Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks
Filed Under (Reviews) by myjaxon on 20-04-2008
Director:Tim Hill
Writers: Jon Vitti and Will McRobb
Release Date: 14 December 2007
Cast: Jason Lee, David Cross, Cameron Richardson, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Jesse McCartney
We rented the new Alvin and the Chipmunks tonight and Ian’s reaction was priceless. The movie just started and all of a sudden, we hear Ian erupting into giggles. It was great. We tried to recreate it, but…yeah, he turned a little camera shy.
I have to say, I loved the cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks growing up, so when I heard they were doing a live action movie, I was kind of skeptical. They don’t normally do them well and I have been disappointed in the past. I really can’t say that with this movie. They actually did a pretty good job with it. It was better than I thought it would be. I am definitely going to be buying this movie, and not because it made Ian giggle at the beginning. It did capture Ian’s attention for awhile, but it’s still a bit long for him. He can barely sit still during a 30 minute show, so I knew he wasn’t going to make it through this one, but he kept coming back it. Especially when the chipmunks were singing. And speaking of their songs, there was some dialog that should be familiar to any fan of the old cartoons. They still used the familiar songs - the Chipmunk Song & Witch Doctor - but they did modernize it a bit. I didn’t have a problem with the modernized version of the Chipmunk Song, but Witch Doctor wasn’t that great. I prefer the old version of that one.
Overall, the movie was good. Jason Lee did a good job as David Seville and the CGI animation was pretty good. The story had a good story arc and it really didn’t drag. When we got to the end of the movie, the final conflict or conflict resolution, it kind of caught me by surprise. I like movies like that. It means that I was interested enough in it that I lost track of time for awhile. Isn’t that the point of movies? To lose track of time, to just relax and not worry about what’s going on while watching a good story? Alvin and the Chipmunks is definitely a movie I would recommend.
