Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and The Chipmunks first hit it big back in 1983 as a cartoon that quickly turned in to a successful franchise in film and product sales. Animated entirely, the trio of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore had a huge fan base for a few years that even included a couple of top selling records. Looking to capture some of that early success a live action version of the show was brought to film in 2007. The story is only updated in as much as the time period is changed, and rather than cartoon drawings, the chipmunks are computer generated this time around. Putting the computer generated characters into a film with human cast members is not anything new, but the technology has almost come far enough for us not to see a glaring difference between the animated characters and the real life humans surrounding them.

This time around the chipmunks start out in the woods, as the film intros. with a some singing, and re-introduction of the three chipmunks to the audience. Alvin is the leader of the group, always full of energy, Simon is the brains of the group, and Theodore is the cute and often scared and timid chipmunk. While living in the woods, the suddenly find their tree being cut down to be a Christmas tree in a large music corporation, which of course will place them right in the path of Mr. Dave Seville. Dave has been struggling to come up with some working jingles for a music company, but his music has started to fall on deaf ears. His goal is to break into the music industry, and give him the freedom to quit an advertising job that doesn't make him very happy. Though his latest visit is going to end "fruitless" again, he is for a surprise in the form of three stow-aways that have hitched a ride out of the scary office building.

Back at the house, the comedy starts to unfold as the chipmunks make their presence known in Dave's house. It leads to a lot of destruction, and Dave tosses them out, only to find out that they can not only talk, but can sing as well. With an agreement that they can stay if they will sing his songs, Dave and the chipmunks start to form a bond as not just co-workers, but as friends. From the start it is obvious that they don't have the same view on what a tidy house is, and problems always arise when Dave is trying to keep the kids in line. That is exactly what they are too, kids, who have to have limits set, even if they don't quite see the wisdom in the decision. This is about what the plot entails, as they butt heads on how to live together, and the audience is presented with whether or not Dave and the Chipmunks can keep their working relationship going.

Jason Lee plays the staring role of Dave, and he is easily recognizable as Earl off of the television show My Name is Earl. He does well in the role, although he seems a lot less innocent than the Dave from the infamous cartoons. There are moments where he brings some nice humor to the story, and a few others where the chipmunks themselves are funny, but there are a lot of jokes that didn't work with this particular viewer. Maybe that is not the fault of the film, and maybe I am out of the suggested age-range for viewing the story, but I am quite confident that they were targeting people who felt fondly about the first run of Alvin and the Chipmunks. There are a lot of family issues dealt with in the story, and at the heart (buried really deep) there is a good message to the film. Beyond that though, I think it struggled to stay afloat for the duration, and I was disappointed overall. I do still recommend as something that young kids might enjoy, but it only gets a mild recommendation for even that.