Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) (2009)

When Ross Bagdasarian Sr. created the Alvin and the Chipmunks, I often wonder if he knew at the time of how popular those characters, their music and the animated series would be for American pop culture.

Popular for the music, it was in 1961 when the three went from being puppets to an animated show. Bagdasarian using his stage name Dave Seville, the music composer and father/caretaker of three talented chipmunks who tend to get into a little mischief. The animated series "Alvin and the Chipmunks" is one of those animated series that has been part of the childhood of several generations. An even more animated series continued throughout the '80s and '90s.

And as "Alvin and the Chipmunks has been a part of the childhood of children for five decades, for this generation of children, they are now getting acquainted by Alvin, Simon and Theodore through their animated CG films. And what a remarkable success the first film had been for Twentieth Century Fox as "Alvin and the Chipmunks" made over $361 million worldwide (the budget of the film was $60 million).

Needless to say, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" earned their right for a sequel and before Christmas 2009, the $75 million dollar sequel "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" made even more money than the first earning over $442 million worldwide and now, this popular film which introduces us to the female chipmunks ala "The Chipettes": Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette and featuring more star-power providing the voices for the characters.

VIDEO:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" is presented in 1080p High Definition (Widescreen 1:85:1). Immediately, the first thing that catches your attention is the wonderful CG animation of the chipmunks and how they flawlessly work with the real life backgrounds and props.

Many scenes are shot outdoors and with very good lighting indoors that a lot of the detail can be seen in the trees, the plants, outdoor areas to the pores in the skin of the humans and of course, seeing the fur of the chipmunks with such detail. The film looks absolutely vibrant and detail is very good for this film. Skintones are natural, blacks are nice and deep and I saw no problems with artifacts, DNR or blurring.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 5.1 Dolby Digital Descriptiive Audio and Spanish/French 5.1 Dolby Digital. The film is dialogue and music driven through the center and front channel speakers. But there are special effects such as Alvin tossing a Wiimote into the TV, a wheelchair falling off Toby's car and various sound effects like that. Surround channels tend to utilize the crowd ambiance much more in the film.

But since the film is primarily dialogue and music driven, dialogue is clear and understandable while the music definitely comes alive with the lossless audio soundtrack.

Subtitles are presented in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" features the following special features:

* Munking History: 50 Years of Chipmunk Mischief, Mayhem & Music (09:20) A special feature on the creation of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and various clips of the chipmunks in animated format.

* Munk Music Machine Allows viewers to select only the music-based portions from the film.

* Meet the Chipettes (8:35) The Chipette voice talent Amy Poehler, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate talk about their characters and how and why Janice Karman created the Chipette's.

* Rockin' Rising Stars (6:20) A featurette about the inclusion of the band Honor Society and singer Charice Pempengco into the film and their experience of working on a film.

* Music Mania (9:02) The making of the music competition segment in the film.

* Meet the Stuffies (3:08) The cast and crew talk about their experience working with the "stuffies".

* Shake Your Groove Thing! with Rosero (8:59) Choreographer Rosero and crew show off choreography for the song "Shake Your Groove Thing!".

* Music Videos & Sing-Alongs Featuring sing-alongs for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," "We Are Family",

and "Shake Your Groove Thing".

* Music Videos "You Really Got Me" featuring Honor Society & "The Song" featuring Queensberry.

* A-l-v-i-n-n-n-n!!! Album Maker A feature that allows one to create an Alvin and the Chipmunks (or Chippetes) album maker. Your creations can be saved.

* Music In A Nutshell: Song Trivia While watching the film, viewers can watch the film with song trivia.

* The Chipmunks: Behind the Squeaking (9:40) A documentary like featurette about life outside of the movie. Talent and crew talk about their experience of working with Alvin, Simon and Theodore.

* A-NUT-omy of a Scene (2:39) How the stuffed animals are used for the choreography portions on the film to help guide the animators and the talent.

EXTRAS:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" comes with a DVD and a digital copy of the film. The DVD is presented in widescreen 1:85:1, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 5.1 Dolby Digital Descriptive Audio, Spanish and French Dolby Surround. Subtitles are in English SDH, Spanish.

The digital copy works with portable Media Players and works with iTunes.

JUDGMENT CALL:

I grew up with "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and can easily remember watching the television series during my younger years and have watched a fair share of the anime series on DVD as well, introducing it to my seven-year-old son who absolutely loves the first film.

Sure enough, we watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and he was laughing and enjoying the film. As for me, I enjoyed the humor of the film and granted, I may not be the intended demographic for this film, but as a parent, watching my son and seeing him enjoy characters that I grew up with as a child was definitely a fun, family moment. In fact, he enjoyed the film so much that we watched it for a second time (along with the wife) and continued to laugh at the jokes and hijinks... "the dutch oven" joke was just hilarious!

I definitely enjoyed the picture quality of this Blu-ray release and how alive the lossless audio soundtrack (especially from the music) coming through my speakers. Needless to say, there are plenty of music featured in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and again, watching my son bop to the songs, I have no doubt that this film will do the same for the children watching this film. Also, for parents, there are plenty of special features and fun sing-a-longs and if you are commuting, you also get a DVD and digital copy of the film as well.

Overall, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" was an entertaining film which I enjoyed much more over the first film. The addition of the Chipettes was pretty cool and definitely enjoyed the animation and overall storyline for this sequel. As mentioned earlier in my review, there is a good number of star power in this film and a lot of of music covers. Definitely interesting to see "Chuck" actor Zachary Levi in a more comedic role and also to see Filipino singer Charice Pempengco jamming on the film as well! But of course, the star power behind the voices of Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Chipettes did a wonderful job. For Amy Poehler, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate, the three did a wonderful job.

If you are a parent looking for a fun, family film...you can't go wrong with "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" and if you are an adult who grew up with Alvin and the Chipmunks, you'll definitely enjoy this film as well! Definitely recommended!

With all the kid films that are unbearable for adults, it's nice to find films that you can watch with your children and actually enjoy! Both the original and this sequel are just such films. The stories are cute, but not so dumb-ed down that you can't stay interested in them. The chipmunks are adorable and they are funny with fantastic CGI work. This one isn't quite as good as the first film(what sequels are?), but it is certainly a very fun movie for the whole family. Too bad Jason Lee phoned this one in, it was certainly worth his time. I give this one 3 stars for adults and 4 stars for the kids!

Buy Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) (2009) Now

Alvin, Simon and Theodore end up in the care of Dave Seville's twenty-something nephew Toby. The boys must put aside music super stardom to return to school, and are tasked with saving the school's music program by winning the $25,000 prize in a battle of the bands. But the Chipmunks unexpectedly meet their match in three singing chipmunks known as The Chipettes. Though the Chipmunks are confident they have the songwriting skills to steamroll the competition, a newly formed singing trio dubbed the Chippettes promises to give them some stiff competition on-stage. Brittany, Eleanor, and Jeanette are indeed the real deal, and the closer the competition gets, the more Alvin, Simon, and Theodore realize that in order to win, they'll have to give it everything they've got. This is a great movie. If you liked the first one you will like this one. Your kids will love it and thats what the movie is for.

Read Best Reviews of Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) (2009) Here

It's a kids movie. My first grader liked it. That's worth 4 stars. Very high "cuteness factor." Lots of energy and silly antics, of course (isn't that expected from Chipmunks?). Appealed to her and she was happy w/ the experience. I thought it was a little long (7 yo got wiggly) and the story was choppy, but I'm an adult, so who cares? :) We saw it at a dollar movie theater, so I couldn't feel bad about the value. Might be worth adding to a kids video library, but it won't be a top ten favorite, in my opinion.

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I've seen the first chipmunk movie. It was okay, kinda cute. But I slowly began to hate it because it seemed like everywhere I went, the movie was playing! It got annoying, there are only so many times you can here the Chipmunk Christmas song.

Now when I saw the teaser for the second movie with my family, we all laughed at it, and I automatically knew I wanted to see it. The first one may have been annoying at times, but this one was going to have the chipettes in it, so it should be a little bit better (I've always been a chipettes fan), and.... I was right.

This movie was way better than the first one. It had humor, action, and some good lessons about family and friends. And the chipmunk romance made me smile. I liked the songs too, especially the songs the chipettes sang. The song at the end, "We Are Family" was so catchy, I uploaded it to my iPod a week later!

I loved it, and if you need another reason to see it, my 7 year old cousin enjoyed it too. So, kids love it, and I (a teen) love it. If you need a good family film, watch this movie (I'm not sure about the original, although you should probably watch it before this movie so you aren't confused).

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