Review of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011) by Reece K — 28 May 2012

Alvin and the Chipmunks are back in yet another cash-cow sequel which sees them on a cruise ship and then stranded on a desert island. At the start of the trilogy with the first movie, it was good family fun with a couple of clichéd moments, the Squeakquel was basically an abomination to family movies since any Beethoven movie after the second one but even though Chipwrecked (hurray for wordplay) is quite bad, it's also a bit fun in places. Yeah, okay, the story is a walking, talking cliché and the characters didn't have much thought put into their personalities but I can't deny that families would not find this fun. The voice-acting isn't entirely up to scratch and the feel of the movie itself is too straight-to-DVDish but if I were to review looking through the eyes of a parent who would want to take his younger kids to watch a movie, this would be ideal. However for the older audience, this would most likely be mind-numbing. Children will most likely love the movie whereas parents wouldn't. Chipwrecked may be better than the Squeakquel in every way but this is not a family masterpiece that will be imprinted in your brain forever. Well, maybe it'll be imprinted in your memories forever but for all of the wrong reasons.

With Alvin and the Chipmunks on its second sequel, I fear that there will be a fourth movie coming along very soon. Unfortunately, it seems that some people just don't know when to stop and it's when you know it's not being made out of love but out of money. There really isn't anything about this movie that's worth paying your hard-earned cash for a ticket but if you wait for DVD, it wouldn't be so bad. However, children under the age of ten would most likely adore this movie but I suggest watching The Muppets instead. It's a good enough effort and it's improved a lot from the squeakquel but this isn't really a winner.