Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakuel 033010

The Chipmunks are on top of the world. Sell-out shows everywhere and they have a family as established in the first movie. Everything is great until Alvin’s antics cause an on stage accident that lands Dave in a Parisian hospital. He tells the chipmunks that he’s arranged for them to live with their aunt and he also wants them to go to school. They get to the airport and their aunt is promptly landed in the hospital (not Alvin’s fault this time) leaving them in the care of their loser cousin Toby. Once the chipmunks start school the football team declares war on them for stealing their limelight as the entire female student body is in love with them (yes, it is weird). They’re then asked to perform for a school to school music contest to win enough money to keep their school’s music program while Alvin’s popularity guzzling steadily makes him impossible to work with, all of this while their former manager is trying to destroy them with a rival singing group, the Chippettes.

This one was better than the first movie , that I will definitely concede. The story was better and most of the jokes were actually funny. The character of Toby (TV’s Chuck) was also more fun to watch than Dave because he was trying, he just didn’t know what he was doing. David Cross as the evil manager really shines, being both pitiably goofy but simultaneously a contemptuous jerk but his character was less vile than in the first movie. The addition of the Chippettes is the real highlight of the movie though, as evidenced by the ad campaign.

This is, obviously, a kid’s movie. As complicated as that plot summary was, it took a mere fifteen minutes of screen time. The entire thing is very fast paced and quick, leaving you feeling cheated likeI mentioned last week with Fantastic Mr Fox. Another thing is that while Toby is fun to watch, his character never really grows, he takes a step forward but at the end (spoiler alert) he’s still a loser. It was also a bit disappointing to not have anything new this time around. This is a fairly constant plot with the chipmunks. Brittany was also nicer than usual.

Typical chipmunk fair. Kids will love it and parents will be filled with nostalgia and like parts of it. Quality wise though, C-.