Alvin and the Chipmunks [2007] – Blu-ray Disc
March 29, 2008 – 12:09 AM - Posted by: Justin Sluss
has an average rating of 5.7 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 25gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
include only 2 short featurettes
– 
– 2007
– 91 minutes
– FOX
Buy it for $27.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by Justin Sluss
The Movie Itself is based on the characters created originally back in 1958 by Ross Bagdasarian. “The Chipmunks” started out as a recording experiment with the songwriter who recorded his voice and would then in turn speed it up. It all started with a song called “Witch Doctor” that was a huge success, tons of records, two animated television shows (“The Alvin Show” which aired in the 60′s and “Alvin and the Chipmunks” that aired the 80′s). This new big screen adaptation is a blend between live-action and CGI animation for the chipmunks themselves. This at first is obviously going to leave a lot of people “on the fence” so-to-speak about wanting to see the characters they grew up with being brought back in this manner, so it’s no surprise this film was subject as much negative criticism as it was but also ended up making over $200 Million in the box office during it’s theatrical run.
The story revolves around a guy named “Dave Seville” (played by Jason Lee who’s a struggling songwriter trying to make it big in Los Angeles. He takes his demo CD to a record company where one of his friends “Ian Hawke” is a producer. Ian gives Dave‘s demo a good 20 seconds listen and simply tells him it’s crap and to come back when he’s got something better or give up on music entirely. Dave opts for the later choice as he returns home he proceeds to throw out all of his musical equipment. What our lead character doesn’t know is that the Christmas tree that was in the record company’s lobby used to be the home to three chipmunks that hitched a ride with the tree and now have hitched a ride along with him in a basket full of muffins he decides to steal on the way out. He’s not sure if he’s losing his mind or not when he’s confronted by three talking chipmunks. The boys say their names are “Alvin” (voiced by Justin Long), “Simon” (voiced by Matthew Gray Gubler) and “Theodore” (voiced by Jesse McCartney). They try to impress Dave into letting them stay with him by showing him their singing skills which immediately makes a lightbulb go off in his head to take them to the record producer Ian. This proves to be at first a major embarrassment but later becomes the plot twist to the film once “The Chipmunks” record their first song and start to become popular.
This attempt to try to bring back the characters most of us grew up watching in Saturday morning cartoons is by far nothing new. I mean look at it this way, last year we had both “Ninja Turtles” and “Transformers” being turned into motion pictures so it really comes as no surprise that Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. (son of the creator) would give a major studio the rights to this. I’m like most all of you here and really not happy with the result we get or the idea itself to begin with. I’m a fan of both Jason Lee and David Cross so I have to say that’s one thing that attracted me to the film even despite the idea of them turning the chipmunks into CGI characters. Lee and Cross give good comedic performances but it’s just not enough to really pull this off as a success with it’s target audience of the 20 something crowd. The movie found it’s audience mostly with the parents taking their kids to see it during the theatrical run and I predict that to be who will really be the majority of consumers that buy on home video (be it Blu-ray Disc or DVD).
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte Single-Layered Blu-ray Disc). First off I’ll state the decision to use a BD-25 was wise considering the film’s 91 minute runtime and short amount of bonus materials. The High Definition transfer found here looks really nice with only a slight bit of film grain and noise present. The transfer holds a very solid black level, excellent flesh tones and a nicely vibrant color palette. The amount of detail present is pretty impressive here and doesn’t seem to make the CGI animation show any weak spots, in fact the blend seems to work visually quite well. This really surprised me visually I’ll honestly admit I didn’t have the highest expectations on this release in any department but the video quality really shines through here. This is easily worthy of a “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality. It’s with that being said, it’s a shame that film and audio quality are nowhere on this level.
Audio Quality on this release is in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. Usually you go into a film like this and you come to a realization that the dialogue is going to be just as important as being able to understand as the musical numbers (“songs” as they call them) but this is not totally the case here. I won’t say that FOX is to blame in any way what-so-ever for this, I’ll say that it’s actually the fault of the people who worked on the music to the film. You’ll get to see them if you watch the bonus featurette “Hitting the Harmony” that focuses on the making of the musical numbers in the film. The score on the other hand at times really does do what a score is supposed to do and set the vibe of the film so I will give it credit there.
By this point I’d think you’d realized that I didn’t care for the music in this at all nor did at it sound clear enough to me to be able to make out what was being sung in the dozens of vocal tracks. The one guy that worked on the music to the film says this is a “wall of sound” in the bonus materials that show how they made the music. I’d totally have to agree with him that this is at times “a wall of sound” but by no means is that a good thing here. It just leads to a headache and having no clue what earlier “Chipmunks” song you heard redone unless it’s the one Christmas song that manages to come across decent. Aside from the music element and dialogue this does at times contain somewhat lifelike sound effects for things such as rain, thunder and so forth. It’s by no means the worst DTS HD I’ve ever heard but at the same time it’s not really one of the best either, it manages to get the job done and that’s all. This only earns itself a “3 Star Rating” for overall audio quality on this Blu-ray Disc release from FOX.
Bonus Materials are presented in 480p (Standard Definition) in 16:9 Widescreen with Dolby Digital stereo sound.
- “Chip-Chip-Hooray” (12 minutes) is a history of “The Chipmunks” told by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. who’s father originally created the characters back in 1958. He talks about the 50′s version of the characters which appeared in the animated series “The Alvin Show” and the 80′s animated series “Alvin and the Chipmunks” that he revived after his father passed away. He talks about what his goals were in having this movie made and I guess I understand where he’s coming from aside from wanting to make some money, he’s carrying on his father’s legacy to a degree.
- “Hitting the Harmony” (9 minutes) is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the music that you heard in the film. You get initially introduced to the people who worked on the music and can finally put faces to your headache and/or dislike for this film at the same time. It’s really sad how these people (mainly the guy who hogs up the interview) really thought that they could re-create or TOP what Ross Bagdasarian had created 50 YEARS AGO. If you look at the people who worked on this movie like the Director, Writers and Actors you’ll find that most everyone will agree those responsible for ruining this flick are the people you see in this featurette. The idea of a “wall of sound” can sometimes be a good thing but in this case you get dozens of multi-tracked vocals that leave you wondering what you’re hearing sung to you.
Overall these bonus materials are just way too short, clocking in at only 21 minutes and in standard definition (480p) this really isn’t too much of a bonus. Sure, it beats nothing which FOX has been known to love to offer on their Blu-ray Disc releases in the past but I doubt anyone is going to really end up watching these if they can even make it through the movie itself. Not impressed here at all in terms of bonus materials, safe to say.
