SnoopyStyle Dave Seville (Jason Lee) is a struggling artist and his music producer Ian Hawke (David Cross) rejects his latest song. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are musical chipmunks. Their tree gets chopped down to be the Christmas tree in the record company. The chipmunks are accidentally taken to Dave's home. Dave discovers the talking chipmunks and their musical talents. Claire Wilson (Cameron Richardson) is his neighbor. Gail (Jane Lynch) is Dave's advertising boss.This is strictly for kids. The parents who bring the kids will find little to no laughs. Did I laugh at the poop joke? Yes. I don't think I was paying attention to the movie. It was more of a shock than funny but I still laughed. One can make fun of Jason Lee doing it for the paycheck but who doesn't. It's not like he's winning an Oscar any time soon. The chipmunks are mostly harmless fun. The music is good initially especially as a Christmas song. Once it goes hip-hop, it gets annoying.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Alvin and the Chipmunks" is the first film from a movie franchise that is still running almost 10 years later. Unfortunately, quality is not the reason for that. I can't even be too mad at director Tim Hill here as the ones who are really to blame for this first film being mostly a failure are the three writers. It always baffles me how all of them can be so bad that they do not realize the mistakes of the others. At least, Ross Bagdasarian does not have to see this anymore. First of all, a few general notes about the film. It clearly aimed at younger audiences. There is no violence, no sexuality and basically nothing else that could scare them away from the film. The main villain is also not really evil in a psychological sense, just greedy and ruthless.One problem here is that there are no shades in the characters. they are either 100% good or bad and this always hurts a film. The movie relies a lot on the cuteness of the Chipmunks and even if they are cute, to me their unbearable voices made this almost painful to watch from time to time. And let us not forget: The core plot here is about the trio being great singers. But they are not. Not at all. I wish I could say there is a critical message about musicians having big careers with little talent because of their star factor, but nope. The Chipmunks are supposed to be seen as truly talented here.The good thing is that this weak film runs for under 90 minutes, so it is really not that long. The bad thing is that it still drags. For example, the romance story involving Cameron Richardson was so generic and not working at all. Badly written and the actress' lack of range is certainly not helping either, but in her favor admittedly not even Kate Winslet would have made this character work. I feel kinda sorry for her because it really destroyed her career. Lee as the title character is so-so, certainly has proved in the past that he is talented, but here he can not really show it. Same goes for David Cross. At least the character is somewhat fun in his over-the-top-ness.And finally a couple words about the title characters. It always confuses me that Alvin is one of the Chipmunks himself, so to me this is really "dave and the Chipmunks", but anyway.. the film did not have enough funny scenes for me to let me recommend it. The only one I found pretty entertaining was when the trio drank all that caffeine and they were jumping around like bounce balls afterward. But this is not an entertaining movie for 85 minutes and from a dramatic and emotional perspective in terms of the message on friendship for example, I cannot take it seriously at all. Not a good watch. Stay away.

kscollins-53296 This movie made me consider immigrating to North Korea, just to be away from this atrocity. Even a one way trip to Mars is better. I'd rather give birth to a live elephant. I'd rather rip my fingernails off. I'd rather eat at Taco Bell. This movie is like how bile tastes. There's also nudity, and it is a one way track to sin. Our economy is plummeting and this is how the government repays us. The cold hands of capitalism have me in a vice I can not escape. One day the death of society with come for us all, in the form of horrendous high notes and outdated clichés. This movie is a dark abyss, and I'm tired to the lies.

kosmasp I wasn't that aware of the Chipmunks, but they do seem to have a following. And you can see their appeal to a younger (=kids) audience. They are cute and they can talk. What else do you need for a successful kids movie? Of course the story as it is, is not anything new or great or anything else.As an adult you have to make sure, to try to think as little as possible. A world where Chipmunks exists (an adult world that is) wouldn't look anything like this kids version of it. But you can't blame the movie for that. It's our cynical (realistic?) view that might spoil it for us. Still not the best kids entertainment, it will occupy and satisfy every need the little ones have.