In 1958, struggling songwriter Ross Bagdasarian found himself a hit by increasing the speed of the recording, making his voice sound funny. With this, he create three cartoon characters to fit the high pitch: Alvin, Simon and Theodore, The Chipmunks. They were a big hit in the '50s, and once again, a big hit in the 1980s with a TV cartoon series. In 2007, the series once again got remade. This time live-action with some CGI effects. Although the first movie did re-spark an interest in the Chipmunks franchise, many fans weren't exactly impressed with the movie and its 2009 & 2011 sequels. As much as I hate the 2007 remake of 'Alvin and Chipmunks', this Squeakquel was downright insufferable. In the movie, Alvin (Voiced by Justin Long) is downright more sociopathic in his behavior, while Simon (Voiced by Matthew Gray Gubler) is a dumb down and Theodore (Voiced by Jesse McCartney) is just a stupid punchline to be abused and made fun of. The first movie has a story/moral in which the three chipmunks realize that fame and fortune is not all it is cracked out to be, and leave the seemingly superficial lifestyle, and the money, behind to enjoy an apparently better down-to-earth life. Yet, it's forgotten here, because the movie starts off, how very self-centered, they became. The whole plot feels rushed because there are so many plot elements to throw into the mix here that it never falls into a cohesive storyline. It's a plot that make little to no sense, as the Chipmunks are forced to go to school. I understand, the writers were trying to adapt the old cartoon, but the thing you have to remember is that in the cartoon, the anthropomorphic chipmunks there, were as tall as most human children their age and look more human that its couther parts here. That allowed the show to get away with having singing anthropomorphic chipmunks live like normal children. Here they are regular sized chipmunks so that same idea simply doesn't work. If they were to go to school, wouldn't it be for anthropomorphic animals. Another thing, if they were allow to join a human school; I really doubt their age in chipmunks years match that of a human high school student. Wouldn't they be in middle school? Another thing about the weak plot, is the premise of saving the school music program. The whole music program is barely establish and we never get the why it will be shut down, unless the school wins a music competition. We, the audience, never know why it's important to the school. It's not like the Chipmunks are helping or training any of the students in the music program to win the competition. When you think about it, there isn't any music students established at all. Who knows, if there were a music program in the first place, before the Chipmunks arrived. Added to this stupid premise is the presence of the previous film villain, Ian Hawke (David Cross) whom plans to use a female version of the Chipmucks to steal the Chipmunks' fame by entering the singing group into the same school music competition. The Chipettes made out of Eleanor (Voiced by Amy Poehler),Jeanette (Voiced by Anna Faris),and Brittany (Voiced by Christina Applegate) really come out of nowhere in the film, and serve nothing, but love interested. They are so hit by the pitch shifting you can't even tell them apart. I don't even, know why they couldn't use voice actors for them. In the cartoon series, they are supposed to rivals to the Chipmunks, but you never see them go one on one, here. The Chippettes in real life were created for the sole purpose of allowing Ross Bagdasarian to make covers of popular girls' songs in addition to the guys' songs covered by the Chipmunks. So the Chippettes are, in essence, the Chipmunks with girl parts. Very hollow characters. There barely any good female leads here. Despite being Dave's love interest, and a key character in the first film, Claire is nowhere to be found here. This is mainly because Cameron Richardson refused to reprise the role, as she strongly disliked being in the first film. The supporting characters that did show up in the film are just awful. Jason Lee is barely in the film as Dave Seville. Zachary Levi as Toby was awful as a Dave's replacement. His sub-plot romantic with the teacher was just not needed, and doesn't help move the plot. Everything about his performance was underwhelming. You really don't get to see the great conflict that Alvin has with Dave in Toby. It was one of the things that made the series stand out! The jokes are mostly misses than hits. The obligatory fart joke, the embarrassingly inaccurate racial stereotypes, and slapstick humor were all badly delivered. Even the cultural pop references don't even make much sense, because the film references a lots of nearly unknown shows that children probably don't watch, like Meerkat Manor or NASCAR on FOX, with the cameo Digger the NASCAR gopher. The film is disturbing, as it already portray pedophilia and bestiality like themes with human beings lusting for naked under aged chipmunks. Add, references to 1991's Silent of the Lambs and 1976's Taxi Driver, and you got a movie that makes you wonder if this movie is truly a kid movie. Depending who you are, the pop songs used in the film could seem brutally murder or watered down. It didn't bug me, too much. The 3D gimmick kinda did its job, but the whole CG & the unrealistic speed it's moving at, makes it hard to watch in 3D at times. Overall: It's nearly unwatchable, even for kids. Instead of watching this movie, go back and re-watched the 1980s cartoons. You'll get more fun out of that, than this.

I was about as excited about watching The Squeakquel as Marie Antoinette was about walking to the guillotine. From the trailer alone, you can tell this was made with the hope of making a quick buck with as little quality as possible. It succeeded, as it made millions of quick bucks at the box office and it just made another when my mother decided to buy the DVD. We decided to spend quality time together watching this thing, and after wasting precious minutes of my life with bad jokes and a stale plot, I have decided to review it.

The chipmunk trio is sent to high school, where they deal with stereotypical high school problems and have a rivalry with a female group of chipmunks, The Chipettes. The Chipette's manager is the greedy manager of the Chipmunks from the last movie, seeking to reclaim his former glory by making millions off of the female group's talent. Then, there's a plot where the Chipmunks sign up for a talent show in order to win money for the school's music program, which is losing funding, a plot I'm sure has never before been used.

The story is about as interesting as the synopsis. You could make a drinking game based off of how often you can predict what's going to happen next. None of the characters besides the main trio are interesting, the jokes fall flat, and all the high school "trauma" the chipmunks deal with is about as real as an episode of Saved By the Bell.

Now, I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane or some grade A masterpiece with complex themes and characters. I knew perfectly well this is a kids film and not one of excellent quality at that. It fails nonetheless. Just because a movie is for kids doesn't mean you have to reach for the lowest common denominator in order to entertain them, it doesn't mean you have to give them a thin plot with the freshness of a rotten apple core, it doesn't mean you have to reach for teenage stereotypes that should have been out with big hair, and it doesn't mean you shouldn't at least TRY to put a decent amount of effort into the final product! 3/10

I am not sure which of the two is better, so I am going to say that in my eyes this sequel is on the same level as its predecessor albeit with one improvement. Neither movie is as good as the timeless TV show or the wonderful Chipmunk Adventure, but in many ways more than one both are cute and harmless movies without trying to be 5-star masterpieces.

Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakquel has cons that are similar to its predecessor. As with the first, the film is very predictable with some clichéd human characters and situations, though in fairness a lot of animated/live action films do have that problem as well. Also it does have some hits and misses in the script with some jokes that parents might groan at. The film is rather short and rushed as well.

Faults aside, the film does have an improvement, the performance of Jason Lee as David. In the first he was miscast and out of his depth, here he is much more comfortable and relaxed. Visually and technically, I have little to fault it either. The photography and editing is crisp without being award-worthy, the location work is quite colourful and striking and the animation on the chipmunks again is spot on being very cute. The chipmunks are adorable with voices that are thankfully not irritating, and as with the first Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakquel nails the personalities of the chipmunks, Theodore again being the best realised. And the soundtrack is very catchy, with tuneful melodies and sweet lyrics, which kids will love and adults will possibly tolerate too.

Overall, unexceptional but watchable family entertainment. 6/10 Bethany Cox