Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

This movie is one big "chip-wreck".

Genre:	Live-Action Comedy Adventure
Directed By:	Mike Mitchell
Written By:	Jonathan Aibel Glenn Berger
Starring:	Jason Lee David Cross Jenny Slate Justin Long Matthew Gray Gubler Jesse McCartney Christina Applegate Anna Faris Amy Poehler Alan Tudyk
Photography:	Color
Distributed By:	20th Century Fox
Release Date:	December 16, 2011
Runtime:	87 minutes
Country:	United States
Budget:	$80 million
Box Office:	$342.7 million
Prequel:	Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Sequel:	Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (also known as Alvin and the Chipmunks 3) is a 2011 (2012 in some regions) American live action/computer animated musical family comedy adventure film directed by Mike Mitchell. It is the third live action/animated film starring Alvin and the Chipmunks following the 2009 film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which was a sequel to the 2007 film Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox and produced by Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises and Bagdasarian Company. The film was released on December 16, 2011. A fourth and final film titled Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip was released on December 18, 2015.

Plot

David Seville, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes are taking a luxury cruise to the International Music Awards. Of course, Alvin cannot resist the urge to create havoc, and the singing rodents soon find themselves marooned on a seemingly deserted island. While Dave and an unlikely ally launch a search, Alvin and company discover that they are not alone on the island, as they first thought.

Why It's a Complete Chipwreck (Bad Qualities)

Once again, much like the first two movies, most of the jokes are unfunny that 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 clichés, like the "being stranded on a deserted island" cliché that has already been done to death.
Plot holes; like Simon in his Simone persona being hit on the head by a golf ball somehow turning him back to his normal personality, when it was a spider bite that actually gave him the Simone persona.
Other problems include Captain Corelli stating that the Chipmunks and Chipettes are misbehaving. Although their behavior is rambunctious and annoying, it never puts anyone in danger. And to make matters worse, because the Chipmunks (not Theodore) went to the bar/casino, they are forced to play shuffleboard. While Alvin, Simon and Theodore are just animals, they are world famous talking Chipmunks. It doesn't make sense that they should be forced away from the rest of the cruise when they have done nothing to personally injure anyone. Keep in mind, Theodore also did nothing to deserve any of this, and was the only one to stay inside the hotel room.
Like the previous films, It also contains so much pop-culture references that it even includes references to jungle films like The Jungle Book, George of the Jungle (1997), Tarzan and even survival films like Cast Away as well. In fact, it feel more like a ripoff rather than that.
The film cares so little about its cruise setting that it doesn't even tell the audience where the Chipmunks and the Chipettes are sailing to. They say they're traveling to the International Music Awards, but even then it is never really explained where it is actually taking place. They could’ve easily flown there.
Product placement, including for Carnival Cruise Lines.
Certain plot points, such as Eleanor breaking her leg and especially Simon developing an alternate macho persona named Simone (more on that later), go mostly nowhere.
A massive amount of filler, the biggest offenders being Alvin fighting a meerkat (in which he calls a "honey badger") and the dance-off between the Chipettes and three casino patrons on the cruise ship.
Despite the film being shown on a tropical island, neither meerkats nor honey badgers are native to tropical climates.
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 either butcher them up or make them even worse with chipmunk singing.
Like the previous films, Mark Mothersbaugh's musical score is still lackluster and pathetic.
The film does not improve anything of the previous films, mainly due to unlikable characters, popular songs that butcher up and unnecessary pop-culture references.
Simon's alternate personality subplot does little to impact the story and doesn't even know what it wants to satirize.
While the CGI on the Chipmunks and Chipettes are 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, which is, once again, ironic considering the special effects are done by Rhythm and Hues Studios.
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 (and the entire film series, for that matter), making it an easily insulting and hypocritical message.
At one point, the movie has to literally stop everything so Alvin can explain in full detail a bad joke.
Zoe is a bland new character and her transition from supporting character to villain feels like it comes out of nowhere, just because they needed a completely new villain for the live-action tetralogy. 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 "ALVINNN!!!" sounds phoned in and forced as if he had a problem with his vocal cords.
Poor acting, particularly from Jenny Slate and, of course, Jason Lee, with the exception of David Cross.
The ending is just lazy and anti-climatic. To makes matters worse, there is the cliché "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, which is pretty much forced for the end credits, as it never even tells us whether they win or not, or what they win if they did.
The mid-credits scene is horrible, as it ruins Alvin's character development. It involves Dave, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes going home on a plane, only to have Alvin, like the troublemaker he is, cause an airline food cart to crash right into Dave that nearly injures him again, showing he didn't learn anything about being more responsible and serious as the movie was trying to look like until that point.
- On top of that, there's a small moment where Theodore playfully tries to scare Dave with a Jungle Monster fantasy, apparently to show he was not scared anymore. While this can be seen as character development for him depending on your view, it does not work because he did not have an arc about overcome his fear and be braver, unlike Alvin and Simon, who actually had decent arcs about being more mature and have fun, respectively, that could have worked if it wasn't for that mid-credits scene.
Weak pacing that it feels much longer than that for sure.
Brittany while not as bad as her original 1980s version, has some annoying moments.
Abysmal direction of Mike Mitchell, who directed better films, like Sky High, Shrek Forever After, Trolls and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
False Advertising: On the posters, The Chipmunks are wearing holiday beach outfits, but they never actually wear them in the movie.
- Also, when you look closely at the main characters' faces, you can see that they lazily reused the same pose from the first two film's poster.
As mentioned before, the title Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked sounds laughable.
It has almost no impact on the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise as a whole; its main contribution to the story is Ian Hawke's redemption, but still, the film itself can be ignored, his follow-up can be seen in its sequence and nothing very important would be wasted. Much of what happened in this film is completely ignored in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.

Good 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.
- And also un-ironically, his character actually went through a bit of development as well, from being the generic greedy music director from the last two films into to just an indeed equally likable minor but anti-hero character, in mostly off-screen between the last film and this film. Despite not being much, he still got more character development than the seven main characters in the whole live-action tetralogy adaption.
- Speaking of which, his redemption arc in this film was surprisingly well-executed and natural, and unlike some other villain redemptions in media (including Zoe, the actual main villain of this film), it's not shoved down the audience's throats or rushed by being forced to take place at the last minute without any proper character development actually happening.
Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris and Amy Poehler still do a pretty good job as Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor, respectively.
- The fact that Alan Tudyk takes over the role of "Simone" from Matthew Gray Gubler is a little interesting, though it quickly becomes stale.
Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette, Eleanor and Ian are still likeable characters.
- While not as good as Ian's, Alvin and Simon do get a decent character development, with Alvin learning to be more responsible and serious when needed while still being the fun-loving prankster he is and Simon learning to be braver and have fun, even if Alvin's development is ruined by the mid-credits scene.
- On a similar note, while the mid-credits scene is awful and pointless for ruining Alvin's development, Theodore seems to be more mature and braver as well, which depending on your view, can be seen as character development for him, even if it comes out of nowhere.
As previously stated, the CGI on the Chipmunks and Chipettes are alright.
There are some memorable and heartwarming moments in the film such as:
- The scene where Theodore gives a necklace to Dave and does a cute face
- Simon (not Simone) saying that even the most perfect gem cannot compare to Jeanette's beauty
A few of the jokes are okay.
Compared to the previous films, they toned down on the product placements and don't overused them, mainly since they were in the first act.
Some of the dialogue is sweet such as:
- "I mean sure Alvin can be kind of a handful but he means well. He's sometimes just... a little irresponsible that's all."
- "Aw don't... don't worry, Alvin. I'm sure Dave will come. I mean he certainly loves Simon and Theodore."
The credits look nice.
The scenes with Alvin and Brittany are very cute. Additionally, the chemistry between the Chipmunks and the Chipettes is better executed than in the second film.

Reception

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked received generally negative reviews, even worse compared to the first two movies, plus the fourth one. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 12% based on 82 reviews and an average rating of 3.51/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lazy, rote, and grating, Chipwrecked is lowest-common-denominator family entertainment that's strictly for the very, very, very young at heart.". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 24 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, down from the first two films' "A". It has a 4.3/10 on IMDb

Trivia

David Cross, who played Ian in this film and the previous two installments, has spoken critically of the film, calling it "the most miserable experience I ever had in my professional life". He had no problems with the other actors or director, but said there were a couple of crew members who made production an awful experience.^[1]
It got a tie-in game on the Nintendo DS, Wii, and Xbox 360.