DVD Review: Alvin Chipmunks The Chipettes
Paramount Home Video, Bagdasarian Productions
Jan 19, 2009
Following the modest success of the live-action-plus-CGI movie Alvin and the Chipmunks, Bagdasarian Productions and Paramount Home Video are releasing the 1983 - 1986 animated show to DVD in small increments. Previous home video releases included such titles as Trick or Treason, a Halloween-themed compendium.
Now the Chipmunks' female counterparts, The Chipettes, get their own eponymous release on DVD. However, the slipshod manner in which these Mulroney era cartoons are being packaged on home video is unfortunately appropriate to the material within. In short, these cartoons are neither funny nor entertaining.
What Are The Chipettes?
Sometime in the early 1980's, Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (son of The Chipmunks' creator, singer David Seville) and spouse Janice Karman decided to create some female counterparts to Alvin, Simon and Theodore as a way to increase the show's popularity and relevance to preteen girls.
Enter The Chipettes, three female chipmunks who quickly paired up with their male counterparts: Brittany was the exuberant leader of the group, Jeanette was the "absentminded professor" while Eleanor was athletic and self-confident. Karman provided the voices for all three characters.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Chipettes - Cheap DVD Transfer
"Omigod," a female friend said, viewing The Chipettes DVD box, "they're chipmunk sl*ts!"
Whoever designed the box cover dressed the distaff chipmunks in 80's era garb, but tarted them up considerably. Parents who categorically refuse to shop for their little princess's clothes at La Senza Girl might be turned off by Brittany's off-the-shoulder blouse and come-here-big-boy smile.
The animation is decent for the 1980's, but the state of the art has moved a long way since then. It doesn't help that the video transfer is cheaply done, and it shows. There's some graininess, the colours often change – due to certain parts of the film stock aging faster than others – and there are the occasional on-screen artifacts. Is it too much to ask that Bagdasarian and Paramount remaster this cartoon before releasing it onto DVD?
The stories attempt to bring a lot of energy, but they're not particularly funny and the characters aren't sympathetic. What can make the original Chipmunks borderline annoying goes even farther here: The Chipettes skip past annoying, dwell mostly in irritating, with the occasional stop at infuriating.
The episode "Sisters" features a similar storyline to "Trick or Treason," where a chipmunk (this time Brittany) must choose between family and being a part of the popular clique.
DVD Extras
There's only a preview for other Alvin and the Chipmunks DVDs, featuring the voice of Casey Kasem. Nothing else.
The Final Analysis
It's been said already that these DVDs are being rushed into stores in order to take advantage of the Twentieth Century Fox film, and fill the gap between it and its follow-up, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel, that will possibly feature The Chipettes.
However, fans of the movie won't be interested in this DVD set. The characters are obnoxious and annoying, and it's clear that the show creators simply wanted to tell certain stories over again, this time with new characters in the leading parts.
Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Chipettes gets a 3/10.
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