I’m sure he’ll be back disobeying the rules in future movies. I’m guessing this revelation doesn’t totally reform Alvin, though. There is, however, a takeaway message when Alvin realizes that “Simone” is driving him crazy just like HE drives Dave crazy. But they’re only fun for about ten minutes. The Chipmunks are pretty cute at first glance, and even their array of pop tunes, including covers of Bad Romance and Born This Way from Lady Gaga, Trouble from Pink, and Survivor from Destiny’s Child, are fun. David Cross reprises his character of Ian from the other movies. However, for anyone keeping track, the voices are as follows: Justin Long (Alvin), Matthew Gray Gubler (Simon), Jesse McCartney (Theodore), Amy Poehler (Eleanor), Anna Faris (Jeanette) and Christina Applegate (Brittany). Look, the Chipmunks all sound pretty much the same, so I’m not sure people really notice the different voice. Nor is it all that amusing when one of the Chipmunks gives us the James Bond “shaken not stirred” line when he’s on the cruise ship.Īnother interesting element is when Theodore changes personality into “Simone”: they have Alan Tudyk (“Wash” from Firefly) voicing the character.
We really don’t care that Zoe ( Saturday Night Live’s Jenny Slate), the girl who’s been shipwrecked on the island for several years, has several inanimate “friends” a la Tom Hanks’ soccer ball Wilson in the movie Castaway. There’s one of the problems with this movie: they try to throw in adult references to make it interesting for adults, but it doesn’t work. In Simon’s case, it also means getting bit by a poisonous spider which alters his personality to “Simone,” a cross between Charlie Sheen in Platoon and “the most interesting munk in the world” (I guess from that beer commercial starring “the most interesting man in the world”). For the Chipettes, that means singing soulful songs and crafting tropical apparel (with bikini tops – is that necessary for a kids’ movie?).įor the Chipmunks, that means scouting the area for food and supplies.
While enroute to the International Music Awards, the humans and chipmunks, as mentioned, inadvertently end up on a tropical island, where they make do as best they can. The thin story seems designed to sell products, not only the aforementioned Carnival Cruise Lines, but also Swiss Army knives, YouTube and Electronic Musician Magazine (which I didn’t even know existed, so mission accomplished on that one). So begins the latest Chipmunk caper, the G-rated Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, on DVD and Blu-ray March 27, 2012. The gang ends up being washed ashore on a tropical island that’s not as deserted as they think. Think your kids are a handful? Try keeping six independent chipmunks in line, especially mischievous Alvin, who not only wreaks havoc during a Carnival Cruise vacation advertisement, but manages to get separated from the ship during a paragliding incident, taking the other chipmunks along with him. That’s how our brains work, and that’s why this movie will later get more credit retrospectively than it deserves.Why Dave Seville hasn’t lost his ever-lovin’ mind yet is a mystery. Ten years from now, we’ll remember this as the one where the chipmunks got stranded on an island, and we’ll mistakenly think it was okay even though it kind of sucks. It’s just kind of there, which in a way, is both the whole point and the reason why Chip-Wrecked is ultimately successful. There’s no real emotion, real punch or real purpose for existing. It’s disposable, overly-reliant on stupid cover songs and extremely formulaic. PHOTOS: The Big Screen’s Evolution of Talking Animals: From ‘Mister Ed’ to ‘Zookeeper’Ĭinema Blend gets right to the point, saying, “ Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chip-Wreckedisn’t a very good movie. A shining example of one is Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked, in which the ever-chipper rodent musical act is carried off a cruise ship by a kite and end up marooned on a tropical island. Then there are the movies targeted at children too young to drop off with someone yet too old to lie to about the existence of movie theaters. “And that’s the stuff that comes after toilet training.
“Every parent sacrifices: hours logged at cold skating rinks, wet soccer fields, airless American Girl stores,” writes Time magazine’s reviewer.
of its targeted young audiences (it’s G-rated, as opposed to those prior PG ratings) it should handily do the trick at the holiday box office, although it still would have been nice if they could have made a slight effort to instill the Ross Bagdasarian Sr. characters with a modicum of charm and inventiveness.” The Hollywood Reporter‘s Michael Rechtshaffen says, “If the true gauge of a worthy sequel is consistency, then it would be fair to say that “A lvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked is every bit as frantic, frenetic, groan-inducing and all around grating as its two predecessors From the p.o.v.