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| language = English
| language = English
| budget = $75 million<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-boxoffice28-2009dec28,0,1741915.story | title= Holiday box-office take is highest in recent history | last = Fritz | first = Ben | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date= 2009-12-28 | accessdate= 2010-01-03 }}</ref>
| budget = $75 million<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-boxoffice28-2009dec28,0,1741915.story | title= Holiday box-office take is highest in recent history | last = Fritz | first = Ben | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date= 2009-12-28 | accessdate= 2010-01-03 }}</ref>
| gross = $424,481,716<ref name="BOM">{{cite web | url=http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=alvinandthechipmunksii.htm | title=Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Box Office | publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]] | accessdate=2010-02-21}}</ref>
| gross = $424,583,548<ref name="BOM">{{cite web | url=http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=alvinandthechipmunksii.htm | title=Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Box Office | publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]] | accessdate=2010-02-21}}</ref>
| preceded by = ''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks (film)|Alvin and the Chipmunks]]''
| preceded by = ''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks (film)|Alvin and the Chipmunks]]''
| followed by =
| followed by =

Revision as of 08:19, 25 February 2010

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Three male chipmunks, a red title banner in the middle of the poster and three female chipmunks underneath
Promotional poster
Directed byBetty Thomas
Written byJon Vitti
Jonathan Aibel
Glenn Berger
Produced byRoss Bagdasarian, Jr.
Janice Karman
StarringJustin Long
Matthew Gray Gubler
Jason Lee
Zachary Levi
CinematographyAnthony B. Richmond
Edited byMatt Friedman
Music byDavid Newman
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
December 23, 2009 (2009-12-23)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75 million[1]
Box office$424,583,548[2]

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is an American 2009 live-action/CGI comedy film and sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks starring Jason Lee, Zachary Levi, David Cross, and Wendie Malick. The film also stars the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Christina Applegate, Anna Faris, and Amy Poehler.

The film features Alvin and the Chipmunks and their female counterparts, The Chipettes. It was directed by Betty Thomas, written by Jon Vitti and Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger, and distributed by 20th Century Fox, and produced by Regency Enterprises and Bagdasarian Productions. It was originally scheduled to open on March 19, 2010, but it was moved up to a December 23, 2009, release instead. In Australia, it was released on December 26.

Plot

During the Chipmunks' benefit concert in Paris, France, Dave (Jason Lee) is badly injured after a falling billboard sends him flying across the stage into electric devices.

After the accident, Dave is rushed to the hospital. Even though he survives, he must stay to recuperate, leaving Dave’s Aunt Jackie to look after the Chipmunks, while arrangements are also made for them to go to school.

Arriving at the LA airport, the Chipmunks meet up with Jackie, who introduces her grandson, Tobin "Toby" Seville (Zachary Levi). After Jackie falls down a staircase and a luggage trolley crashes into her, she, too, is sent to a hospital, leaving Toby in charge.

Meanwhile, Ian (David Cross) now lives in the basement of JETT Records. A FedEx truck comes around the corner, and a package falls out. Three singing female chipmunks, Brittany (Christina Applegate), Jeanette (Anna Faris) and Eleanor (Amy Poehler), who call themselves the Chipettes, emerge from the package and introduce themselves to Ian. Brittany says that since Ian made the Chipmunks stars, they want to be stars, too. To prove their talent, they sing "Put Your Records On," and Ian hires them.

During their first day at school, Alvin, Simon and Theodore catch the attention of the females in their class. The jocks grow jealous, physically bullying them and resulting in all parties being sent to the Principal's Office. There, they discover that the Principal, Dr. Rubin, is a huge fan of the Chipmunks. She consequently asks the Chipmunks to save the school’s music programme by representing their school in the Battle of the Bands in exchange for not suspending them. The Chipmunks immediately accepts. Meanwhile, when Ian receives the daily newspaper, he is shocked to find the Chipmunks on the front page. After he reads the story, he quickly sends the Chipettes to school (just to get the winning money).

Tension between Alvin and Simon develops as Alvin begins socialising with the jocks of the school, but the one who is most affected is Theodore, who believes he is losing his brothers because they are fighting all the time.

When the Chipmunks meet the Chipettes, they gain crushes on their counterparts, but are soon forced to have a rivalry after discovering that they are with Ian. The Chipmunks and the Chipettes compete against each other in the Battle of the Bands. During lunchtime, Alvin meets up with Brittany, sharing a slightly romantic moment with her until he warns her about Ian’s past. Brittany leaves, not believing him.

At a concert, the Chipettes sing "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". Ian videotapes the Chipettes performance and posts it on YouTube, along with his phone number. The Chipettes win the competition and Ian becomes rich and famous again. Simon and Theodore had been forced to forfeit the competition when Alvin failed to show up, and at home, Simon and Theodore ignore him. The embarrassment is too much for Theodore, causing him to run away to the zoo, where Toby and the boys find and save him. This brings out the best in all four of them and the Chipmunks forgive each other.

Soon, the Chipettes are hired as the opening act at a Britney Spears concert at the Staples Centre. Unfortunately, the concert is on the same night as the school concert, so Ian decides to blow off the battle and make the Chipettes perform at the concert. However, Brittany refuses Ian’s command to sing without her sisters, so Ian threatens to barbecue them at a restaurant if they don't.

At the school, the Battle of the Bands is approaching. Alvin gets a phone call from Brittany, saying that she and her sisters have been imprisoned in a cage. Alvin races to save them on his motorbike while Simon tells Jeanette how to open the cage on the phone. The Chipettes escape the cage, climb out of the limo, and jump onto Alvin's bike, with Ian in pursuit.

While being chased, Brittany apologizes to Alvin. Ian pursues them with a remote control helicopter, but fails, and Alvin and the Chipettes arrive at the contest just before Simon and Theodore forfeit. All chipmunks sing "We Are Family" and the school wins $25,000.

At the Staples Centre, Ian attempts to impersonate Brittany while singing Single Ladies. He is booed off by the crowd and taken away by the security guards.

Back at the school, The Chipmunks and Chipettes sing ‘Shake your Groove Thing’ and all of the students dance. The Chipmunks go back home with a recovered Dave while Toby goes back home, and the Chipettes are adopted into the family. When Dave wishes them good night and turns the lights off, Alvin turns them back on repeatedly. After Dave trips over a skateboard, Alvin wishes him good night and turns the lights off.

The post credits show the jocks cleaning breaches with Dr. Rubin watching them.

An epilogue shows Ian being thrown into a dumpster backstage by the guards.

Cast

The Chipmunks

The Chipettes

Cameos

Reception

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative reviews, faring even worse than the first film. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 21% of 76 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 3.9 out of 10.[3] Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 17%, based on a sample of 18 reviews. The site's general consensus is that "This Squeakquel may entertain the kiddies, but it's low on energy and heavily reliant on slapstick humor."[4] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 41 based on 20 reviews.[5]

Some reviews were positive such as Joe Leydon writing for Variety who called it "a frenetic but undeniably funny follow-up that offers twice the number of singing-and-dancing rodents in another seamless blend of CGI and live-action elements."[6] Writing for Common Sense Media, Jeffrey M. Anderson, who awarded the film 3/5 stars, wrote "The songs are fun, the chipmunks are likable, and the movie seems to have its heart in the right place."[7]

Betsy Sharkey of Los Angeles Times commented on Betty Thomas' direction, saying that she brings "a light campy touch as she did in 1995's The Brady Bunch Movie."[8] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film a C-.[9] Gleiberman wrote in his review with this question: "Will kids eat up this cutely fractious claptrap? Of course they will. They'll eat up whatever you put in front of them. But that doesn't make The Squeakquel good for them."[9] Sue Robinson from Radio Times said that "even if there's little here for older viewers to enjoy, youngsters will love the slapstick action and catchy soundtrack."[10]

After the film had garnered $112 million worldwide at the box office over its first weekend, some critics were disappointed that it was more popular than other movies in wide release aimed at a family audience.[11][12] Richard Corliss of Time wrote that families "could have taken the cherubs to The Princess and the Frog or Disney's A Christmas Carol, worthy efforts that, together, took in only about a fifth of the Chipmunks' revenue in the same period" [13]

Home media

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Single-disc DVD, Double-disc DVD and Blu-ray will be available in stores on March 30th, 2010.

References

  1. ^ Fritz, Ben (2009-12-28). "Holiday box-office take is highest in recent history". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  2. ^ "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
  3. ^ "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)". IGN Entertainment. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
  4. ^ "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Cream of the Crop)". IGN Entertainment. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-12-25.
  5. ^ "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  6. ^ Leydon, Joe (2009-12-20). "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Review". Variety. Retrieved 2009-12-24. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Anderson, Jeffrey M. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Movie Review". Common Sense Media. Retrieved 2009-12-24. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Sharkey, Betsy (2009-12-21). "'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel' Movie Review". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-12-24. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ a b Gleiberman, Owen (2009-12-24). "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Movie Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
  10. ^ Robinson, Sue (2009-12-24). "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel". RadioTimes. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
  11. ^ Ryan Michael Painter (2009-12-28). "Weekend Box Office Reaction".
  12. ^ Scott Mendelson (2009-12-27). "HuffPost Weekend Box Office in Review: Avatar Dominates Record-Breaking Weekend". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  13. ^ http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1950527,00.html
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