The Chipmunks

[Rugratskid]

I'll give them this. The original Paramount DVD's are out of print by now, clearly. At least this keeps those same episodes in circulation. I really wish they'd do something for older fans, but they're only interested in the 5 year olds that still like the movies.

I was just watching Theodore and Juliet, and think it's a very cute episode. Anyways, we are hoping they will do something, but I doubt it.

 

[D'Snowth]

I just want season sets, I don't care about song replacements at this point; yes, the editing is usually sloppy, and they pick the worst possible versions they have of songs to replace, but anything is better than iffy-quality episodes recorded off CN and uploaded, downloaded, reuploaded, redownloaded, rereuploaded so many times that they're almost unwatchable.

I'm also still waiting for updates on the new series they're supposedly working on; I'm kind of wondering since the new designs are a cross between the older cartoon designs and the CGI movie designs, what size are they going to be in relation to Dave and other humans? Will they be the size of actual chipmunks, or will they be more tot-sized, or what?

 

[JimAndFrank]

Okay first of all, I'd like to bring back up an earlier subject of this thread. The reason why Jason Lee had to back out of the Squeakuel was simply because of bad timing. He had already committed himself to a TV show and putting him in hospital was a clean way of still adding Dave in. Although I admit the movie could have been better.

 

[Drtooth]

I'll say this for the umptillionthscrabbadillionthfantastizillionth time...

They completely dropped the ball in having random Dave Nephew instead of Mrs. Miller. The character was everything that's wrong with the human characters in kid's movies. Flat and with a random love story to pretend to give the character some depth.

 

[JimAndFrank]

I agree with you about Dave's cousin, not nephew. Aunt Jackie wasn't Dave's sister, but his aunt which makes her Whatshisface's mother, but of course you can't tell that because the writers made yet another mistake that they could have easily avoided. Whatshisname never called Dave, 'Uncle Dave'.

Anyway, I was going to say more earlier, but I suddenly had to leave. I think that the franchise can still be salvaged. All it needs is a firm writing team who know what makes a great movie and some ORIGINAL songs. The characters have already been well established, but they still need to grow.

Instead of sticking to current music, which in my opinion is inferior anyway, they should explore different genres. Music is what the Chipmunks are supposed to be about, so why not make it as important to the story as the characters? I cringe every time they just insert a random song for the sake of it because that is what is expected. Let the music tell the story.

 

[Drtooth]

Instead of sticking to current music, which in my opinion is inferior anyway, they should explore different genres. Music is what the Chipmunks are supposed to be about, so why not make it as important to the story as the characters? I cringe every time they just insert a random song for the sake of it because that is what is expected. Let the music tell the story.

The Chipmunks have done music of all genres current and not current. The UndeniAble album was pretty much made out of older music... "All of the Small Things" was the most current (barring the new Ho Ho Ho piece). I don't see how it's a problem if they do new stuff. That's basically what the franchise has always been about. Covers of popular songs, and some original ones thrown in.

I think the movie Chipmunks need to go away for a while. All they have are gimmick plots to look forward to after Chipwrecked. They need an established television franchise. That's supposedly happening. They also need to release more albums of varied song genres. No single genre albums. Those are hit or miss.

 

[D'Snowth]

Anyway, I was going to say more earlier, but I suddenly had to leave. I think that the franchise can still be salvaged. All it needs is a firm writing team who know what makes a great movie and some ORIGINAL songs. The characters have already been well established, but they still need to grow.

Well, back in the day, Ross and Janice wrote practically everything themselves: the shows, the songs, the music, everything... unless it was Fox's doing, I don't know why they turned that department over to other people.

Then again, Janice supposedly wrote a draft for the Squeakquel, they didn't use it, then she sued them for not giving her a writing credit.

 

[Drtooth]

Which brings me to realize that it's a shame that the Chipmunks didn't cover this Weird Al original

 

[D'Snowth]

Of course, I've said it before, but I think the main problem with the movies, and the way the franchise in general has been handled as of late is I believe Ross and Janice are merely trying to make up for "lost time" so to speak since the fiasco with Universal where they didn't do any of the things they promised to do with the franchise back in the 90s... they're just not necessarily putting as much care or effort into their ventures like they did back when The Chipmunks were a regular part of mainstream media with cartoons, singles, albums, specials, and all that good stuff in the 80s. The movies could have been good, if they stuck to their own formula for storytelling and music, rather than employ gimmicks that so many movies use today to try to reboot old, somewhat forgotten franchises to today's audiences.

 

[Drtooth]

I've said it before, other than the completely screwed up casting on Dave's part (strangely enough, the poorly cast Ranger Smith's actor would have worked better), the first film was surprisingly well written, and had a brilliantly biting allegory to young start up musicians and what the record labels do to them. The second one was like watching a decent movie and a terrible one... I wouldn't be surprised if Jason Lee's lack of involvement lead them to clumsily rush out massive script changes that ruined an otherwise okay film. The third one was for 5 year olds and no one else. That's why it got a G rating, vs the PG rating of the other 2. There was some potential for a good story about Alvin and Co dealing with their celebrity (or lack thereof due to Dave's endless and enforced modesty), but they said, naaah... kiddy film.