Tuesday, April 01, 2008

You've been Munk’d! Alvin & The Chipmunks DVD Giveaway

When the nice people at FOX (there’s a phrase I never thought I’d write) offered CPF some free copies of the brand new (out today, in fact) “Alvin and the Chipmunks” DVD, I said, sure. And why not? I know there are CPF readers who have kids, and I especially like the readers who don’t mind acting childishly. (Meet ya at the playground!) So let’s do this thing!

First, I’ll tell you why you might actually care. This is not a kid’s movie that spends a lot of time doing nudge-winks at parents with over-a-kid’s-head jokes (David Seville does have some pretty smart books on his end table, though). It’s straight-on CGI chipmunk mayhem and, but for an unfortunate “raisin” joke, there's little beyond safe Saturday morning cartoon style fun. If there’s any hipster quotient, it’s in the casting of eternal nice guy Jason Lee as struggling songwriter Dave Seville and eternal smartass David Cross as the (can you guess?) greedy record producer who exploits our singing chipmunk heroes. (Justin Long and Jesse McCartney provide character voices, but who can tell with the sped-up vocals?)



But even through the film has family-friendly, comfortably numb intentions, it becomes a rather spot-on indictment of the record industry despite itself. Seeing the wildlife trio decked out in track suits, performing “Witch Doctor” with headset mics, booty-shaking dancers and a rapping DJ, while their images are projected on stageside monitors to a rapt downtown crowd, you realize that Alvin, Theodore and Simon might as well be Britney, Ashlee and Milli Vanilli – although in this film, as in “Singing in The Rain,” the exposure of lip-sync cheating leads to a happy ending.



The subtle-as-a-sledgehammer moral of the film is Family Beats Fame. But there’s a subversive dismissal of the bland mass marketplace tucked in underneath. Combine that with a bonus feature focusing on the hard-working musicians behind the scenes, desperately trying to convince themselves that it’s not selling out if you really try to do your best, even if it’s selling sugar pop to kids. And believe me, as one who has toiled in the fields of children’s media (from working with the Muppets to Barbie magazine), I don’t begrudge them that fantasy at all. It's mine, too.

And who's to say who's delusional? I still have intensely fond memories of wrapping Christmas presents as a child with my family, hot cocoa and fresh cookies at my side, the ‘munks wonderful “Christmas Song” playing in the background. I doubt that “Alvin and the Chipmunks” is destined to become a kid classic, but it’s more fun than listening to Sonic Youth.

WANT A FREE COPY OF THIS DVD?

It’s simple. Tell Close Personal Friend a Chipmunk Memory – a moment where you enjoyed a Chipmunk song, TV show or even this recent film. Leave it in the comments section below. At the end of a yet-to-determined time period, if there are more comments than there are copies to give away, I will arbitrarily pick my favorites.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, I have always loved the Chipmunk album. My parents never actually owned it, or allowed it played in the house, so I had to wait to hear them on the radio. I think this gap in our family's library, and the hole it left in my childhood, led to a never ending fascination with talking and animatronic (is that the way it's spelled?)creatures, including a "Kung Foo Fighting" singing hamster that sounds an awful lot like dear Alvin. Sniff.

Marianne said...

Nicely played! Sally is our first winner. There are other copies of the DVD up for grabs, so send your Chipmunk Memory today!

emma said...

you mentioned it from when you were a kid, but my chipmunk memories are all wrapped up in "christmas, don't be late." it's one of my all time favorite christmas songs, and makes think of all different parts of the season- driving to get the tree, wrapping presents, decorating aforementioned tree, etc.

also, i have a VERY clear memory of watching "batmunk" in the basement of 1585 and watching simon scoot around gotham city to the tune of "danger zone."

(:

Anonymous said...

In my day, during the era of 45's, those vinyl discs that I played as as kid in Florida, I actually had a copy of the Chipmunk's Christmas song "Christmas Don't Be Late". I watched the cartoon too! My favorite chipmunk was Theodore. I would love to see and take the DVD to the house I now work in so the 6 developmentally disabled women could see and hear it also. As exercise, which is mandatory with many of the clients who live in the house we could dance away to the sounds of the beloved "Munks" and make them laugh over and over. These wonderful ladies don't seem to tire of the TV shows like "The Beverly Hillbillys" and "Leave It To Beaver" and really get a groove on dancing to "The Monkees".
Lisa

Mark said...

I heard the Chipmunks sing Beatles songs before I heard the actual Beatles sing them and thought the Beatles ripped off the Chipmunks. I was young..

Mark

John Weber said...

I remember owning a Chipmunk album as a kid. One of my favorite pass times was to rig the phonograph so I could turn the record by hand at slower than normal speed. My goal being to see what the humans behind the Chipmunk vocals sounded like. My recollection is that they sounded like the Monkeys singing very slowly, but it was many years ago...maybe it was more like Pat Boone.

Anonymous said...

I'm acting as an agent for my friend Lenny who has a number of grandchildren of the correct age. Unfortunately he was unable to figure out how to navigate to the blog from the web site.. sigh, my lot in life is to constantly explain how to use computers and software. Concerning chipmunks, I do consider chipmunks slightly less problematic than the squirrels that are permanently attached to my bird feeders however my FAVORITE fictional chipmunks are Chip & Dale, although I can't remember who had the red nose (distinctive feature).

As a kid I recorded the Christmas song on a reel-to-reel recorderat 7.5 IPS and played it back at 3.75 so I could listen to the actual singing voices of the "chipmunks". I'm guessing one of them was Dave Seville. Not easy to sing at that cadence though. I can imagine the recording session with 3 balding guys singing "I still want a hula-hoop". About the recorder.... I have been and continue to be a bit odd. Good luck to ALL the contestants. (I'm playing for Lenny)

John Morand said...

Most of my memories of chipmunks are from various cats leaving them on the doorstep for me through the years. :( I have 3 cats now and I would have them watch this DVD with my wife and I (they do watch TV, honest) and perhaps they will gain an appreciation for what these poor creatures have to go through, and develop more sensitivity towards them.

atrischitta said...

As a kid, I wanted to be a Chipmunk. Their voices were so cool, and they were just the best of friends. In the good old days, I would write scripts, with or without friends, include favorite songs, and then press "record" on the tape recorder. When I pressed "play," I would select a higher speed, thus completing my transformation into a true, authentic Chipmunk. I still have the old tapes. . .time to start looking!

Anonymous said...

Hmm, I thought I was odd until I noticed that both John Weber and DeeDee played around with playback speeds to hear the "real" voices. Those rodents could sing in tune because it was an octave higher, but the cadence was ridiculously slow. This wasn't the only record we had to experiment with. There was also the "Purple People Eater" a classic from Sheb Wooley I believe. ... and yes Viginia folks do read your blog.