Alvin and the Chipmunks (film)

This article is about the film. For the video game based on the film, see Alvin and the Chipmunks (video game). For the musical group, see Alvin and the Chipmunks. For the popular 1983 TV series based on the musical group, see Alvin and the Chipmunks (TV series).

Alvin and the Chipmunks
The Theatrical Trailer Poster
Directed by	Tim Hill
Written by	Jon Vitti
Produced by	Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. Janice Karman Steve Waterman
Starring	Jason Lee Justin Long Matthew Gray Gubler Jesse McCartney David Cross Cameron Richardson Jane Lynch Celestina Kevin Symons
Cinematography	Peter Lyons Collister
Edited by	Peter Berger
Music by	Christopher Lennertz Ross Bagdasarian Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. Janice Karman Daniel Powter Lipps, Inc.
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	December 14, 2007 December 20, 2007 December 21, 2007 January 3, 2008 April 3, 2008
Running time	93 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	United States: $55 million
Box office	$351,630,835

Alvin and the Chipmunks is a 2007 live-action/animated film based on the popular musical group and animated series Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was directed by Tim Hill and produced by 20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises and Bagdasarian Productions. The film has received harsh reviews from movie critics, but has proved to be a huge financial success, making over $215 million to date in North America alone and over $350 million to date in total worldwide receipts, while being made on a budget of just $55 million. Jason Lee and the film won his and its first award at the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Movie.

Plot

The story begins in a hill backdrop in a forest during the summer. Three chipmunks named Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) are singing Daniel Powter's "Bad Day". Alvin complains about the food storage when Alvin accidentally empties their stock, because the storage space was full and Alvin accidentally fell into the hole, resulting in all the nuts flying out. Alvin complained about his own tough life to struggle for his survival and even called their tree a "stupid, stupid, tree", then the tree is chopped down (with the unfortunate trio on it). But while chopping, as the tree shakes, Theodore thought that Alvin had made the tree angry. The tree is netted down to a truck and driven to a city in the process of becoming a Christmas tree. Meanwhile, struggling songwriter David "Dave" Seville (Jason Lee) is late for his arrival at JETT Records( but not without him forgetting about his pants absent-mindedly then quickly puts them on) submits a song to JETT records, but is rejected by JETT executive Ian Hawke (David Cross), who says he hates Dave's latest song. On the way out, Dave steals a muffin basket. The Chipmunks and the tree end up in the lobby of JETT records. They escape the tree and go into Dave's muffin basket, and they are able to avoid that vaccum-cleaner maniac(Alvin called him) and they get onto Dave's car. When Dave gets home, he dumps the basket in the garbage can and sets about throwing all his musical writing gear out the door, which the key board has injured a cat. Dave hears the Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon, and Theodore) go into his cabinet or pantry. Alvin finds the cheese balls in the cabinet and he jumps into the cheese balls and does a cannonball. The Chipmunks set about raiding his cupboards. Theodore exclaims that this is the greatest day of his life, while Dave is watching an animal channel.When Dave discovers them, he sets about splatting them with a spatula, but then, he sees a red pot, white pot, and green pot. Alvin is in the red, Simon is in the white, and Theodore is in the green but is not picked up by Dave, and they quickly thrives out of the pots when Dave goes into another room in his house. Dave quickly opens a cupboard, and Theodore is caught eating a cookie while Alvin attacks Dave onto his face.

Dave notices that Alvin is on his head and Dave puts a beanie to hide Alvin and takes it off and Alvin farts in his face. Dave continues finding them with the spatula. Alvin finally causes Dave to lose consciousness by dropping a glass jar full of unpopped popcorn on his head. They start to get worried when Dave doesn't wake up. When he does, he realizes that squirrels can't talk, but Alvin corrects him that they're chipmunks. Simon says that other animals can talk too, like fish, Theodore is claimed that he fell out of the tree at birth(by Simon), and Alvin reveals that their mother only took care of them for a week, so they're abandoned and orphaned. Dave then says ``It's nice to meet ya, now get outta my house! after they introduce their own biographies and names. Later, the chipmunks sing "Only You" when Dave cleans the house. Dave opens the window and Alvin thought they were disturbing him. Dave now realizes that they can sing, but Alvin says that it's not singing, but this is singing by singing Lipps, Inc.'s "Funkytown". Later, Dave makes a deal: If they sing his songs, they get to sleep at this house. Then, Alvin reminds him about all his musical equipment, and he runs back to get them in order to make more music again.

Dave puts them to bed in an armchair; whilst the Chipmunks sleep, their snores cumulate into a song, sparking Dave's creativeness. Having retrieved his musical equipment, he writes a Christmas jingle ("The Chipmunk Song"). He makes a backdrop during the night. In the morning, the "VeggieTales" theme song is on when Dave wakes up. He turns off the TV. The Chipmunks are trying to catch a flying burnt toaster waffle, but when Simon tries to catch it, it drops right in front of him and he doesn't see it. Dave holds up two fingers and Simon says Dave was holding up eight, including his thumb, which Dave did not hold up his thumb. Realizing Simon is nearsighted, Dave finds a tiny pair of round-framed glasses and gives them to Simon. After he pushes them back towards his face, Simon can now see perfectly.

Dave goes back to JETT records and shows Ian his surprise, the three Chipmunks with his jingle in the background. Though the Chipmunks sang the song perfectly earlier, they get stage fright and refuse to sing, so Ian pretends ``Oops, I have a lunch to go to now, and walks away back to his office. Dave is once again removed from the company. In the car journey back to Dave's official job, they tell him that they colored. Dave waves it away. When Dave finally gets to his job, he is making up an idea about another Energy Bar commercial, but Simon calls him on the cell-phone because Alvin and Theodore are sucked up into the vaccum cleaner, and Simon is thinking of making an indoor-swimming pool because he accidentally doesn't know how to turn off the sink water, flooding the house immediately, and Dave makes an embarrasing phone call to his bosses. Then, when Dave tries to clear his mind off the trouble, he discovers that the Chipmunks have drawn rude images (e.g. "The Size Of Theodore's Butt",(most likely by Simon because he said this at home``that's the size of Theodore's butt without making it sound like a question)and the next is "How Smart Simon Thinks He Is(the very high bar graph of the Energy Bar sales)/How Smart He Actually Is(the very low bar graph of Energy Bar sales)", and "How Much Alvin Smells") (with Alvin making a smelly face while stretching out a underwear) all over his Goodable energy bar proposal, getting him fired. He is furious when he gets home and is mad at Simon and Theodore while they are watching TV:VeggieTales on the episode King George and the Ducky where King George who stole Thomas' ducky, and then Alvin is found having a shower inside the dishwasher waiting for the rinse cycle. Then, Theodore is scared because he cannot fix Dave's anger with numerous apologies, and he elbows onto the phone's answering machine button.

Dave is reminded by Theodore that he has a date with his crush, Claire Wilson (Cameron Richardson). Alvin thinks he can help them, but accidentally spaces Dave and Claire out even more. Dave realzies that she'll be home at 7, and right now it is 6:30, so he quickly runs to the grocery store to buy the food, but he has a problem with the refridgerator because they have gathered up all the junk into it. Then, Alvin turns on the heater, plays the CD Recorder, breaks things, and tries to spy on Dave and Claire when they are having a dinner. When Dave admits that "my life is being sabotaged by talking chipmunks!", Claire doesn't believe him and leaves, thinking he hasn't changed at all. Dave Seville realizes that the plan is not very successful at all, and he tries to put them in a box with waffles, a metal tool, blanket, and pencil holes in the box. He tries to write a letter for apology that he cannot keep them like this, but then he crumbles the letter up, and then throws it away(which Theodore finds after Dave yells at them for not paying attention to him and just go live with Uncle Ian). Then, he tries to find the Chipmunks(who took a taxi to Ian's mansion), and he gives up his search and goes to sleep.

The Chipmunks, upset at the fact that Dave is upset at them, make it up to him by going to Ian's mansion and singing Dave's Christmas song, to which Ian responds, "Welcome to Jett Records." While shopping with the Chipmunks, Dave gets worried at them for going to Ian's mansion without him knowing and gives the Chipmunks a strict 9:00 PM curfew. Then he admits he is lacking in money, due to the Chipmunks piling toaster waffles into his shopping cart. At that point, his song appears on the store radio and Dave is rung up by Ian, who gives Dave's job back, and there's 10 million popular hits on YouTube! Then, Ian tells them to put clothes on them because it is very embarassing for them to sing naked in public. Then, they become very popular, appear in magazines, Alvin sprays a red canspray ``A on Dave's head(the only not good thing), Ian enjoys popularity, and Claire wins friendship back with Dave. Then, they decorate the Christmas Tree, and Christmas is the next day.

On Christmas eve, Theodore tells Dave that he had a nightmare and that he wants to sleep with him. Dave says, "Okay, sure, but stay on that side of the bed." Later, Theodore is seen sleeping on Dave's head.

The next morning when the Spongebob Squarepants theme song plays, when Alvin and Simon wake up Dave and Theodore and they exchange gifts. Simon gets Dave a paper clip compass that he made, Alvin gets Dave his own wallet (because he wanted to get him something he'll use every day), and Theodore gives Dave a moving card with pineapple-like images of the four as a family that Dave thought were pineapples, but Dave is firm that they are friends and nothing more. Dave gets the Chipmunks savings bonds which they can spend in seven years, much to Alvin's displeasure, and he asks if Dave he has any that he bought seven years ago. Suddenly Ian bursts in (dressed as Santa Claus) and carrying a bag stuffed with presents and gives the Chipmunks lots of toys, leading them to calling him Uncle Ian.

When the Chipmunks have their first concert (in which they sing "Witch Doctor"), they are further separated from Dave by Ian, who tells them that they could be amazing if they were with him and says that Dave calls them "rats" behind their backs. That night, Theodore discovers a letter from Dave he had written after his dinner disaster with Claire telling the Chipmunks to leave. Saddened, they decide to leave Dave and live with Ian, who gives them presents, toys, no rules, spoiling lifestyle. He also gives Simon new square-framed glasses, yet Simon can't see through them (to which Ian says, "Your eyes will adjust.")

While recording the song "Get Munk'd" in the studio, the Chipmunks get too tired to sing and fall over. Ian thinks that coffee might help. So he gives them coffee, and they finally are well enough to sing, except they drank too much, and started zooming around in all directions. Alvin manages to grab the microphone, and starts swinging around and around and around until he smacks onto the glass window, and drools down to the floor, while Theodore keeps bouncing, and Simon is flying all over the place.

Ian doesn't allow Theodore to sleep with him when he has a nightmare (but Dave did), instead of telling Theodore of a nightmare of his own and telling him that the difference with his nightmare was that when he woke up it didn't end; scheduling their tour, also claiming it to be an endless nightmare, and the Chipmunks go on top of the roof. Theodore exclaims ``I wanna go home,, but Simon says ``But you are home, but Theodore says ``No, I mean like...Dave.

The Chipmunks start their coast to coast tour: They began from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Cincinatti, Chicago, Buffalo, New York City, and then fall asleep while doing a cereal commercial. Before the next concert, Simon finds his old pair of glasses and switches them around with the pair that Ian gave him. Then he puts on the old pair and adjusts them a bit. Later, while Dave is shaving, he gets onto the cell phone call that Ivan is taking Alvin and the Chipmunks away for 12 months, if they can get to Paris,France and China.

At the LA concert, a doctor says that they can't sing because their voices have given out. Ian, who doesn't want to hand out refunds, asks them to lip-synch (which Simon calls "cheating"). The chipmunks are convinced that Dave really doesn't want them back when Ian tells them that Dave called and said that he is doing great and that Dave didn't go to their concert because Dave is too busy. Dave manages to get in to see the chipmunks (the security had been tipped off by Ian about him after Ian talked to Dave on the phone). The security grabs Dave and the chipmunks hear him. They ditch Ian with an exit that makes the crowd angry that they lip-synched, and they trash the stage. Alvin's last words to Ian Hawke were "Hey, Ian! Kiss my furry cheeks!". Dave then warns Ian that since the Chipmunks ruined the concert, word will soon get out, and their popularity will decline. Ian however, remains unphased by this, stating that because they are talking animals, people will still want to see them.

Security corners them and Ian locks the chipmunks up in a cat carrier, placing them near the new dolls of them (Spanish-speaking for Alvin, French-speaking for Simon, and Japanese-speaking for Theodore) while he quickly gets ready to board the plane for the chipmunks' Paris concert. Ian runs out with the cat carrier and starts to drive off. Dave sets after him, egged on by the real chipmunks standing on the front passenger seat. Dave stops the car as Ian drives off. After admitting that they are a family (a concept he'd tried to deny the whole movie), Dave lets the chipmunks steer his car, honk the horn, and operate the window wipers. Later on, Ian looks into the carrier case and is shocked to find the chipmunks dolls instead of the chipmunks.

Dave finally gets home and sees that the Chipmunks have prepared breakfast for Dave and Claire. Alvin is trying to get the cork out of an Apple Bubbley bottle. When he succeeds, the cork flies into a glass china set, and all the liquid pours out of the glass. Dave's patience is tested as he tries "not to say it." The liquid damages the power outlet which, unfortunately, causes a blackout. Dave decides to "say it," and yells his name. Alvin responds with "Okay!"

At the beginning of the end credits, Ian tries to make three regular (non-talking) squirrels sing while he plays the song Deck the Halls on his piano, but fails, and then Alvin and the Chipmunks' historical merchandise spawns, albums, and TV Series with the years that they debuted. There is another sign called ``This film is dedicated to Ross Bagdasarian Sr., who was crazy enough to invent three singing chipmunks nearly 50 years ago,, and then the Alvin and the Chipmunks' 1900s and other spanws of Alvin and the Chipmunks before the 2007 film merchandise albums appear.

In the end credits, there is a disclaimer that says, "No chipmunks were hurt in the making of this movie."

Cast

• Jason Lee as Dave Seville
• David Cross as Ian Hawke
• Justin Long as Alvin (speaking voice)
• Matthew Gray Gubler as Simon (speaking voice)
• Jesse McCartney as Theodore (speaking voice)
• Cameron Richardson as Claire Wilson
• Jane Lynch as Gail
• Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. as Alvin (singing voice)
• Steve Vining as Simon (singing voice)
• Janice Karman as Theodore (singing voice)

Characters

• Dave Seville: Dave is the adoptive father of the Chipmunks who is very strict with the boys. Although he won't admit it at first, he loves the trio like a father and thinks of them as family. He appears to have an on and off relationship with Claire Wilson.
• Ian Hawke: The music producer and executive of JETT records who schemes to push the Chipmunks to fame to earn money off of them. He is the main antagonist of the film.
• Alvin Seville: Alvin is synonymous with trouble. He’s charming, egotistical, arrogant, playful and mischievous. Alvin often thinks up schemes that get him and his brothers in trouble. He is commonly known as the leader of his brothers. His signature color is red. He didn't wear his baseball cap for most of the film, but in a magazine and at the end, he does.
• Simon Seville: He’s the smartest of the three chipmunks. He often unsuccessfully tries to stop Alvin’s “hair-brained scemes”, but somehow always gets sucked into them. Simon is known for his round, black-rimmed glasses (because of his poor eyesight) and also for having dry sense of humor. His signature color is blue.
• Theodore Seville: Theodore is the cute, sweet, chubby, and sensitive chipmunk. He is the youngest of the three and according to Simon, also fell from the tree at birth. His signature color is green.
• Claire Wilson: She is Dave's love interest. As they became famous, she fell in love with the chipmunks right away, however, firstly doubted Dave's words when he tried to tell her about them.

Reception

The film was panned by critics, receiving only a 24% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes classfying it as "Rotten", and received only a 39 out of 100 at Metacritic, indicating "generally negative reviews", and fans of the original show complained it did not represent the Chipmunks in a respectful manner.

Despite negative critical reception, Alvin and the Chipmunks was released in North America on December 14, 2007 and grossed $44,307,417 in 3,475 theaters its opening weekend averaging $12,750 per venue, and placing second at the box office, with nearly sold out showings. Its second weekend was still well-$28,179,556, behind National Treasure: Book of Secrets and I Am Legend. Then on its third weekend, it surpassed I Am Legend for #2 at the box office, still behind National Treasure: Book of Secrets. As of Tuesday April 1, 2008, the film has made $216,567,559 domestically and $138,859,644 overseas for a total of $355,427,203 worldwide, making it a huge commercial success. According to MTV, it also has become the highest-grossing talking animal/live-action cartoon adaptation to date. It is also 20th Century Fox's highest grossing film domestically to be released in 2007.

The box-office success of the film has surprised executives of 20th Century Fox, which produced it, as much as industry analysts and especially movie critics who gave it bad reviews. Elizabeth Gabler of Fox 2000 said to The Los Angeles Times, "I look at the numbers every day, and we just laugh." Since it cost only $55 million to produce, it is likely to be far more profitable than the two other films that it was against, I Am Legend and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Sequel

As reported, Alvin and the Chipmunks Deux, a sequel of Alvin and the Chipmunks, introducing the Chipettes, is in early planning stages (however, it is unknown if they will share a home with Alvin, Simon and Theodore). "There has been a lot of talk about it," revealed Janice Karman to MTV. "A lot of people have been asking about the little girls."

DVD and Blu-Ray releases

Alvin and the Chipmunks was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 1, 2008. The DVD release is presented on a flipper disc featuring both full screen (1.33:1 aspect ratio) and widescreen formats (1.85:1 aspect ratio) with English 5.1 Dolby Surround, Spanish and French Dolby Surround with English and Spanish subtitles. Special features will be the Chip-Chip-Hooray! Chipmunk History and Hitting the Harmony featurettes and an Inside Look at Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who. The Wal-Mart edition includes a bonus exclusive music CD. The K-Mart edition includes a free junior novel of the movie. The Best Buy edition includes 3 mini plush toys of Alvin, Simon and Theodore in a collectable box.

The Blu-ray release will be presented in widescreen format on a 25GB single-layer disc authored in AVC (MPEG 4) compression with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Master Audio, Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital plus English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and French subtitles. Bonus content will include a digital copy for download, a Chip-Chip-Hooray! Chipmunk History featurette, a Hitting the Harmony featurette, and several high definition trailers.

Awards

Kids Choice Awards:

• 2008 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Movie: WON

Soundtrack

Main article: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released November 20, 2007, three weeks before the film's opening and contains new versions of old songs such as Witch Doctor and The Chipmunk Song (Don't Be Late) (as made famous by David Seville and The Chipmunks), cover versions of songs such as Bad Day (as made famous by Daniel Powter) and Funkytown (as made famous by Lipps Inc.) and new songs such as Ain't No Party and Get Munk'd.

Video games

Main article: Alvin and the Chipmunks (video game)

The video game for this film was released December 4, 2007 for the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and the PC, just one week and three days before the film was released.

External links

• Official site
• Alvin and the Chipmunks at IMDb
• Alvin and the Chipmunks at Rotten Tomatoes
• Alvin and the Chipmunks at Metacritic
• Alvin and the Chipmunks at Box Office Mojo
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Alvin and the Chipmunks at AllMovie
• Alvin and the Chipmunks at BeenToTheMovies.com