive amount of filler, the biggest offenders being Alvin fighting a honey badger and the dance-off between the Chipettes and three casino patrons on the cruise ship.
- Like the previous films, the actors and actresses (Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris and Amy Poehler.) who voice the Chipmunks and the Chipettes are adult aged, but the producers thought that using their normal voices didn't fit, so they just sped up their recordings, making it hard to tell who is even voicing them.
- The musical numbers serve no purpose to the story and only appear in the film because like the previous movies, they took whatever popular songs by well known artists (e.x. "Vacation" by The Go-Gos and "Trouble" by P!nk) and butcher them up with chipmunk singing.
- Like the previous films, the musical score is still lackluster and pathetic.
- Simon's alternate personality subplot does little to impact the story and doesn't even know what it wants to satirise. It's like the producers just used a random word generator to describe Simone's character with nothing but three words: ("Rambo" "French" and "Horny").
- While the CG on the Chipmunks is okay, the other uses of effects, such as when Simon ties Dave's bow tie and when the monster fish is attacking Simone, are extremely out of place and fake-looking.
- At the climax where they go and find Jeanette after she gets captured by Zoe, Alvin says that at one point in his life, he has to defy Dave's orders, when that's all he's been doing throughout the film, making it an easily insulting and hypocritical message.
- Zoe is a bland character and her transition from supporting character to villain feels like it comes out of nowhere. What's even worse is that she gets no repercussions for almost murdering Dave and kidnapping Jeanette for her goal of getting the treasure in the cave. It is also unnecessary, as she pretty much redeems herself after Ian talks her down, also making the switch to villain pointless.
- Again, Dave's famous "ALVIIIIIIN!!" scream sounds phoned in and forced. He also still sounds like he has a problem with his vocal cords.
- Poor acting, particularly from Jenny Slate and, of course, Jason Lee, with the exception of David Cross.
- Like the previous movies, it not only again wastes the talents of Jason Lee, David Cross, Justin Long, Matthew Grey Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris and Amy Poehler, but also new talents like Jenny Slate and Alan Tudyk.
- The cliche "dance off" scene where The Chipettes and the Chipmunks perform to a combination/remix of both "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga and "Firework" by Katy Perry in the International Music Awards is pretty much forced for the end credits, as it never even tells us what they actually even win for, if at all.
- The mid-credits scene is horrible, as it evolves Dave, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes going home on a plane, only to have Alvin, like the troublemaker he is, cause a airline food cart to crash right into Dave that nearly injures him again.
- The materials given were so bad that even David Cross admitted that working on the film was the most unpleasant experience of his career.
- False advertising: The Chipmunks are wearing holiday beach outfits on the poster but they never actually do wear them in the movie.
Redeeming Qualities
- Despite what he had to go through, David Cross still gives off a decently fun performance as Ian that's way funnier than his portrayal in the second film.
- The fact that Alan Tudyk takes over the role of "Simone" from Matthew Gray Gubler is a little interesting.
- As previously stated, the CGI on the Chipmunks is alright.
- They do at least tone down on the product placements.
