Call this one the surprise of 2011 but I found Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked surprisingly charming.

The third film of the series finds Dave Seville (Jason Lee) & his brood of rodents sailing off for a family getaway and Alvin, Simon & Theodore are joined by female singing and dancing counterparts in the Chippettes.  When Alvin decides to kick things up a notch during a tranquil game of shuffle board, things go from bad to worse.  The chipmunks find themselves at the mercy of the wind when the kite Alvin is flying takes off over board.

The other chipmunks, in an effort to save their comrade, jump aboard the kite in hopes that their weight will keep it from flying out into the wild blue yonder.  This sadly doesn’t work and the six of them are whisked off the side of the boat and out to sea. Dave, seeing this, reacts quickly and heads to the hang-glider (you know the hang glider every cruise ship has at the ready incase your rodent children ever fly overboard) in hopes of flying to their safety.  Neither of these things work and The Chipmunks find themselves…wait for it… CHIPWRECKED on a deserted island.

Unbeknownst to them the island isn’t all that deserted. As the chipmunks attempt to stay alive they meet a young lady, who I can only assume is the retarded love child of Tom Hank’s character from Cast Away and Wilson the volleyball.  She’s been on the island for a long time and it shows.  The chipmunks not only have to work together to survive but get back to Dave and try to not end up on “crazy island lady’s” dinner plate.

As a fan of the cartoon from the mid 80’s, I was actually surprised to see how they have essentially stayed very true to the characters I remember from my childhood. Alvin is rambunctious, Simon is level-headed and Theodore is fat and says cute things. The Chippettes are along for the ride as a counter-point to the Chipmunks and provide very little in the way of substance, but I guess the female demo wasn’t showing up for the other flicks. Plus, now they can harmonize even better when they decide to break out into song.

In this film, however, the tables are turned. Upon reaching the island it’s clear that they aren’t in the recording studio anymore, which sadly doesn’t stop them from singing.  However, when Simon is bitten by a spider and is turned into an adventurous lothario, Alvin is left to keep the groups head above water.  The film deals with the theme of trust and how it’s a two way street.  In the past, all Alvin has ever wanted is for Dave to trust him but, because Alvin is Alvin, Dave is inclined to shorten his leash. On the other side, the film deals with how we all see ourselves.  We are all capable of doing things we probably don’t see ourselves being able to do.  Simon takes the adventures he’s been presented with and runs with it in a way he might not back at home.

Of course most of the young kids who go to see the film won’t pick up on those nuances but I think it was interested that I was able to actually see those things from a bunch of CGI chipmunks.  The kids will, however, love all the singing and dancing and general absurdity of a bunch of walking talking chipmunks. There are enough Charlie Sheen and Lady GaGa references to keep this series relevant, which is actually one of the things that annoyed me about the film, but ultimately, I get it.  The film basically plays out like an hour long music video.  However, there does seem to be a market out there for music in chipmunk form.

In fact, my niece was begging to hear chipmunk music on the ride home from the film.  She is, without a doubt, the target audience for these films, especially with the Chippettes on board.  Her mother, my twin sister, grew up watching the animated cartoon and has passed on her love for the little bastards, which has translated into fervent fandom for this 4-year old.  So, because I am not the target audience, even though I enjoyed the flick, I thought I’d let her tell you what she thought about the movie.  I coaxed her into letting me film her as she answered my questions about the movie; all it took from uncle Ez was a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Without further ado, I give you my niece’s review on “Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”

***~~ (3/5)

If one squeakquel wasn’t enough there’s a new Alvin and the Chipmunks film out at the end of this year which will delight the thousands of kids who flocked to the cinemas for the previous two, making this third film an inevitabililty.

Taking their own particular brand of munkery to the high seas for seabound pratfalls and high pitching whining, there is sure to be no shortage of moments like these:

If they sing My Heart Will Go On I may just lose it.

Jason Lee announces another four Chipmunk films.

Personally I can’t wait for the Hangover inspired fourth film – Chipfaced.

The trailer is below, God help you.

If you really want to see in High Def as the Mighty Apple deigned it, click here and get everything you deserve.

Look into their eyes...

It looks as though you can’t keep a good – or utterly insufferable – chipmunk down, with Alvin, Simon and Theador returning to cinemas to terrorise the career of the long-suffering Jason Lee. Third time’s the charm.

A new German poster teases the threequel (via ImpAwards), with Alvin and the Chipmunks peering through a life ring. Don’t fret, however, the Chipettes will be returning too – their own poster surely in the offing as the film sings and dances its way towards theatres.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked will sail into cinemas on 16 December this year.

Tron: Legacy is top of the US box office this week, having brought in over $43 million in receipts ($43,600,000).

Disney were probably hoping for a bigger figure (the film is budgeted at around $170 million before promotional and advertising costs) but the first film was hardly in the same league as something like Star Wars in terms of  popularity and does not engender a huge sense of excitement for the follow up. It’s worth noting however, that Avatar opened around the same time last year with a moderate haul of $70 million and went on to become the biggest-grossing film in the world.

The GC makeover of popular Hanna Barbera cartoon Yogi Bear has debuted at number 2 with a below-par $16m. It’s probably safe to say that this film’s finally box office tally won’t be anywhere close to what the similarly kids-marketed Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel made last year (a staggering $219m!).

The third in The Chronicles of Narnia series (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) rounds off the top three, bringing in just over $44m after two weeks on release. It’s another big-budgeted family feature which has a way to go to break even (it has a budget of around $155m) but this film (like the first two) should prove to be popular with an overseas audience.

Figures courtesy of Box Office Mojo.

To celebrate the release of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Sqeakquel which is released today, 20th Century Fox have given us some brand new images. Click them below to enlarge.

If you’ve not seen the trailer for this fun movie, you can check it out here and our review is here.

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.

The problem with writing a generic movie website is that we have to cover movies that wouldn’t necessarily be top of our list to watch. That said, I just watched the new theatrical trailer for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and it actually made me laugh… so I thought I’d post it and give you all the chance to give it a go.

Alvin and the Chimpmunks isn’t a movie that I would rush out to see at my local cinema….. but it seems that I am one of the few as the first movie, released back in 2007 made a whopping $300 million worldwide. It’s no surprise then that a sequel or in this case, the ‘Squeakquel’ has been created. You’ll be able to see ‘Alvin and The Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel’ on Boxing Day in the UK and I’ve embedded the trailer after the jump and you can click the poster to enlarge.