If there is one film that sums up my childhood in one voice, it is The Chipmunk Adventure, an absolute goldmine of fun memories flood back whenever I think of this film. Classic songs, Classic visuals, Classic Characters and some real humour that knows the balance between not enough and too much.
The basic story is as follows, after Dave has to fly off to Europe on a business meeting, the Chipmunks are left in the care of their babysitter Miss Miller, whom they do not like that much (but possibly not at all but that's never specified). So anyway, whilst playing an arcade game in a diner with the Chipettes, two jewel smugglers overhear Alvin and Brittany arguing over who could out do the other in a race around the world. With this, the crooks enlist the Chipmunks and the Chipettes in a wager that one can encircle the earth and drop off jewels concealed in Chipmunk and Chipette dolls faster than the other. Both agree, and after deceiving their Babysitter into thinking that Dave wants to meet them in Europe, the boys and girls are given balloons and sent on their way. The rest of the film is each of them carrying out their individual tasks and meeting some weird and wonderful characters along the way.
Now at this point you may think that this seems like quite a bland and predictable story. The truth is it partially is, the boys and girls realise what's going on, the crooks get caught and it ends with the classic 'AAAALVINNNN!!' line. But the way the film gets from A to B is the more important part. There are some great musical numbers along the way, including some which could be considered suggestive like the Chipettes singing 'Get Lucky With You' to a group of killer snakes, but that may be just my 18 year old perverted mind at work there. And also it has the usual character set up which this film and the two other animated features of the 1990s really got down to a T. Alvin is the pretentiously egotistical one, Simon is like a backbench Member of Parliament, comes up with all the sensible ideas but gets ignored by the guys in charge, and Theodore being his usual child of innocence self, with the running gag that he always want something to eat but is dragged off to sing a musical number by his siblings.
Overall, its a recommended delight to people of all ages, a really funny bit of film with some classical Chipmunk animation and one that doesn't suffer from an attempt to try and sell something to the audience with over the top advertising like many films of that era tried to do.
The basic story is as follows, after Dave has to fly off to Europe on a business meeting, the Chipmunks are left in the care of their babysitter Miss Miller, whom they do not like that much (but possibly not at all but that's never specified). So anyway, whilst playing an arcade game in a diner with the Chipettes, two jewel smugglers overhear Alvin and Brittany arguing over who could out do the other in a race around the world. With this, the crooks enlist the Chipmunks and the Chipettes in a wager that one can encircle the earth and drop off jewels concealed in Chipmunk and Chipette dolls faster than the other. Both agree, and after deceiving their Babysitter into thinking that Dave wants to meet them in Europe, the boys and girls are given balloons and sent on their way. The rest of the film is each of them carrying out their individual tasks and meeting some weird and wonderful characters along the way.
Now at this point you may think that this seems like quite a bland and predictable story. The truth is it partially is, the boys and girls realise what's going on, the crooks get caught and it ends with the classic 'AAAALVINNNN!!' line. But the way the film gets from A to B is the more important part. There are some great musical numbers along the way, including some which could be considered suggestive like the Chipettes singing 'Get Lucky With You' to a group of killer snakes, but that may be just my 18 year old perverted mind at work there. And also it has the usual character set up which this film and the two other animated features of the 1990s really got down to a T. Alvin is the pretentiously egotistical one, Simon is like a backbench Member of Parliament, comes up with all the sensible ideas but gets ignored by the guys in charge, and Theodore being his usual child of innocence self, with the running gag that he always want something to eat but is dragged off to sing a musical number by his siblings.
Overall, its a recommended delight to people of all ages, a really funny bit of film with some classical Chipmunk animation and one that doesn't suffer from an attempt to try and sell something to the audience with over the top advertising like many films of that era tried to do.