The sound of those rapid-fire, squeaky voices are enough to send some grown-ups running for the hills. Others will take a deep breath and prepare for the super-cute onslaught at the cinema – there has been a two-year respite after all. But once you’ve tuned into the inane Chipmunk banter, film three in the series, Chipwrecked, still manages to charm while thrilling the kids, what with its intrepid little adventurers and energetic musical numbers.

This time, Alvin (Justin Long on helium) and his band, The Chipmunks, including smart Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and gullible Theodore (Jesse McCartney), are on their way to some music awards with the Chipettes – Eleanor (Amy Poehler), Jeanette (Anna Faris) and Brittany (Christina Applegate). They travel overseas via cruise ship with their weary guardian Dave (Jason Lee), and although have been warned numerous times to behave, end up accidentally going overboard and getting marooned in a tropical paradise. But the island isn’t as deserted as it seems…

Squarely aimed at the U market, watching the on-deck antics of The Chipmunks, the Chipettes and mentor Dave is very much like watching an extended children’s TV episode about the trials and tribulations of family vacationing, with very tame goofs and pranks – usually involving the haphazard Dave – from a seasonal pantomime. The narrative is straightforward, as are the set-piece setups for kids to see the punch line coming a mile off coast. Once ‘chipwrecked’, there’s precious little that goes on, on the desert island that you wouldn’t want to leave behind, to be honest, but mischievous Alvin – however irritatingly over enthusiastic – still manages to coax a giggle out of you. There is also a nice role reversal between Alvin and Simon that keeps things interesting.

In fact, it’s Simon’s adventure this time that gets the biggest laughs from the kids when he turns all Franglais on us (with the help of Alan Tudyk’s brilliant vocal skills), allowing Alvin to learn a few life lessons in his coming-of-age experience, and for comedy director Mike Mitchell and team to open up the naughty squirrels’ shenanigans and feature other members of the cast in the limelight.

Mitchell’s writing team’s rather odd ode to Tom Hanks’s film Cast Away feels somewhat mismatched and remotely dark for a kiddies’ film, but does create the film’s anti-villain who isn’t at all scary, actually – just plain bonkers, allowing the Chipmunks to go on an Indiana Jones-style rescue through the jungle undergrowth. For adults, there is the added glee of watching the whole cast – and ex-manager Ian – marooned (finally), far away from civilisation and doing harm to reassess their actions on all of us.

The infectious and lively musical numbers will have you toe-tapping your way throughout, too, which are basically high-pitched, often a capella versions of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Pink and Willow Smith’s hits. Indeed, the phrase, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” certainly rings true as your senses are flooded with the Chipmunk drug. The ending is naturally an excuse for another grand musical Glee-style finale so there are no great surprises, and you are well and truly under the spell by then anyway to really care.

Some might argue about how ‘harmless’ a Chipmunk film is on the impressionable young mind, but this adventure takes the cast away from their natural habitat of previous films and shakes things up for anything to happen and some important rules to be learnt. Plus with its catchy musical interpretations, Chipwrecked has to be the best Chipmunk film so far for the uninitiated to be exposed to, offering wholesome family entertainment and a welcome glimpse of the sun, sea and sand on these chilling winter days.

***~~ (3/5)

With their partner Pixar doing amazing things with computer animated fare, Disney are doing their best to keep up with the forthcoming 3D Rapunzel film, Tangled, and this straight to Blu-ray and DVD release Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue.

Following the success of the 2008 Tinker Bell and its sequel Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, Disney are sticking with the cast of Mae Whitman, Kristin Chenoweth and Lucy Liu for the third film, and as can be seen in this extended clip below, they conjure up a fantastical world (even though I couldn’t get used to Tinker Bell’s voice).

The clip can be found below, it’s your typical Disney fare, helped by the dulcet tones of Michael Sheen, and there’s a hint of magic in the air, and with a fourth film, Tinker Bell: A Winter Story, on its way next year it seems this one will run and run.

So clap you hands and click your mouse on this link to Coming Soon, for it was they who put this one up.

Here’s a trailer for the film, just to push you over the edge of expectation for the September ‘home-ent’ release,

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.