April, 9 2008

Do you ever look at or watch the cartoons that you let your kids watch and wonder what the heck happened to the fun and wholesome cartoons of your past? Instead of shows like The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and the Pound Puppies; we are presented with The Fairly Odd Parents, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey and even a talking yellow sponge in pants. While all these cartoons are okay in their own way, they just don’t stand up to the cartoons I watched as a kid.

I will admit that I am a child of the 80s, so to me Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K and Alvin and the Chipmunks are classic quality cartoons. This brings me to the point of this review. I’m here to review Alvin and the Chipmunk Go to the Movies: Funny, We Shrunk The Adults on DVD.

Alvin and The Chipmunks had their own carton series that ran from 1983 until 1991 with conclusion of the “Go to the Movies” series in late 1990. When I was younger I watched The Chipmunks almost religiously every weekend and even today I still love them.

The “Alvin and The Chipmunks Go to the Movies” series was where the chipmunks would put on their own versions of some of the classic movies of the late 80s/early 90s. They did spoofs of “The Breakfast Club “, “Indiana Jones”,”Star Wars”, “Splash” and many more. Alvin and the Chipmunk Go to the Movies: Funny, We Shrunk the Adults features 3 episodes from the show’s final season.

In “Funny… We Shrunk The Adults”, the spoof of the 1989 hit “Honey, We Shrunk The Kids” Simon builds an experimental shrinking machine… I mean Matter Compactor. Sorry Simon. While Dave is out getting groceries, Alvin spots the new neighbors and immediately wants to get better acquainted with Dina. As you can imagine things start to get out of hand as Alvin tries to impress Dina.

During all the excitement that Alvin, Dina and her brothers are creating, Simon’s machine accidentally gets switched on and hits an unsuspecting Dave and Zelda. This threw me off a little when I watched this episode again as Miss Miller is renamed Zelda. She is still as absent-minded as ever though. They both get shrunk and find themselves in a royal predicament. Luckily Simon realizes what has happened and all of the children hurry to clean the place up and find Dave and Zelda. In the end they get restored to their normal selves and Alvin is once again in a world of trouble.

The second episode is “Bigger”, the ‘munks retelling of the Tom Hank’s film “Big.” This is probably my favorite out of the three episodes due to the fact that the Chipettes aka “The Babes” sing the song “Girls of Rock N’ Roll.” If you have seen the film “The Chipmunk Adventure” then you will probably recognize this song. I also happen to be a, pardon the pun, BIG fan of the Tom Hanks film.

In this episode Alvin and the Chipmunks are trying to get a record deal for their garage band” The Furballs.” After being shot down via letters, The Chipmunks go to the county fair in hopes to perform there. Again they get shot down and Alvin storms off to the Jukebox Hall and pops in a quarter in to a magical jukebox and is instantly a grown up.

Later during the “The Babes” concert he is given a job at Hip Happening Records. For a while his is having the time of his life, until he is placed in charge of giving The Babes a new look. He then goes back on his word to helping his brothers get a contract and eventually gets fired from his job. He soon realizes that being a grown up isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be. Isn’t that the truth? He eventually becomes a kid again at the end, like in the live action counterpart. The one thing that bothers me now is that Alvin doesn’t sound any different as an adult then he does as a kid. As I mentioned this before the episode features the song “Girls of rock N’ Roll” as well as the Joan Jett classic “I Love Rock N’ Roll.”

The third and final episode of this collection is called “Back to our Future.” This is an obvious spoof of “Back to the Future” and is the second time in Chipmunk history to do spoof the classic. “Back to Our Future” is regarded by most people, including myself, as homage to Ross Sr. and “The Alvin Show.” In this episode Simon discovers that the Chipmunks are starting to fade away, starting with the images of their CDs and the music producers having never heard of them.

Clyde Crashcup, a character from “The Alvin Show”, shows up in the modern Chipmunk’s front yard and tells them about the past Alvin’s plan to quit the music business and become a drycleaner. After ending up in several different time periods they end in 1957 via Clyde’s time machine. Alvin desperately tries to get the old Alvin to go to the Future to show him that he will become famous. Clyde takes the old Chipmunks to modern day while the new Chipmunks stay behind to cover until they go back.

The old Chipmunks end up liking the future so much that when the new Chipmunks return to their time, the old ones refuse to leave. They eventually plan to settle the decision through a rock off. The winner stays in the future and the other returns to the past. However this fails and the new Alvin with some smooth talking get the old ‘munks to return home and not give up the music biz. This thus restores order to the Chipmunk’s lives. This episode features two of Ross Sr.’s original Chipmunks songs: “Alvin Twist” and “Alvin’s Harmonica.”

Filmmaking: 9
Alvin and the Chipmunks Go to the Movies: Funny…We Shrunk The Adults is shown in the same quality as The Chipmunk Adventure. Unlike the movie these three episodes were directed by John Kimball, Rudy Larriva and/or Charles A. Nichols. Neither the less these three episodes hold true to the spirit of the rest of the series before them.

Graphics: 9
The Chipmunk Adventure having been just released in 1987, most of the animators from the movie continued to work for Ross Jr. The result was the same quality animations that the series was known for. Well that and the constant Alvin mishaps. I particularly like the movie montage during the opening credits to each episode. Here you see clips of Alvin spoofs that range from Indiana Jones to Jaws. Near the end of the opening credits you will see The Chipmunks and Chipettes going to a movie premiere at the Grauman's Chinese Theater and the film starts with Alvin spoofing Leo the Lion, the mascot of MGM Studios.

I have always been a fan of the series and I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before they hopefully start releasing the complete seasons. I still wonder to this day what happened to the good classic cartoons of my childhood. They just don’t get much better than this.

Sound: 8
The sounds of these episodes never fail to deliver with true chipmunk style. My favorite songs on this disc are “Girls of Rock N’ Roll” and “Alvin Twist.” The later of the two songs was obviously well before my time but, none the less, a real classic to listen too. This DVD is only presented in Stereo sound so don’t expect to blown away with any spectacular sound.

Value: 7
There are no special features located on the disc so don’t be expecting any in the disc’s $14-16 dollar price tag. What you do get is three classic episodes from the era of some of the best cartoons to hit the TV screen. The price does seem a bit high for just three episodes, but then again the rerelease of The Chipmunk Adventure, which released simultaneously, retails for nearly the same price.

Overall: 8.5
As I mentioned above, The Chipmunks are still one of my favorite cartoon series to come out of the 1980s. The Chipmunks represent a time when animation was just there for fun and enjoyment. I was pleasantly enjoyed this DVD release and I can’t wait to see what comes out of the Chipmunks archives next. I recommend renting this first for those unsure that they want to pay the $14 or so dollars for this DVD, But I highly advice this DVD for any Alvin and The Chipmunk fans out there.