Let's Watch This: An Episode of "ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

Reboots are a tricky thing. More and more of them are coming out, be they movies or TV shows, for the sole reason that reboots of pre-established things that were successful in the past are less risky than making something new. Problem is, many times these reboots are handled by people who didn't have any involvement with the original show, so there's the chance that they won't understand what made the original show good.

This is especially true of cartoons. When a reboot of a cartoon show is bad, it's preeeeeeeeetty bad. Let's see... there's the 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls, where Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup barely fight crime, attend middle school despite still being five years old, and have been Flanderized to absurd levels (not to mention that Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, and E.G. Daily weren't asked to come back and yet Tom Kenny, Jennifer Hale, and Roger L. Jackson were). There's also that crappy George of the Jungle reboot that I've already looked at. And the less said about Jellystone! (assuming that qualifies as a reboot), the better.

On the other hand, you have the flawed but surprisingly pretty good Wacky Races reboot. You have the acclaimed 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. You have the Muppet Babies reboot, which I've seen very little of but have heard good things about (and what little I've seen of it I liked). I'm not sure the exact reason why some reboots work out but some don't. Maybe it all comes down to who you put in charge of it?

Anyhow, you're probably familiar with Alvin and the Chipmunks. That trio of squeaky-voiced rodents who look more like furry toddlers with some rodent features than actual chipmunks.

Seriously, when you come down to it, they look nothing like actual chipmunks.

They were created in 1958 by Ross Bagdasarian, and made their animation debut in the 1960s series The Alvin Show (I'm not sure why Alvin got top billing). But it wasn't until the 1980s that the Chipmunks really became popular, with another cartoon called Alvin and the Chipmunks premiering in 1983 and receiving eight seasons. This series introduced the Chipmunks' love interests, the Chipettes. Then in 1987, the Chipmunks starred in their first theatrical movie, The Chipmunk Adventure... which I'll probably be reviewing some other time.

After a few years of not much happening with the Chipmunks, this came out:

And it was a big hit. And, confession time: I actually went to see it in theaters. Sorry. And then there was a sequel, which I did NOT go see in theaters. And then there was a THIRD movie, which I did go see in theaters (in hindsight, I really should've asked to go see The Muppets instead). All three made mucho moolah at the box office, so surely the time was right for a new Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon. And so...

March 2015 saw the premiere of ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks on Nickelodeon. This was the first Chipmunks production to be animated entirely in CGI, and as a result the Chipmunks and Chipettes got redesigns - in addition to giving Alvin, Simon and Theodore actual hair and putting the characters in more "modern" clothing, they sort of merged the original "furry toddler" looks with the movies' realistic chipmunks that actually looked like chipmunks, but I'm not sure how well that worked out. I'll give them credit for trying, though.

They look like the missing link between chipmunk and human. In fact, they might look even MORE
human now.

As far as the show's premise goes, it's basically the same thing as the 1980s series - Alvin (voiced by Ross Bagdasarian Jr.), Simon (also Ross Bagdasarian Jr.), Theodore (Janice Karman), Brittany (Janice Karman), Jeanette (Janice Karman), and Eleanor (Vanessa Karman) still live amongst humans, they still sing, Alvin's still causing trouble, their adopted father and manager Dave Seville (Ross Bagdasarian Jr.) is still there to chew him out for doing so, blah blah blah. The show, if you can believe it, ran until 2023 (in America, that is - in France it ran until 2022).

I remember watching episodes of this reboot when it came out, but eventually just... stopped. I think there was only so many times I could watch Alvin cause trouble and get his comeuppance for it before the show became repetitive. I don't really see people talk about it online, and when they do, it's mainly to discuss how creepy the characters look. Here are the episodes I remember seeing...

- The one where Alvin uses Theodore's teddy bear to take advantage of him
- The one where Alvin has the hots for his principal
- The one where Simon becomes the school's safety supervisor and Alvin (again) takes advantage of it

And I don't think I've watched it since then. What say we watch the fourteenth episode, which consists of the segments "Safety Third" and "Mister Manners", to see which category of reboots ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks falls into?

We start off with Alvin behind the wheel of a really, really, really, really, really cool car. Isn't Alvin a bit young to have a driver's license? Or are the rules of drivers' licenses and who's allowed to have one different for chipmunks?

"Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer, he's a demon on wheels..."

Actually, this is all happening in Alvin's imagination... he's actually looking through the window of a toy shop at the car they have for sale - the X-Class 47. He really wants it, but Dave shows him an article in the newspaper about how kids have been injured thanks to the car's faulty accelerator. If it's so dangerous, why the heck was the toy store selling it? Why hasn't it been recalled? Is the toy store owner just an idiot?

Honestly, CGI Dave is even creepier-looking than the Chipmunks...

So no X-Class 47 for Alvin, Dave says. Alvin attempts to show him that ANYTHING can be unsafe if you don't know what you're doing, but of course it doesn't do any good. Dave and his creepy cheekbones will not let Alvin get that car.

Alvin heads down to the basement, where he sees Simon and Theodore working on a project. Alvin asks what they're doing, and Simon says, "Nothing that concerns you." Jeez, Simon, way to be a pill. Then he tells Alvin that he can help by sitting in the corner and not touching or saying anything. Was Simon always this hostile?

Also, is it just me, or does Theodore now look a lot like Jesse McCartney? I guess their mindset was that since Jesse did Theodore's voice in the movies, they could have Theodore look like him in the show even though it's not Jesse doing the voice here? Or maybe it's just me...

"Hey, Simon! Herp-a-derp!"

Simon says that it's a project for his auto mechanics class. What grade are the Chipmunks in? I don't recall any of my schools having an auto mechanics class. I looked it up, and apparently some high schools do have auto mechanics classes... are the Chipmunks in high school? I think they went to high school in one of the movies... this just raises further questions.

Anyhow, the assignment is to recreate the car of their dreams. Simon's is a solar-powered bus. And now that Alvin's involved, he's of course going to take over the project - which means that he's gonna make Simon build a replica of the X-Class 47 instead of a solar-powered bus.

If Simon can build a car like that in a DAY, why on Earth is he just part of a band? Why
doesn't he have a job at Toyota or Nissan?

Early the next morning, while Simon sleeps, Alvin takes the car out for a joyride. Arriving at the toy shop, he gets out of the car and brags to the X-Class 47 in the window that he doesn't need it because he's got his own version... wait, doesn't this technically make Simon's car a bootleg?

But what's this? Alvin forgot to put the car in park, and it winds up sliding into the street. Where it is destroyed by a bus. Alvin thinks that he and Simon are both toast, but then the toy shop owner carries the X-Class 47 out of the store and throws it in a dumpster. And in the words of Django from Ratatouille, it's not stealing if nobody wants it.

And remember that article about the car's faulty accelerator? Well, Alvin is reminded of that the hard way...

"Clear the way, Nick logo!"

Eventually, the car winds up flying through the front door of Dave's house, up the stairs, out a window and into the pool outside. Fortunately, Alvin jumped out the car went out the window. He tells Simon that, uh, he was just, uh, testing out the car he built (this part isn't technically a lie) and it went crazy. Simon laments that he should've tested it himself to see if it was faulty, but then a sticker reading "X-Class 247, Tech Toys" floats to the surface of the pool and Dave pulls it out. Uh oh, it looks like Alvin has some explaining to do...

Also, I think I've figured out why the Chipmunks look so much more human than they did before - it's the skin tone-colored fur. They've always had that, which is part of the reason they've never looked particularly rodent-like, but in this bad textureless CGI, the skin tone-colored fur looks even more like skin. And giving them actual hair just makes it stand out more.

In fact... IS that even supposed to be fur? Or is it just skin?

So now Alvin's in trouble. Luckily, Simon's teacher believed him and gave him the second chance to build his original vehicle. And, since Dave is making Alvin assist him... even though that's how this whole mess got started in the first place, so when you come down to it this is just as much his fault as it is Alvin's... Alvin's made a few modifications to Simon's blueprints, demonstrating that he's basically learned nothing.

Though, to be fair, that WOULD be a really cool bus.

Next segment...

Alvin tells Simon, Theodore, and Dave that there's some contest going on where the winner gets a date with Princess Kate of England. I take it this "Princess Kate" is meant to be Catherine, Princess of Wales, though the image of her they show us doesn't look much like her.

Was Princess Catherine at any point a blonde?

Alvin wants to win the contest because he so totally has the hots for Princess Kate (apparently he doesn't know that Catherine is married), and then Brittany shows up and makes it clear that she wants to win the contest too. What the heck? Did she just walk into the house unannounced? We didn't even hear the door open.

There's also a Running Gag here about how Alvin doesn't know how to pronounce "knight in
shining armor". It is not funny.

Fortunately, you can enter the contest as many times as you'd like. Because that's totally how contests work, right? So Alvin and Brittany enter the contest multiple times. After the montage, Alvin gets a visit from Kate's lady in waiting, Mrs. Flaversham. Amusingly, even SHE can't tell what species Alvin is.

"I'm a lady in waiting, and I'm WAITING for you to let me IN!





Do you know how long I've waited to make that joke?"

As it turns out, Mrs. Flaversham is there to see both Alvin AND Brittany. Alvin won the contest with twelve hundred and three entries, and Brittany is the runner-up with twelve hundred and two entries. But in order to meet Kate, Alvin must first pass the "Manners Test" and prove that he is Mr. Wonderful Manners. If he fails, Brittany is dubbed the winner... if SHE passes the test as well.

First, Alvin must identify all of the different spoons, knives, and glasses used for eating in hoity-toity restaurants. Normal people like us, of course, don't give a rat's tail about manners, so we just use ONE fork, ONE knife, ONE spoon etc. for eating. Alvin fails miserably at it, but Brittany pulls it off, and we are treated to another montage.

After the montage, Mrs. Flaversham tells Alvin that she is not convinced he has mastered ettiquite. For the final test, he must accompany Brittany on a date. Oooooooh, Alvin and his female counterpart going on a date. I can only see THIS ending well...

I hope Wallace doesn't mind that Alvin raided his closet...

After taking a needlessly long time to get ready, Brittany proceeds to make the date extremely difficult for Alvin. And Mrs. Flaversham is apparently an idiot, because she doesn't pick up on this. Like, at one point when they get to the cafe, Alvin gets her a glass of the finest juice (because there aren't any waiters at this cafe, it would seem) and she blatantly tips it over and douses him with it, saying "Oops." in the most blatant yeah-I-did-this-on-purpose tone of voice and she does nothing. This is around the time that Alvin snaps like a twig and subjects Brittany to a well-deserved pie in the face.

I don't know if we're supposed to be on Alvin's side here or not, but y'know what? I am.

Alvin and Brittany get into a food fight, and after Mrs. Flaversham gets a pie in the face as well, she storms out of the cafe, a pretty good indicator that neither of them will be meeting the princess. Fortunately, Brittany explains everything to her off-camera, which means that Alvin gets to meet the princess after all. Oh, and it turns out Alvin is allowed to bring a guest. Which basically means that all of Brittany's efforts to sabotage him were for nothing. But Alvin's still going to make her work for it.

What's the Verdict?

As a reboot of the 1980s cartoon, ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks gets the job done. The voice actors do a good job, some of the jokes are kind of funny, nobody is drastically out of character. But as a whole, I'd dub the show mediocre. Most of that, admittedly, is on the really uncanny-looking CGI. Rule of thumb - if a Nickelodeon show is CGI, it's not gonna look too great. The Chipmunks look freaky, I get what they were going for but if anything they might actually look even LESS rodent-like than before. On top of that, there's way too much of an emphasis on Alvin causing trouble. I don't recall him being THIS much of a pest in the original cartoon (then again, I haven't watched the original cartoon in a while).

So, yeah, I'd say fans of the Chipmunks would like this show, but unless you're a HUGE Alvin enthusiast, I'd say there are better cartoons worth your time. Maybe I'm the wrong person to say that, though, I'm not really a Chipmunks fan myself. Well, I do like Theodore, but that mainly stems from the fact that he's adorable.