Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 – Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)

Directed by: Betty Thomas | 90 minutes | animation, comedy, family, music, fantasy | Actors: Jason Lee, David Cross, Zachary Levi, Bridgit Mendler, Kathryn Joosten, Kevin G. Schmidt, Brando Eaton, Chris Warren Jr., Aimee Carrero, Skoti Collins, Charice Pempengco, Anjelah N. Johnson, Lauren Cornell, Alexandra Shipp | Original voice cast: Anna Faris, Justin Long, Christina Applegate, Matthew Gray Gubler, Amy Poehler, Jesse McCartney

“The comeback of the year” headlines the posters announcing the new adventure of ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’. Fans of the first film get extra value for their money this time: not three, but six Chipmunks!

The first part (2007) was a sweet movie and the interaction between Dave (Jason Lee) and the Chipmunks worked well. In this part, Dave spends most of his time in the hospital, so don’t count on Jason Lee to spice things up a bit. Enter Zachary Levi as Cousin Toby. Anything other than playing games, however, has little chance of holding Toby’s attention, so the Chipmunks are hard-headed in his concern.

The world-famous rock stars are instructed by Dave to turn down their stardom and go to school, but they don’t feel like it at all. Toby is fine with it though: more time for him to play games, so Alvin, Simon and Theodore have to believe it anyway. The first day of high school is a horror. Although the girls are all unanimous fans of the cute animals, the most popular boy is jealous of the attention that normally goes to him and he launches a counter-offensive. The Chipmunks take a beating, but manage to escape the bully. Unfortunately, they have to meet with the headmistress of the school. Fortunately for the trio, this stern-looking director has a secret that she is willing to share with the musical animals.

Meanwhile, we’re introduced to the Chipettes: Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette, three singing Chipmunk girls, hoping to break through so they can meet Alvin & Co. They knock on the door of ex-Chipmunks manager Ian Hawk (David Cross), who sees his chance for revenge. The Chipettes are just as cute as the Chipmunks (though Alvin himself is quite annoyed with his self-conceit) and girls especially will run away with the captivating female singers.

The humor in this sequel, pardon squeakquel, is slapstick: ideal for children aged seven to twelve. They are trapped by a lady in a wheelchair, who bounces backwards a double staircase and about Dave who is launched from left to right across the stage by a stupid action by the slightly lifted Alvin during a benefit concert that opens the film. and breaks both his legs. And that in the first ten minutes! Also hilarious in that respect is of course the toy bike that pops in just the right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it) spot between Ian’s legs. Incidentally, the Chipmunks themselves cannot escape falls and bumps, especially Simon.

It’s a shame it’s not well acted. The actors can’t hide the fact that they don’t see the computer-generated Chipmunks at all and so they just go for the ‘better exaggerated than understated’ approach. The characters are as flat as a deflated helium balloon; especially Levi, who gets by far the most screen time, knows how to make dramatically little of Toby. Cross succeeds best in convincingly portraying his character. The humor is, as said, of a questionable level. Also, the story is very thin. So a squeakquelling. Positive points are the CGI and the music, although in a movie with six singing Chipmunks a song or more could have been liked. But who cares: the target audience will really enjoy themselves with this substandard film. Learning for a six, that’s what it’s called in high school.