The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Right before the International Music Awards, at which they’re scheduled
to perform, Alvin (Long) and the chipmunks go on a
holiday cruise with their father/manager Dave (Lee). Alvin’s mischievous ways
end up with the six chipmunks flung overboard, clinging to a kite for dear
life. They wash up onto a deserted island where they promptly start freaking
out. As the days go by with no sign of a rescue team, they start to wonder
whether Dave will be able to find them and whether they’ll be able to make it
to the awards show in time.

Although the opening scenes are
filled with Alvin’s pranks and a random dance-off, it gets rather dull. At the
heart of the film is the conflict between the very responsible Simon and the
completely immature Alvin. The film picks up the pace when the chipmunks
get stranded on the island and this dynamic is reversed.

Simon, the responsible
one, gets bitten by a venomous spider that temporarily turns people crazy.
Under the influence of the venom, the normally uptight, rule-abiding Simon
(Gubler) suddenly becomes Simone, a smooth-talking, daredevil French chipmunk.
His transformation and subsequent wooing of fellow chipmunk Jeanette (Faris)
are probably the funniest scenes of the film. Faced with Simon’s complete
transformation, Alvin is forced to assume responsibility for the chipmunks’
safety and to make sure that they’re fed and have a shelter to sleep
under.  

Visually, the film is pretty cool. The animated chipmunks interact
really well with the humans on screen and they blend in perfectly with the live
action background. And, as an added bonus, especially for the visually impaired,
the film’s in plain old 2D. Alvin’s continuous whirling about may have been
pretty nausea-inducing in 3D; so kicking it old-school was definitely a good
choice. 

The film has quite a few chipmunkified versions of pop hits such as
LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock’, Rihanna’s ‘SOS’, Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’ and Lady
Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ and they seemed to go down pretty well with the kids who
were clapping and humming along. These musical interludes look and sound like Glee outtakes in that they’re
harmonized, heavily auto-tuned and the dance moves are synchronized. The only
difference is that the chipmunks are animated and very, very squeaky.

In
addition to being rather grating, this squeakiness does have the unfortunate
side effect of camouflaging the voices of the top-notch voice case, which
includes Justin Long, Anna Faris and Amy Poehler, who are far too funny to be
working with such a tired, cliché-heavy
script.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that Alvin and the
Chipmunks is firmly targeted at kids. The dialogue is laughably
literal, preachy and is full of some unforgivably cheesy puns. However, the
kids in the cinema seemed to be having fun; and at the end of the day that’s the
only thing that matters.