Review of Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel
December 27, 2009
by Mitch Scott

The Bottom Line
The Chipmunks are on their own; will they survive? Yep. Alvin causes trouble; will he redeem himself? You bet. Will the good guys triumph over the bad guys? Of course. Is the film thoroughly predictable from opening to closing credits? Absolutely. Could the kids in the audience care any less? As the Chipmunks might say, "No Way, José!" This film may be devoid of any originality for the adults in the audience, but the fact is, kids will love it.

Full review
Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel, from director Betty Thomas (Dr. Doolittle, I Spy) is a relatively uninventive follow-up to 2007's hit about the three little guys with the high-pitched voices singing "Please Christmas don't be late..." Even so, for the kids in the audience, "Squeakquel" manages to reprise the same cute and campy feeling and hit the right notes at the right times.

The film opens with Alvin and the Chipmunks performing at a rock concert in Paris. Their guardian, Dave (Jason Lee, unfortunately missing for most of the film), begs Alvin to stop showboating and sing together with brothers Simon and Theodore. Of course, the opposite happens, with Alvin causing an accident that lands Dave in the hospital, unable to care for his chipmunk charges. So, Dave packs them off to stay with their elderly aunt in LA, where he has enrolled them in high school.

The aunt comes and goes quickly, leaving the three chipmunks in the care of their video game playing, good-intentioned-but-irresponsible cousin Toby (Zachary Levi, TV's Chuck, Less Than Perfect). We know from the start, of course, that Toby will come around and ultimately take care of the 'munks. But we have to see the obligatory scenes of his inability to care for them, having no healthy food in the house (the trio finds a bag of cheese puffs, inspiring a song spoof of "Staying Alive," quite a hit with the youngsters in the audience), living in a pigsty, and caring more about Wii games than about how Alvin, Simon and Theodore are doing at school.

As new students, the Chipmunks are fawned over by the girls and bullied by the football players. The stern principal (Wendy Malick) turns out be a closet fan sporting a Chipmunks tattoo, and enlists their help in a high school music competition, in order to win the $25,000 prize needed to keep the music program off the chopping block.

Into the mix returns nefarious music producer Ian Hawk (David Cross, phoning it in), reduced to dumpster diving as punishment for his nasty behavior in the original film. He finds a female Chipmunk singing trio (the Chipettes), and uses them to try and both defeat the Chipmunks and get back his former glory.

The plot unfolds predictably, with the Chipettes realizing too late that Ian is a lout, and needing to be rescued (of course) by Alvin. And so it goes, with the Chipmunks ultimately triumphing (of course), and getting the girls in the end to boot.

Nice performances are turned in by the terrific Wendy Malick (best known from TV's Just Shoot Me) as the school principal, and Levi, as nerdy cousin Toby.

As predictable as "The Squeakquel" is, my fellow Our Kids reviewers, ages nine and six, would see this film again in a heartbeat, and liked it even more than the original. And while I may not have been intrigued with the storyline, I chuckled more than a few times just watching the kids laughing away. I'd say that's a pretty good investment of 90 minutes and the price of movie tickets.

For Parents: Scenes are mostly appropriate for children of all ages, although they do include two minor accidents, the bad-guy producer getting hit in the groin by a motorcycle, Simon's head getting dunked in a toilet by a bully, and a rather funny fart-joke sequence. Still, not too bad by recent children’s film standards. And in a nice turn, as Toby “gets the girl,” they share a sweet hug that struck me as much more appropriate for the young audience than the traditional kiss.

Our Kids Reader Comments:

• "I thought the movie was disappointing…the music they had the chipettes singing was inappropriate…I am not sure why they had them in high school for this age range either…just seemed a little mature for young audiences. We didn’t like the bullying that was going on by the football players either. The kids were not head over heals about it afterwards either which is a huge sign too (they are 6 and almost 5). I am just bummed, although I don’t know why it seemed geared more for teens I felt not young kids which does not make that much sense to me either. Kids don’t need encouragement to be unkind to each other. We were disappointed." - Anon

Have you seen Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel? What's your opinion? Just drop us a note and Our Kids will add your comments to this review.