Four stars (out of five). Rating: PG, for mild rude humor
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.31.09
Buy DVD: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
• Buy Blu-Ray: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel [Blu-ray]
The law of diminishing returns caught up with the chipmunks.
I call it the Home Alone syndrome, although numerous older examples also exist. A film — generally a comedy — takes the world by storm, so of course the studio rushes a sequel into production. Corporate wonks — who get paid far too much for mistakes of this nature — "analyze" the original picture and conclude that the public was most captivated by the element easiest the quantify and reproduce: the slapstick nonsense.
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| Although initially delighted to be sent to the school where Alvin and his two brothers already have become celebrities, gal chipmunks Jeanette, Brittany and Eleanor eventually are persuaded -- by the villain of this piece -- that their idols are self-centered jerks. Fortunately, a budding romance between Eleanor and Theodore evokes a thawing in affairs, just in time for a triumphant musical climax. Too bad the rest of the film isn't nearly as endearing... |
And so the sequel is nothing but slapstick nonsense.
But if you examine Home Alone
carefully, you'll notice ample evidence of the film's heart, as young Kevin struggles to cope with having been abandoned, while also attempting to retain some semblance of the Christmas spirit. The pratfall-laden invasion by the burglars doesn't arrive until the very end, and it's actually that much funnier because we've grown to truly care about the little boy they're attacking. Home Alone 2
, in great contrast, skips the character development and goes straight for the stupid stuff. Result: bad sequel. 2007's Alvin and the Chipmunks
— no classic to begin with — at least benefited from a script that attempted actual poignance, most of it deriving from the vulnerable Theodore, whose insecurities helped Dave Seville (Jason Lee) find his inner responsible self. (And yes, I know how silly that previous sentence sounds. Work with me here.)
As a sidebar, we also had Dave's long-stalled efforts to become a successful songwriter, and his goofily endearing attempt to ignite a relationship with the kind-hearted hottie who lived in his adorable apartment complex. These elements complemented and offset the self-centered Alvin's frequent lapses in judgment, not to mention the bad behavior that wreaked havoc within Dave's apartment.
And, most important, we had a villain — music mogul Ian (David Cross) — who represented a genuinely sinister threat: a greedy, manipulative swine who may as well have worn a Snidely Whiplash mustache.
Sigh.
Flash-forward two years, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel has made every mistake possible; it's almost as if somebody maintained a checklist of what went wrong with Home Alone 2 and reproduced it.
, easily one of the worst movies ever unleashed on an unsuspecting public). 
, 
) has done a phenomenal job of re-creating Victorian London, albeit with considerable assistance from the special-effects team that 
. Movie audiences simply hadn't been taken to the ocean depths before, and folks were utterly knocked out. 
, as Princess Leia's consular ship was pursued by the massive Imperial star destroyer: so huge it seemed to emanate from the space behind us in the theater. The deep-space thrills only got better, building to the vertigo-inducing climax when Luke Skywalker made his strafing run on the Death Star. 
had me half-convinced that Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton had found a scientist who really did grow dinosaurs with cloning techniques. 
and 
.
. At the time, that 2004 release's failure was attributed to its hand-drawn look, as if to suggest that audiences would have embraced the film had it been done on computers. 
and 
. The result probably won't be regarded as one of Disney finest animated films