I liked the new girl group the Chipettes, who had the potential to breathe some new life into this classic cartoon, but they were sparingly used. There should have been a lot more music because that’s when the movie came to life. Other than that it was mostly mayhem, bullying, and fart jokes. Is it funny to see a woman in a wheelchair fall down the stairs? No. Is it funny to see the Chipmunk’s human “father” Dave get put into traction? No. Is it funny to see Simon get bullied by a toilet swirlie or get bashed with a dodge ball by the popular boys at school? No.

The movie’s script is really lazy–the kind of film where the villainous record producer (who was actually pretty funny at times, because he went for total ham and cheese with his comic humiliation) says, “I need to find more singing chipmunks,” and then the next scene shows the three incredibly talented and cute female Chipettes FedExing themselves to him to ask him to make them singing stars. That was easy.

The character Alvin is supposed to have attitude but I found him really grating. But the thing that really makes me give this movie one star is that the all of the human actors deserve better. Jason Lee (who is really only in it for 5 minutes, good for him I guess), Wendie Malick, Zachary Levi, David Cross, Kathryn Joosten make up an eclectic and talented cast and it pained me to see them acting into the air opposite animated chipmunks. (I kept thinking that Wendie Malick must have been jealous of Christine Baranski’s scene stealing role in “Mamma Mia.” Here Malick is stuck with the indignity of playing a school principal who secretly sports a chipmunk fan tattoo. Yuck.) And the celebrity voices of the chipmunks were totally wasted, Justin Long, Amy Poehler, Christina Applegate…they are unrecognizable anyway.

The CGI animation of the chipmunks is good, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. The previews before the show included two more awful-looking CGI animal movies coming soon to a theater near you, “Furry Vengeance” with Brendan Fraser and Brooke Shields, in which Fraser is farted on by skunks and locked in a porta potty by furry woodland animals, and “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” a cats and dogs spy movie with Chris O’Donnell. Quick, someone write a better screenplay for these beloved stars of the ’90s and ’00s, and invite the cast of “Alvin and the Chimpunks,” too!
Rating: 1 / 5

There are two audiences for Chipmunks films. The first are, of course, the children. In this case, the third generation of kids who are fans of David Seville’s creations. The second are the older fans who grew up with the music and the cartoons.

The kids (and in some cases, grandkids) generally loved this movie. There was a lot of action and fun as Alvin, Theodore and Simon rollicked through High School and eventually learned some important life lessons. The older fans, like my husband and I, may well be somewhat disappointed.

Why? My husband and I, who grew up with the original Chipmunk craze, came to one conclusion: Dave is missing. In the first part of the film, Alvin manages to sideline Dave (Jason Lee) and he’s only seen at the very beginning and end of the show. Instead of Dave, the trio had Dave’s slacker cousin Toby (Zachary Levi) as their guardian and Toby just didn’t really care about the furkids like Dave does.

Of course, we had a return of the evil manager, Ian (David Cross) who was staging his renaissance by representing the three-girl Chipettes, but they just were pale female imitations of the Chipmunks.

If you’re looking for a holiday film for the kids, this is a decent choice, though I’d actually recommend Disney’s excellent THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG instead.

Rebecca Kyle, December 2009
Rating: 2 / 5

The first thing wrong is that Jason Lee and Dave Seville is not in this movie at all except for the first five minutes and last five minutes. Why? What did he have to do that was so important? So, when he’s in it, he’s doing his trademark “Aaalllvvviiinnn” yell as much as possible. The rest of the movie is horrible. The chipmunks are sent to high school where the jocks feel immediately threatened by them. The three rodents get involved with different groups and all kinds of “hilarious” hijinks ensue. And then the Chipettes show up. They bring nothing to the movie either.

David Cross as Ian is back as well. He was funny in the first, but his act grows old in the second. As the credits rolled, I saw all kinds of famous people like Justin Long, Anna Farris and Amy Polhler lent their voices to the Chipmunks. Why?

As it is with most kid movies, your kids will probably enjoy watching it once. But for the adults, it will be one of the worst movies you will ever see.
Rating: 1 / 5

In the sequel, you don’t get often as much and yet the storyline is a bit forced. But honestly, it’s one of the bigger surprises that you’ll get for an end of the year treatment. Honestly, how often would a sequel tend to live up to its predecessor? That’s a bare minimum, especially with what we had this year with movies like “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Bruno.” (Yes, these are examples of sequels that never lived up to the hype as the original and they’re totally not that good.) And that’s where “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” falls into that hype.

It’s not to say that I hated “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” I found myself grabbed through the film halfway and near the end, but it had hardly any resemblance to the original film – as it is.

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” picks off right where the first film left off where Alvin, Simon and Theodore are rock star singers. Unfortunately, their owner, David Seville, lands into an accident when they were on stage and has to get sent to the hospital to recoup. Fortunately, Dave is lucky to be alive but he has to stay in the hospital for a few days to get better. He ends up leaving his chipmunks in the hands of their Aunt Jackie and then she falls off the stairs from her wheelchair, now leaving the chipmunks to Dave’s lonely nephew, Toby. Toby wants Alvin, Simon and Theodore to quit their fame and start high school.

To make things to resolve, the principal of the high school wants Alvin, Simon and Theodore to perform on stage to save their music program. For backup plans, Ian Hawke (who we all knew as the villain from the first film) wants The Chipettes to perform. It attracts love for Alvin, Simon and Theodore but as for them, they are now in battle. While Alvin makes friends with the wrong crowd, he does create a disaster for the chipmunks where The Chipettes win the performance by playing football, which the Chipettes want to escape from Ian’s evil scheme and to give them as much luck as possible.

“Alvin and the Chipmunks” did ran for a very long time, especially since it was mainly 1 1/2 long. It also goes through a simple as pie story where the sequel tends to be and doesn’t end up being as strong and as mighty as the original film. As for the film in general, it is very silly and like the first film, the chipmunks’ voices do tend to get very annoying for 1 1/2.

Some performances like Zachary Levi do tend to be the weakling of the film and yes, he does get very annoying. But he needs to cheer up in one scene of high school life and show a lot more sympathy for the Chipmunks, especially for Theodore. It’s too much for me to even think that Jason Lee yelled Alvin’s name maybe once or twice which is what holds the weak chain for this one. That’s one of the best parts of the film. The Chipettes were amazing and they stole the show. It gets very annoying to even see David Cross play the nemisis Ian Hawke who tried to go after Dave Seville in the first film, now his nephew Toby. What could be worse?

Simple, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” is definitely not as good as the original, but it does have some moments. It’s cute nonetheless and with awards seasons coming up, I think its really worth a rental. But if you have kids who are fans of Alvin and the Chipmunks, just take them to see it and enjoy.
Rating: 3 / 5