I had downsydrome and after watching this it cured my diabetes.

This review is coming from a fan of the 80s animated TV show and of the childhood favourite that is The Chipmunk Adventure. I wasn't wowed over by Alvin and the Chipmunks, but it was a cute and harmless film. Same goes for its recent sequel.

Starting with the pros of Alvin and the Chipmunks, the production values are great. The photography and editing are decent enough, the locations are striking and the animation on the chipmunks is very good. The chipmunks themselves are adorable, especially Theodore, not only by their appearances which epitomises cuteness but also their voices which are not too irritating. The soundtrack is quite catchy as well, the film bounces along quite nicely, Hill's direction is satisfactory and there are a number of funny and cute moments even if these moments are never more than hilarious.

However, it does have its shortcomings. The story is rather predictable, as it can be with these animated/live action adaptations, and there are some clichéd subplots and characters such as David's romance with his neighbour. Some of the script is weak with some of the jokes falling flat, and I do agree Jason Lee is miscast as David looking rather ill at ease.

All in all, cute and harmless entertainment but it is also unexceptional in the story especially. 6/10 Bethany Cox

"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.