Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) on Netflix
PG20071h 32mAnimationComedyFamily
Alvin, Simon and Theodore are singing chipmunks shipped to Los Angeles in a Christmas tree. They end up with songwriter Dave Seville, who takes them in to sing his songs.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb5.3/10107,480 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes29%
Trailer
Plot summary
When JETT Records buys a fir tree for Christmas and has it trucked to Los Angeles, its three residents, the chipmunk brothers Alvin, Simon and Theodore, leave it and follow Dave Seville home. Dave is a songwriter whose latest demo was turned down by Ian Hawke, the label's chief executive and his former college roommate, who suggested he quit. A scuffle knocks Dave out, and when he comes to he orders the chipmunks out, then hears them sing. They agree to perform his songs in return for food and shelter. Stage fright spoils their first meeting with Ian, and Dave loses his day job after they ruin his presentation boards. Dinner with his former girlfriend Claire ends badly while he tries to keep the three of them hidden.
Cast
- Allison Karmanas Female Intern #1
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Comedians Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn both turned down the villain role of Ian; Oswalt joked on his blog that they threw the script across the room in disgust and "David Cross caught it," to which Cross replied he had rejected the role initially before reconsidering.
- A live-action Chipmunks film almost happened a decade earlier, with Robert Zemeckis assigned to direct and Steven Spielberg producing for Universal Pictures in June 1997, until the estate of Ross Bagdasarian Sr. sued Universal in September 2000 over licensing and the project was put on hold.
- The Chipmunks trace back to Ross Bagdasarian, who in 1958 used the pseudonym David Seville and speed-altered vocals to create the novelty hit "Witch Doctor"; its success, including topping the Billboard charts, inspired him to apply the same recording trick to invent Alvin, Simon and Theodore.
- Seville's house was built at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood as a tribute to Bagdasarian Sr., with the upright piano he wrote his songs on and a flower he painted, an address number containing 1958, the year he created the characters, and a design based on a cottage built in 1919, the year he was born.
- To create the sped-up chipmunk voices, the voice actors spoke their lines slowly so they could be sped up to normal speed in post-production; McCartney described it as a "tedious process", saying "it could take 40 takes for one line."
- The film's home release sold 7.5 million DVD units, worth $127.6 million, making it the third-best-selling DVD of 2008 in the United States, behind only The Dark Knight and Iron Man.
- A long list of comedy names, among them Chevy Chase, Tim Allen, John Travolta, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Paul Rudd, Vince Vaughn, Jim Carrey, James Marsden and Bill Murray, were originally considered for the role of David Seville.
- The Chipmunks' debut song, "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)", sold over 4 million copies and won multiple Grammy Awards, making the characters a real recording act long before this film.
