CW

(The following review is edited for spoilers and content. A full, uncensored review is posted here.)

I’ve found that entertaining movies make me eat popcorn very quickly. Although 2012 was chock full of problems, I consumed a decent sized bag of popcorn during the first 3/5 of the movie. I had fun making fun of the movie. A similar thing happened with The Princess and the Frog, I consumed a lot of popcorn while enjoying a refreshingly new Disney movie. But it’s the truly entertaining movies that make me set the popcorn aside, and by the time I was finished watching Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, including the secret post-credits end scene, I still had some popcorn left. The Squeakquel is much shorter than 2012 was, yes, but I also bought a much smaller bag of popcorn, one that I should’ve been able to burn through rather quickly. I also barely touched the drink I purchased. But be warned: although I found it to be entertaining, I can see how this movie can also suck.

This movie is pretty much a high school musical. Er, a musical set in a high school. There, that sounds better. It even has a plot that could’ve been rewritten slightly to accommodate a completely human cast and retitled High School Musical 4. In the end, it’s a standard happy ending for all, where all the bad guys of the movie get their just desserts and all the good guys live happily ever after (at least until they announce a third movie).

By now, it’s very clear to me that this and the previous movie represent a complete reboot in the Chipmunks continuity, just like what Star Trek, Casino Royale and Batman Begins did to their respective continuities; not just an updated remake like The Italian Job, Ocean’s Eleven and The Thomas Crown Affair. And yet this movie felt like an extended episode of the 80’s series, whereas the 2007 movie felt more like a veiled criticism of the music industry disguised as a Chipmunks movie.

Those who have seen the original series (or maybe just the first movie) know how ridiculous some of the stories could be. The 80’s series had its moments, but the first movie set the precedent: would you really expect a bunch of kids, especially famous ones like the Chipmunks and the Chipettes, to be able to take care of themselves while they’re on their way around the world piloting a pair of hot air balloons? Hot Air Henry had all sorts of problems during his short, accidental flight. Not to mention that it would be all over the entertainment news if they did.

Even on their albums, the Chipmunks demonstrated a capability to do ridiculous and amazing things. They never showed much interest in school, so when the roof was being fixed for some reason that wasn’t specified, the boys sang “I Love A Rainy Night” and somehow summoned a thunderstorm that was so severe, it caused probably the worst flooding their hometown had ever seen, all within the span of a couple minutes. They even swiped a rocket and managed to launch it without anyone able to stop them and sang “Rocket Man” when Dave wanted them to return it. And while singing “Ho Ho Ho”, they seemed to demonstrate a psychic ability to simultaneously come up with the same improvised lyrics (either that, or they secretly rewrote the lyrics while Dave wasn’t looking) and sing them perfectly in three part harmony.

For the 2007 movie, a more down to earth story was written, although you still had to stretch logic in order to make it work, and you had to try your best to ignore the way Ian made all music producers look bad. Whoever wrote the movie must’ve been fired or something, because like I said before, the writing for the Squeakquel resembles some of the old 80’s material while remaining set within the new, updated Chipmunks universe.

Case in point, the Squeakquel opens at a Chipmunks charity concert, where Alvin’s over the top antics cause a Bret Michaels moment for poor Dave Seville: a stage prop drops down and whacks him on the head, putting him out of commission for the majority of the movie (I wonder if Jason Lee had a prior engagement, but was still available to film five or six scenes for the movie, three of which included the Dave Seville trademark “Aaaaaaalviiiin!”). Then, right before the boys are to go with their Aunt Jackie (although I would say she’s more of a great aunt, if she’s Dave’s aunt), she takes a tumble, backwards, down a flight of airport stairs in her wheelchair. By now, with both responsible people in the hospital through no fault of their own, the irresponsible Toby Seville (Dave’s cousin) is all that’s left to take care of the Chipmunks, but he can’t be bothered because all he’d rather do is sit around all day playing DS, Wii and Xbox 360 games. Simon’s supposedly in charge, but although he’s much more mature now, he’s hardly shown being in charge of anything. There are maybe one or two scenes where he shows that he’s trying - including one scene where he makes a disparaging comment about one of Toby’s food habits, but given that the Chipmunks did a similar thing with waffles in the 2007 movie, it makes him seem slightly hypocritical - but for the majority of the movie, he just gets into conflicts with Alvin over how he chooses to use his time.

Speaking of video games: just like in the 2007 movie, the Squeakquel contains obvious product placement. At one point, the camera pans across a room, and in the background are various gaming paraphernalia, including an issue of a magazine that clearly states that there’s an article on Fallout 3 inside of it, and the camera waits until the audience has had enough time to notice and read it before changing focus. Also, Alvin and Toby play Wii Bowling in a scene that closely resembles every Wii gamer’s worst nightmare. And everyone seems to have iPhones this time around.

I felt the character of Toby seemed to be just a rehash of Dave from the first movie. Toby was awkward with love just like Dave, except even more so. At one point, his clumsiness caused him to break a drum and then flee the room. Then, at the end, he managed to get the girl anyway. Toby manages to get through the movie without changing much, though. I have no doubt that after the events of the Squeakquel, he’ll probably fall back to his old gaming ways.

I mentioned that Simon’s much more mature now. In fact, all three Chipmunks act more mature in the Squeakquel. They’ve definitely grown up a lot since the 2007 movie, where Simon stated that they’re just kids. Despite how much the boys get on Dave’s nerves, he’s obviously been a good influence on them. At least Dave doesn’t have to worry about being reminded of the size of Theodore’s butt anymore.

He might have to worry about Ian Hawke, though. In the 2007 movie, Ian seemed modeled after former boy-band manager Lou Pearlman. Since 2007, Pearlman has been convicted and jailed for various offenses related to one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history. Ian, however, seems to have had better luck, for he’s merely homeless. Apparently, when you get caught lip syncing, public backlash is random. No one cared that Boney M did it, since the practice was common at the time it was discovered. When Milli Vanilli did it, it was suddenly an unforgivable crime, even though the same guy was behind both Milli Vanilli and Boney M. When the Chipmunks let the cat out of the bag at the end of the 2007 movie, it apparently hasn’t hurt their music career, but Ian Hawke has ended up practically bankrupt, for he eats out of Dumpsters while living in the basement of Jett Records, and surreptitiously brushes his teeth when he thinks no one is watching. Somehow, though, he can gain access to video recording equipment and a computer with an Internet connection long enough to upload videos to YouTube.

But this brings up a good point: the universe that the Chipmunks exist in is full of holes if you think about it. Everyone is willing to accept singing chipmunks, except when it’s convenient to the plot that you don’t accept singing chipmunks. Singing chipmunks have freakish upper body strength, even more so than certain mathematics nerds. There are other intelligent animals other than chipmunks, but they’re few and far between. Music becomes popular very, very quickly, and if you upload something to any kind of public network, you can get everyone’s attention with minimal effort (...okay, I’m willing to concede this point in light of evidence supporting the statement). Fans of the Chipmunks act just like fans of any other group, to the point where some fans obviously have romantic interests towards them.

That is not to say that these are critical problems within the old series or the new continuity. A universe with singing chipmunks must’ve gone through significant societal changes since the original debut of the band, and what is taboo to us might not be taboo to them. It’s not unusual in a universe like this to go on a race around the world through potentially treacherous conditions (old continuity), or to threaten other sentient creatures with consumption (new continuity; the more I think about that, the more angry and horrible I feel at what the Chipettes were threatened with). You can get away with almost stepping on your fellow classmates and it’s okay because they’re short enough that it’s a hazard of living.

It’s a good thing they updated the designs of both the Chipmunks and the Chipettes. Just like when the Chipmunks were introduced in the 2007 movie, the Chipettes are completely naked (with fur, of course) when they’re first shown, and later given clothing to wear in order to fit in. In their original design, the Chipettes looked more like little girls than chipmunks, and naked little girls would’ve been hard to get past any kind of sensor. Plus, I prefer how they look now as fully chipmunk girls rather than the weird mostly-human designs from the 80’s. Just like with their 80’s designs, they were able to keep each Chipette distinctive. You can easily tell Brittany from her sisters, Jeanette and Eleanor. It could’ve been because I was really young at the time, or it could’ve been because the Chipettes weren’t seen as often as the Chipmunks, but I could never remember the names of the Chipettes until the Squeakquel was announced. It helped that the individual names of the Chipmunks were mentioned in the theme song to their cartoon, and so every week their names were re-enforced in my mind, but no such luck with the Chipettes.

At least this movie did something that the 2007 movie didn’t: instead of handwaving such a detail as unimportant, it explained how three chipmunks could escape from a locked cage. It also did what the other two movies didn’t do, and put the focus on cover versions of popular songs rather than new music. The Chipmunks may have gotten their start singing original material, but it’s become the trademark of both the Chipmunks and the Chipettes to cover other artists, and both the original Adventure and the 2007 movie contained very few cover songs. I mean, seriously. Wooly Bully?! That’s the best they could do in 1987? Even the 2008 album contained a lot of original material, including a new Christmas song that’s as good or possibly better than their original Christmas song. The majority of the music you hear in the Squeakquel are cover songs, but it’s as if someone picked up the Billboard top 40 list for a random week during the summer of 2009 and chose a bunch of songs from it, then picked a few of the most overdone songs ever to round out the list (if you’re wondering, it’s an automatic half a point off for the presence of We Are Family), and wrote a couple original songs so that they could pretend they put a little effort into it (although the plot didn’t really call for new music anyway). Not only that, but the soundtrack contains a bonus track that they obviously couldn’t find a way to fit it into a movie already stuffed with music.

Despite the problems I can see within the movie and the franchise in general, it was very entertaining and full of laughs. I think an enjoyable time was had by everyone who saw the movie, despite everyone trying to leave during the credits. Myself, I’m hoping there’s a third movie, but at the same time I hope they only do one if there’s a good idea behind it, something much like this movie was, one that acted like it belonged with the old material while remaining firmly within the new canon. One that was fun and funny to watch, with enjoyable characters (although Toby should probably go) and (mostly) decent music.

So there you go: this is not the kind of movie you go to if you’re looking for something intelligent. It’s eye candy, pure and simple. Entertainment only. My recommendation is a conditional one: if you don’t mind watching a cartoon script filmed in live action, then go ahead and watch the movie. By all means, if you’re babysitting the kids, take them and they’ll enjoy it immensely. If you’re a hardcore Chipmunks fan and own all their albums, even the hard to find ones, you might like the Squeakquel if you liked the 2007 movie. For everyone else... at least there’s The Chipmunk Adventure.

Everything I know about life I learned from Disney movies.

-When you’re a princess, you always have your head in the clouds. That’s all you need, for your prince will always come for you, you don’t need to lift a finger and go to them.

-As long as such characters aren’t evil, everyone always gets along with the secondary characters, and it’s all sunshine and happiness.

-Princes are daring, handsome, and will fall for you at first sight. They’ve always been bored with other women; all it took was to find the right one.

-Snakes are always evil, no exceptions.

-No protagonist, not even a supporting protagonist, will die. If a protagonist must die, no protagonist will die if they survive the first half of the movie.

-The main villain in any modern plot will always be rail thin and sinister, with few exceptions.

-And whenever you wish upon a star, your wish will always, always magically come true.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time for a new lesson. Keep in mind, there are spoilers ahead, so here’s the spoiler-free, tl;dr version: I liked this movie a lot, found that it was sufficiently different from past material that Disney has put out, and feel that they’re going in the right direction by throwing out the usual formula and shaking things up a lot. Anyway, spoilers, you have been warned.

You know, Disney was promoting Tiana as the first African American princess, but she spent about half the movie as a frog and not as a person. It’s hard to claim that you’ve made a main character black, when she’s green for a substantial part of the story. Still, I doubt that the prince could’ve made the kinds of leaps in character that he did as a person, so it’s acceptable. And you don’t have to be black to be African American anyway.

Tiana is not your ordinary Disney princess. Instead of being born into royalty, like Ariel or Jasmine or Snow White, she’s more like Cinderella (and Snow White) in that she’s a hard-working girl. Unlike Cinderella (or Snow White), Tiana has a goal she’s working towards, and is very down to earth. She knows better than to rely solely on magic to get what she wants. Instead, she relies on her hard earned savings to help her achieve her dreams. She works two jobs, has been saving all her tips, and has grand dreams that are still realistic enough to come true. She is pretty overworked, but is so full of energy that it makes me wonder whether or not she’s sneaking a Red Bull in between scenes. For someone who is graceful on her feet and moves around the restaurant with ease, it makes me wonder why she says she can’t dance. Probably just shy.

Right when Tiana is about to achieve her dreams, her African American background bites her in the ass. It’s still early in the movie, so she should’ve known it wouldn’t be quite so easy. It’s actually pretty daring of Disney, after making movies for years and pretending racism didn’t exist (which is pretty easy when you tend to draw nothing but white characters and change the subject whenever Song of the South is brought up), to see them openly acknowledging that during the time of the movie’s setting, black people were at a disadvantage because of their skin colour. I suspect that Tiana’s father didn’t have a choice when it came to serving in the Great War, but we never see enough of him to judge if he did want to serve the country in such a way or not.

Prince Naveen comes to town near the beginning of the movie, and he is definitely not Prince Charming, Prince Phillip, or even Prince Eric. Naveen has an eye for the ladies and openly flirts with anyone that does not have a Y chromosome. Even after becoming a frog, he seems to look upon other females with a favourable eye, as he did during one musical number, where he was surrounded by a redhead, brunette and some blondes, and mentioned so in the lyrics. He’s more willing to play around all day than to do any sort of actual work, which is part of what causes him to be drawn in by the villain in the first place and changed into a frog. This doesn’t change his personality at all, since all that seems to be on his mind are kisses, for he is far too happy to take advantage of old fairy tales if it means he gets attention from the ladies. He might’ve been a cliche if not for the fact that this is the 49th full length theatrical animated feature from Disney, but only their first to include a prince who only cares that the ladies are breathing and have a steady heartbeat. If I recall, it’s usually characters like Gaston who possess such a character flaw (and even Gaston favoured one lady above the rest). Modern princes like Simba and Aladdin have only ever had their eyes on one girl. In creating such a character as Prince Naveen, Disney shows a willingness to throw out their playbook and change the rules.

Depending on the movie, Disney protagonists tend to be very durable. Mufasa was able to endure a stampede of wildebeest in The Lion King, and he probably would’ve survived being flung from the cliff as well if not for being trampled to death by the very same herd of wildebeest. Exactly zero characters died in prison in Robin Hood, even though food was scarcely provided and the cells didn’t look too clean. In fact, no characters died at all during that movie, despite at least one madcap fight scene, and the scene at the end where the villains ran crazily into the burning castle). And Captain John Smith’s musket wound in Pocahontas wasn’t even animated (also, he didn’t die from it, and the fight scene that was imminent late in the movie was averted). Likewise, Prince Naveen survives being whacked by two books, and Mama Odie herself has lived 197 years. She is rough with her snake, who seems not to mind such treatment and endures it well. Tiana’s father does die off screen fighting in the Great War, but his durability was never shown on screen and so it’s not known how much effort it took to kill him. He was also a supporting protagonist, and as the movie 2012 recently indicated, extreme peril will kill exactly one secondary character per scene. This rule isn’t followed in The Princess and the Frog, but Disney does one up every single animated film they’ve done to date by first alluding to the father’s death early on in the movie, and then showing the villain murder one of the main characters late in the movie. Because of the Walt Disney Company’s past attitude towards character death, when said character was dying, all I could think was, “If you don’t want the ending to completely suck, this character had better stay dead.” The character was well written and extremely likable, and I wouldn’t have minded if he survived the movie, but the moment he was mortally wounded, I felt that a death bed miracle would’ve weakened the movie and shown that Disney was still a company full of cowards. I think that’s just sad.

The villain... okay, so Dr. Facilier is the most rail thin villain (physically, I mean) Disney ever came up with, so he still fits the stereotype that’s existed since Jafar from Aladdin. When Jafar came along, it was clear that Disney had tossed their overweight villains away. Somehow. They probably needed Hercules’s help. But anyway, Disney had tossed their overweight villains away and chose to use a new breed of slender, anorexic villains. Ratcliffe was a heavy exception, but still, most modern Disney villains look like they could desperately use a sandwich. I think the best villain they’ve had to date has been Gaston. Handsome, muscular, popular, and if not for his nasty jealous streak and pompous attitude, he could’ve easily been a prince. Dr. Facilier, though, isn’t that strong a villain. He’s more of a tempter than a true villain, kind of like Satan in the Bible, and is very limited in his power. If anything, Prince Naveen’s valet, Lawrence, could’ve been the main villain, but his purpose in the movie was to illustrate that there are consequences when you take a title you didn’t earn, consequences that Aladdin never faced when he used similar means to become Prince Ali.

I’m not sure that a stronger villain was needed, though. The Princess and the Frog is a down to earth movie, one which presents a main character who doesn’t rely on magic or wishes or other people to help her meet her goal. She is strongly independent, and so when other characters are blindly wishing on a star and waiting for their princes to come, Naveen works hard, and even when she’s a frog, she still works towards her goals and doesn’t let something as silly as an amphibious transformation get in the way. Apparently it is easy being green after all.

I really liked that Tiana was taught at an early age that wishing isn’t enough. A few years ago, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book called The Secret, and a movie was made to further promote the ideas within the book. When I watched it, it seemed to me like they were promoting the idea that if you just sat around and thought happy thoughts, those thoughts would magically come true, and if they didn’t, it was entirely your fault for not believing hard enough. The Secret is nothing more than a modern day When You Wish Upon A Star, and helps to show how shallow those early Disney movies truly are. Cinderella thought real hard about her dreams as she scrubbed the floor and her fairy godmother suddenly appeared one day. Snow White thought real hard about the prince that would some day come and as she lay in a kind of magical death, her prince did come. Although Princess Aurora was asleep for a good portion of Sleeping Beauty, I bet she dreamed about her prince during her long sleep. In contrast, The Princess and the Frog shows that wishing is only the first step. After wishing comes doing, although a little bit of stargazing never hurt anyone.

A few things I’m just going to touch upon: the supporting cast was wonderful, since it consisted of characters that weren’t one-dimensional or just thrown in to advance the plot. The music was decent enough to work, and the songs seemed like they were intended to be a celebration of early 20th century jazz rather than an attempt to be the next Be My Guest or Under The Sea. Plus, although Disney chose a popular R&B singer to perform their end song, they did not choose one of their Radio Disney stars like they did for The Lion King 1 1/2 and for that I am truly grateful. None of the cast members chewed the scenery, not even John Goodman. Keith David did a great job as the villain, a role he seems well suited for and has been indulging in a lot lately (he was not exactly a protagonist in the Numb3rs episode he guest starred in, and he lent his voice to the final boss of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, among other projects he’s done). Somehow, the animation quality was even better in this movie than it was in Brother Bear, which leads me to believe that there are still places that Disney can take hand-drawn art. And the payoff at the end of the movie was kinda predictable, but for the target audience it was perfect. When I watched it, many people in the audience at the theatre were surprised when it happened, whereas I could see it coming from a mile away. It wasn’t predictable in a cliche way, though. It felt more like the feeling of figuring out a mystery novel and then reading the end and being satisfied that I was right.

Lastly, this movie features a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) references to Disney’s past animated movies. One scene looked like it was lifted from Sleeping Beauty, right down to the camera angle, and I couldn’t help but wish that the dress in the scene started changing colours. In the same scene, you could see a mermaid costume, and in another scene, one of the jazz musicians was wearing a lion costume. There are many other interesting touches and references that can be picked up by ardent Disney fans, but aren’t obvious enough to ruin the movie for casual fans.

In the end, The Princess and the Frog did nearly everything right and was a very enjoyable film to watch. I would definitely watch it again in the theatre. Disney showed that they’re willing to do things they’d been too afraid to do in an animated feature, and if this continues, they may enjoy another golden age like they had in the early 90’s. They might even be able to re-release The Black Cauldron in a few years, possibly with its deleted scenes restored to the film, but I suppose that’s idle wishing.

I wonder if Tiana’s Palace survived Katrina.

This is the first theatrical short in years to make me laugh as consistently as a Bill Cosby routine would. The one-two punch of Presto and WALL*E more than shows that Pixar is at the top of their game when it comes to combining quality 3-D animation and clever writing, and no other studio can even begin to compare.

Okay, I’ll be honest: I’m such a Star Trek fan that I found the scene where WALL*E first finds himself in space to be nearly a complete rip-off of the opening credits to Star Trek: Voyager. I don’t know if they were trying to pay homage to the series or what, but they could’ve chosen a better one, as Voyager started off with a lot of potential, then came to a screeching halt when they reached the obligatory seventh-and-last season, and didn’t feel daring enough to keep the series going past that. Not only that, but near the end of the last season, they realized they were running out of episodes and had no real direction left, so they pulled some random garbage from their hat and hoped the audience would swallow it (and trust me, if we had wanted to see a Doctor Who style ending, we would’ve been watching Doctor Who). If that was their intention for this movie, then it was a poor choice of homage indeed, for it would more than likely spell certain disaster for the quality of the film.

And indeed, a major plot hole remains open near the end, when giant WALL*Es are shown on the space ship Axiom making gigantic cubes of garbage and sending it out into space. The question that entered my mind was, “Where did they get all the raw material to make everything for 700 years, if they don’t recycle their garbage?” The movie requires one to assume that resource gathering is just as automated as the regular EVE expeditions are. For one thing, it’s clear the captain has never been planet-side before. For another, life is so status quo on board the ship that even venturing close to a planet would’ve pushed most of the humans outside of their comfort zones, if they even noticed they were close to one. If this is the case, then somewhere out in the final frontier (yes, they even called space “the final frontier” in the movie) are a bunch of planets that have been strip mined, robbed of everything even remotely valuable, and therefore couldn’t possibly support human life if we did choose to colonize them. Is it any wonder they all decided to remain on board, living in luxury, receiving everything they could ever hope to consume and being carried around like dead fish on the surface of a river?

But despite this, WALL*E is easily one of the most enjoyable movies of the year, if not the most enjoyable movie I’ve seen since January. I don’t say this lightly, either: this year, I’ve seen some amazing films. Iron Man, Prince Caspian, 21 (yes, I actually liked 21)... none of them quite matches the awesomeness of WALL*E. Honestly, this is about as scathing a review as you’ll ever find for this movie here on Keyframe, and I’ve still rated it 4 stars.

While Over The Hedge showed us a caricature of what the human race is like today (mostly in regards to food and basic suburban comfort), WALL*E shows us a possible future for humanity, one that we seem to be headed for quickly unless we do something now. And yet I can just bet that the majority of the audience will sit there in the theatre for an hour and a half drinking soda and eating popcorn and candy, and then toss their garbage and leave with a vague impression that robot love is cute, and that the end song is catchy and they should head over to Wal-Mart to buy the WALL*E soundtrack.

Now that I’ve finished being cynical (no, no, wait, allow me one more: did anyone else catch the obvious George W Bush “Stay the course” reference?), I will say that WALL*E possesses some of the best music ever composed for an animated movie, easily matching the score of The Lion King, and also makes wonderful and meaningful use of classic songs at various points in the story. One such song makes for a very ironic juxtaposition during the opening: the camera pans over a ruined, garbage-filled Earth while a song extols how beautiful the world is. Such a combination in no way feels disjointed, nor out of place. Even in a bleak future, the most enduring songs are the classics.

The movie doesn’t just excel in the musical department. I agree with the majority of the critics out there when they say that WALL*E raises the bar in animation quality, and it doesn’t seem fair that Kung Fu Panda has to compete. That’s like Donovan Bailey competing against Rick Hansen in the track and field. Everything is so textured on Earth and polished on board the Axiom that you begin to wonder if it’s actually a live action film. And yet, scenes like the outer space ballet between WALL*E and EVE are pure magic that only a computer could even begin to achieve.

Despite the plot hole I pointed out earlier, I am impressed with how intelligent the movie was, and if it was Pixar’s intention for us to figure out for ourselves where all the raw resources for the Axiom’s 5 700 year mission came from, then I will forgive them for that. And despite the rip off of Star Trek: Voyager, I didn’t find it at all jarring when the story suddenly lifted off from planet Earth and became space-bound. In a way, it was like they wanted us to see what we are doing to both the planet and ourselves, and knew that they couldn’t give us both at the same time. But not once did they tell us what we are heading for; instead, they showed us in subtle ways that if we don’t change, this is what’s going to happen, and it’ll require hard work to fix our problems. We can’t expect someone else to clean up after ourselves if we want to remain on this planet. In fact, the previous two sentences are a lot more preachy than the entirety of WALL*E. I walked out of it feeling like I’d actually gone to see a movie that made me think (and trust me, after watching three Jack Black movies in a row last week, I seriously needed to see something like WALL*E).

There’s still five and a half months to go, but I am willing to say right now that I think I’ve seen the best animated film of the year. I mean, look at what we’ve got to look forward to: a Star Wars animated movie that somehow takes a step backwards in animation quality from the special effects present in the prequels, a Little Mermaid prequel, Madagascar 2... and Delgo still hasn’t been released despite being promised for years. Honestly, they’d better hurry up, because now that WALL*E has been released, Delgo is going to look absolutely ancient...

I suppose you could consider me a long time fan of the Chipmunks. When they hopped on the country bandwagon, I was there. When they sang a Christmas duet with Jaci Velasquez, I was there. When they covered the Macarena... okay, maybe I missed a few albums, but that's what eBay is for, right?

Given my fond memories of the Chipmunks, I was initially resistant towards seeing the movie. And for that, I must say: shame. Shame on me. Shame, shame, shame.

The movie begins with our favourite trio of singing chipmunks storing nuts for the winter. If you can suspend your disbelief that they already seem to be aware of top 40 radio while living in the Sierra Lake Tree Farm (they must be tuned in to the same station that all those dancing penguins in Antarctica listen to), then you probably won't have a problem with this film, especially since it's been established on their various albums that they have the ability to summon floods and both steal and pilot rockets. Surely listening to music out in the woods isn't beyond their abilities.

Anyway, after they lose their nuts, the Chipmunks find themselves transported to the big city, as their tree is farmed and turned into a Christmas tree. There, they hitch a ride in a stolen muffin basket carried by one Dave Seville. He's a down and out songwriter whose latest song was rejected (and it seriously needed work, lyrically), and who seems to be on the verge of giving up.

That very evening, he discovers his three furry stowaways and banishes them out of his house as soon as he finds out they can talk. Then he welcomes them back into his house when he finds out they can sing as well.

The movie may have overdone the whole commercialization of the Chipmunks, but I think it's a lot more realistic than the reaction the human race showed towards dancing penguins. When we see miracles of nature, the first thing we think isn't, "We need to save the environment even if it bankrupts an entire industry". It's, "I wonder how much money we can milk this for?"

Enter the money milker, Lou Pearlman Ian Hawke. While he'd already rejected one of Seville's songs, he's more than willing to sign the Chipmunks even though they sing a song that Seville had written.

And come to think of it, I would wonder why the Chipmunks need a songwriter, when they have a seemingly infinite repertoire of adult contemporary hits. But as I said, suspension of disbelief.

While signed with JETT Records, the Chipmunks sing brand new songs, and the songs themselves aren't too bad. They're typical of the kind of R&B/pop that has been popular among teenagers since the mid 90's, but they fit the movie well and are fun to listen to. Longtime fans may or may not enjoy the new direction the Chipmunks have taken with their music, but they're good if you feel like you just want to listen to something that's entirely bubblegum.

I found very little in this movie to complain about, and when I watched it a second time, it helped me get rid of a headache, an upset stomach (I consumed too much popcorn with awful artificial butter before Alvin), and a small bout of depression that had been inspired by I Am Legend. If this movie can cure what ails me the second time I watched it, then I imagine that the third time I watch this movie, I may just transcend time and space. You never know. But I promise that I will continue to review movies if I'm still able to do so after I transcend.
-edited January 14, 2008

Original review:
I loved this movie so much that I'm posting this via PSP in a hotel room while on vacation, until I get access to a computer so I can replace this with an actual review. For now, I will say that I bought the soundtrack as soon as I left the theatre. Full recommendation of both!

------
Re-edit, July 16 2008:

Okay, after thinking about the painfully awkward Chipmunk Song sequence off and on for a half a year, I'm going to dock a half a star from my original score. It's not a four star movie, but it's definitely no less than a three and a half star movie.