The Chipmunks

[Bliffenstimmers]

My favorite incarnation of the Chipmunks is The Alvin Show. The 80s series is OK, but for some reason, despite it's slightly cheesy feel, I've always loved the 50s/60s Chipmunks.

The simplicity of everything in the show - especially the art style - is one of the reason why I love it. From a critical point of view it's not really that entertaining, but I dunno, I've always had a thing for mediocre cartoon adaptations.

It's kind of a shame that, despite the fact that the show was re-ran for several years in syndication, it never got any great video releases.
Disney released some of the song segments from the show (though somewhat butchered, especially with the song "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" in which Alvin's gunshots are covered up) as part of their Sing-Along Songs video series.
Then there's the DVD pictured here, Paramount's "The Very First Alvin Show", which I admit is a somewhat better effort. The footage and audio seem to be very well preserved (it's even re-mixed in stereo!) but there are a few problems here.
You only get one actual episode of the show, which isn't even the real first episode as the title claims. It's segments from other episodes put together! The rest of the DVD is 80s TV specials (which aren't bad either) one of which features some clips from The Alvin Show, notably "The Alvin Twist".
I've been told that the majority of the existing episodes are in bad shape now, so that's one possible reason why the video releases aren't so great... that and there's probably not such a high demand for it.

A couple other things I should mention before I end this post:

• If you too prefer the original Chipmunks, take a look at this storyboard for the Alvin Show pilot. Very interesting, artsy piece.
• I also enjoy David Seville's pre-Chipmunk works ("The Bird On My Head", "Almost Good", etc.) They're pretty nice.
• The new Chipmunk movies, I've seen only the first and second. The first one was enjoyable, but the second was pretty bad... anyone who's seen the two probably know why.

 

[D'Snowth]

Most Chipmunk purists tend to prefer the 50s/60s incarnation over the 80s/90s, but some of them do have a point, in that back then, with The Alvin Show, the musical aspect of the franchise was more presented as the forefront of everything, while the 80s series tended to be much more character driven... that, and most older fans despise The Chipettes for simply existing.

A lot of older fans also tend to dislike Ross Jr's Dave as opposed to Ross Sr's Dave, which is kind of understandable: Ross Sr's Dave was a lot more strict, and much more prone to aggrivation, which is what a big aspect of the original Chipmunk Song was, while Ross Jr's Dave is more laid back and somewhat wimpy. I kind of think that Jr's Dave kind of reflected more of Sr's Dave in the "Ho Ho Ho" song, Dave's clearly in a bad mood and on edge in that song, "I am NOT STRESSED!" "Oh just suck it up Alvin!"

 

[Drtooth]

Introducing the NEW new... new Alvin Seville...

I like it better than the movie's design, certainly. It does look DA-ish... needs more polish to really make it stick out.

My favorite incarnation of the Chipmunks is The Alvin Show. The 80s series is OK, but for some reason, despite it's slightly cheesy feel, I've always loved the 50s/60s Chipmunks.

I feel the same way too. I was lucky to live somewhere where they syndicated The Alvin Show while the Chipmunks were popular, so I got both. The more I thought about the Alvin Show the more I wondered why I was liking it better than the 80's version, and then I heard the commentary from John K in the Chipmunks parody episode of Mighty Mouse I keep bringing up. The 80's cartoon added pathos, which isn't bad, but when the Chipmunks were played for laughs, the cartoon was much more fun.

And you have to admit, sometimes Dave was a little heavy handed with his morals. My favorite is the one where they have to wrestle that big giant guy for money, and they get three people in the front row's clothes dirty in the process. Dave makes them relinquish all the money they earned practically risking their lives in a dangerous stunt to people who were stupid enough to wear good clothes at a wrestling match because they have to have a lesson in responsibility, even though almost getting ripped in half and their bones turned to paste wasn't a lesson/punishment enough. Jeez, Dave. They pretty much almost killed themselves so Theodore could afford a kitchen appliance that you should be buying yourself so he can cook for everyone!

If you too prefer the original Chipmunks, take a look at this storyboard for the Alvin Show pilot. Very interesting, artsy piece.

Was that an episode? I swear it was. If not exactly the same, I swear I've seen that episode before. Bells in my head went off while I was reading it.

The new Chipmunk movies, I've seen only the first and second. The first one was enjoyable, but the second was pretty bad... anyone who's seen the two probably know why.

The first one, while Dave was poorly cast, was surprisingly good. The second one, while I liked the concept of Dave making them go to school and the Chipettes being used by Ian as part of a revenge plan, the endless promos for a TV show, Jason Lee not wanting to be in the film and replacing him with a flat loser, and especially the Dutch Oven joke ruined the movie. I find it half decent, but it's that other half that ruins it.

 

[D'Snowth]

And of course, David Cross has said that Chipwrecked was the worst thing he had ever done in his career.

Matter of fact, I DID finally read somewhere a few weeks ago or so that explained why Ian was in the third one at all, but now I forgot where I read it, or what the specifics were, so I don't remember why he was even there to begin with... I think it had something to do with Dave deciding to hire him as The Chipmunks and Chipettes' security or something, which... I don't know, after all he did in the first two movies, why would Dave do that? That'd be like if in the 80s series, they decide to just let Uncle Harry work on their personal staff.

 

[Bliffenstimmers]

Was that an episode? I swear it was. If not exactly the same, I swear I've seen that episode before. Bells in my head went off while I was reading it.

This one frame might seem familiar - Disney once used it in a promo for their Chipmunks VHS releases. This episode may in fact exist, the general public just doesn't have access to it.

Now I just wanna say while I still have time to edit this post, the reason I didn't talk much about the later Chipmunks, despite the fact that I grew up with those, is because I haven't really watched the 80s/90s cartoons as much as others. I have seen a few episodes and specials, and they're not bad. They do seem better built than the Alvin Show in some ways. I still have a soft spot for this show though...

 

[D'Snowth]

As I've said before, the 80s series went through a few different incarnations itself during its eight-year run: the first five seasons were produced by Ruby-Spears and were some of the better episodes, IMO... granted, the animation improved over that time, but it's clear more effort was put into the overall animation during these seasons, more detail was added into the backgrounds and layouts, the music score was enjoyable, and the stories were stronger. The character designs took a while to get worked out though. The first half of Season Six was produced by Fred Wolf Films, and were pretty decent (I know Drtooth hates that "Cadet's Regrets" episode though), the overall animation was pretty good, but the layouts and design were more simplistic, and the voice cast was reduced to Ross and Janice and their associate producer who did terrible voices, and the music score was rather annoying. The rest of the episodes were produced by DiC and were not very good: lots of off-model, inconsistent animation, further cheapening of the series, lot more simplistic designs and layouts, more annoying music score, etc. And the stories were pretty weak by that point too.

 

[TheWoodringman]

While I do like "The Alvin Show.", I like the 80's-90's incarnation better, because that one I remember from my childhood (Watching the 80's show on Cartoon Networking the 90's-2001) and that's just it.

 

[D'Snowth]

I too watched the 80s series on CN, but I was so young when I watched, I honestly didn't remember a whole lot about it until episodes surfaced for a while on YouTube during 2008. I DO clearly remember two episodes from my childhood though, "The Chipmunk Story", and one episode that ended with The Chipmunks and Chipettes in jail and Dave bailing them out, while Alvin tried to stay put to avoid facing punishment and discipline from Dave... and to this day, I STILL haven't been able to identify that episode.

I had The Chipmunk Adventure taped on the Disney Channel from the 90s, but I bought the DVD when it came out, and the difference is ASTOUNDING, they did a great job restoring that movie, the colors are so much brighter and richer, and quality is much crisper and clearer, watching the taped version is like watching an old instructional film on a school projector. I did also buy SOME of the compilation DVD (namely The ALVINNN!!! Edition, The Best of The Chipettes, and the holiday specials), but I REALLY wish Bagdasarian Productions would release season sets on DVD already, even if they have to replace songs (which is tolerable), because they literally have been re-releasing the exact same compilations over and over and over again for years.

 

[TheWoodringman]

Yeah I wish they would release season DVD sets, I'd buy them.
Besides, whenever I write AATC fanfics, I mainly write for the 80's universe, I DON'T DO CGI-ERA FANFICS!

 

[D'Snowth]

I used to write Chipmunk fanfics too (http://simanetteworld.webs.com/fanfiction.htm): while I kept them mostly in the 80s universe, I did age them up to thirteen (they were eight from the series) because I wanted to further expand and develop the characters, and thirteen seemed like a good age to write them as.

I haven't written or read any fanfics in a while, so I don't know what the popular "trend" is right now, but for a while there, I saw a LOT of trends in fanfics: killing off Miss Miller, kidnapping Jeanette, and the slash couples... Dave and Brittany, Alvin and Eleanor, Alvin and Simon, Dave and Vinny, etc.