Alvin and the
Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
How can you even try
to make a serious critique of a movie which subtitles itself as a
Squeakquel?
Obviously
Alvin & the Chipmunks 2
doesn't give a flying rodent
what critics think of it. And you know what? Good for them...
Not to say the
Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
is really a good
film, but in this case does that even matter? It will amuse small children
and has just enough nostalgia and cute humor going for parents to make the
time spent watching seem relatively harmless.
Lots of family films
don’t offer even these modest pleasures.
If you get technical,
the whole Chipmunks phenomenon is an odd one. Speeded up vocals over pop
music so that the songs sound like they are sung by furry forest creatures –
the only thing weirder than the idea that these singers could become pop
stars is the idea that essentially they have become pop stars.
The Chipmunks have
been going strong for over 50 years now. The original “Chipmunks Song” was
a hit in 1958 – long before the parents of most of Squeakquel’s
target audience was born – in fact quite possibly before the grandparents.
The characters are
periodically reinvented with stuff like Chipmunk Punk and frequently
updated Saturday morning cartoon series, eventually exploding back into
American consciousness a couple of years ago with a surprisingly popular
film version.
Amazingly, the
Squeakquel became an even bigger hit – in fact it has become the highest
grossing film ever directed by a woman.
Take a second to let
that fact sink in. No film directed by a woman has ever been a bigger hit
than Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
Shocking.
It certainly isn’t the
best film ever directed by a woman. In fact, it is not the best film ever
directed by its own director, Betty Thomas – the
former Hill Street Blues actress who has since gone on to direct
The Brady Bunch Movie and Private Parts.
Now as Alvin 2
is getting its DVD release, and while its incredible popularity is still
rather disquieting, it is a cute enough children’s film. The basic idea
still holds up – a struggling songwriter discovers some singing Chipmunks
and turns them into pop stars. The Chipmunks are rambunctious and fun
loving and essentially just little fuzzy children and soon the guy becomes
their de facto dad.
Of course, Alvin
and the Chipmunks 1 star Jason Lee (of the TV series My Name is Earl)
was apparently too busy to do the whole film, so he has limited his role to
a few scenes which are essentially a glorified cameo. The guardian role has
been taken over by his ne’er-do-well nephew (played by Zachary Levi, who
also portrays the title character on the series Chuck.)
There isn’t all that
much of a story here, not that it really matters. Alvin and the band have
become big stars. They meet up with a group of female chipmunks who are
also aiming for stardom – and of course will eventually become their chaste
love interests. In fact, the Chippettes were accommodating enough to take
on pretty much all of the traits of the Chipmunks – we have the aggressive
leader, the intelligent one and the slightly overweight naïve one.
This leads to a battle
of the bands and a return of the evil record exec from the first film
(humorously played by comic David Cross) – but there are no real surprises
here.
Alvin and the
Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
is comfort food. It
won’t challenge you or enrich you, but it will give you a nice, somewhat
satisfied feel.
Dave Strohler
Copyright ©2010 PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Posted: March 30, 2010.
