Just two years after the release of the very successful first film, “Alvin and the Chipmunks” are coming back to cinemas. This Christmas they are not alone and are joined by their female counterparts, The Chipettes in “˜Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel’ which is released 21st December.
You might remember from the first film – the trio of chipmunks: Alvin (voiced by Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) became a famous musical band and won over a million hearts. After the Chipmunks’ concert and some fantastic pirouettes performed by Alvin, their producer and friend Dave Seville (Jason Lee, as funny as always) ends up in a hospital with severe injuries but before the sedatives starts working Dave makes arrangements for the Chipmunks to be taken care by Aunt Jackie (Kathryn Joosten from “Desperate Housewives”). However due to some more crazy action, Aunt Jackie also ends up in a hospital which leaves the trio in one house with Toby, Dave’s twenty-something immature nephew.
The central part of the film is about how Chipmunks get on at school and how they encounter difficulties studying together with the ‘evil’ human teenagers. If it weren’t for the perfectly computer-generated chipmunks ““ this would be another boring high-school romantic comedy, but here come the Chipettes ““ Brittany (Christina Applegate), Eleanor (Amy Poehler) and Jeanette (Anna Faris). Little girls want to become stars and wish to hang out with a cool trio of Chipmunks – who wouldn’t!? To achieve this they send themselves in a FedEx package to producer Ian Hawk (David Cross). Little did they know that Hawk is an evil man and probably the only person in the world who hates these cute animals. Unfortunately the Chipettes can not hang out with Alvin and Co because they are matched against each other in a musical contest. School principal (wonderfully played by Wendie Malick) is on the Chipmunks’ side but only friendship can help them to win and overcome all challenges.
The director, Betty Thomas feels very comfortable with the story, as it is not her first time directing a high-school comedy (“John Tucker Must Die”). She does a good job with incorporating CGI characters into live action. It is a funny entertaining film whether you are going to watch it with kids or not. “˜Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel’ is not a film that will change your perspective on life (at least I hope not), but it will certainly boost your mood: on my way out of the cinema I overheard some men, who came to cinema with their kids, rocking “Single Ladies” in high squeaky voices.
