Alvin and the Chipmunks (2015)

Alvin and the Chipmunks (stylized as Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks) is an American-French CGI-animated television series that first aired in France on March 30, 2015. It was created by Janice Karman, who also co-created the 1983 series with her husband, Ross Bagdasarian Jr.

Plot
Everyone's favorite chipmunks - Alvin, Simon and Theodore - are back in this computer-animated version of the classic animated series. The brothers are famous rock stars who tour around the world with their best friends, the Chipettes. The boys' father, Dave, writes their songs and tries to keep them in line - both on and off the stage. Alvin, the leader of the fraternal group, is always coming up with crazy schemes that often get him and his brothers in trouble. Oldest brother Simon is the smart one, using his intelligence to keep the group safe. Theodore may be the youngest of the three brothers, but he frequently comes up with powerful words of wisdom.

Why Dave Has No Temper

 * 1) Weak grasp of the source material: It misunderstands why the 1983 series was a timeless classic, despite having the original creators, Janaice Karman and Ross Bagdasarian Jr. in it. The atmosphere for this show has hardly any connection to the 1983 series at all, and it barely even has the Chipmunks singing.
 * 2) The re-designs of the Chipmunks are mediocre: although they tried to make the chipmunks look more like actual children, they look more like both their live-action designs (with the tails) and their original designs were merged into one design, creating a rather ugly result with the chipmunks looking like rodent-human hybrids. The clothing they are wearing is also too modern and looks almost nothing like the original (mostly for the Chipettes).
 * 3) *All of the human characters from the original TV show appear in this show, but they are also redesigned, making them look less like their original counterparts, especially the main human character, Dave Seville.
 * 4) They are also flanderized into having very generic personalities. At least, in the live-action franchise, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes were still likeable and kept their charm from the original series, as bad as the movies were:
 * 5) Alvin himself suffers the worst flanderization of all the characters, as he went from being quite mischievous and rude but innocent and relatable in the live-action franchise and 1983 series, to becoming a grating, selfish, self-absorbed, egotistical and sadistic jerkass. Good examples come from episodes like Liar Liar, where he lies to a kid that he has a brother in China and he even claimed that Dave was the one who spread the lie or in Back to School where after he, Simon and Theodore figured out that Dave never graduated from high school, Alvin starts becoming a bad influence to Dave. In fact, all these reasons make it more justified for Dave to yell at Alvin.
 * 6) *Along with that, he often tortures and manipulate his brothers (especially Theodore) in order to get his way, or try to pass the blame to them. Some major examples include:
 * 7) *#In "Talking Teddy", he gets tired of Theodore's Talking Teddy, so he gets Simon to make a keyboard so he can edit what Teddy says, but he goes to far, making Theodore do his chores and sell his money!
 * 8) *#In "Safety Third", he manipulates Simon into turning his bus project into a dangerous car that Dave won't buy for him. Then, when he steals the car, he breaks it, and tries to hide it by taking the actual car but ends up breaking it as well.
 * 9) *#In "The Great Snack Off", when Theodore gets candy stuck in his nose, instead of going to the doctor, he tries to get it out on his own in dangerous ways, such as stealing Simon's invention, which, as Simon said, literally could have blown Theodore's head off!
 * 10) *Not to mention, he is portrayed as the laughingstock of the series.
 * 11) Simon went from a supportive, smart, and likable character, into a generic, Butt-Monkey character who acts like a jerk to Alvin (though, this can basically be understandable due to Alvin mistreating him and Theodore most of the time). A good example comes from the episodes "Geizmo's Day Out" and "Spoiler-itis". Though, he still remains tolerable for the most part.
 * 12) Theodore, despite being flanderized the least, is also a notable Butt-Monkey, especially in episodes like "The Great Snack Off" or "Talking Teddy", and sometimes can be unlikable like when he steals food in "Allergic Reaction".
 * 13) Dave has went from a kind-hearted and a likable father who always punishes the Chipmunks for rightful reasons and care about them into a strict and selfish father which makes him very unlikable sometimes. Though, he still remains tolerable for the most part.
 * 14) The Chipettes are now unlikable jerks (with Brittany being the most unlikable of the bunch), who tend to abuse their male counterparts in a lot of episodes, particularly in the first season. Though, Jeanette is the least bad and still remains tolerable for the most part.
 * 15) The theme song, while it is the same theme from the 1983 series, can get annoying after a while; in addition, the theme has been slightly sped up and the middle verse is cut to accommodate more commercial time.
 * 16) Some continuity errors; the biggest example is in the episode "The Sub", Alvin claims that he's the middle child of the Seville family, when in the original series, he was the oldest.
 * 17) It overuses a lot of soccer player stereotypes.
 * 18) Sometimes it rehashes other concepts, for example, "Wax Dave" feels to similar to the 1983 series episode "Whatever Happened to Dave Seville?", as it involves Dave making a wax statue and the Chipmunks believing said statue is the real Dave.
 * 19) Quantity Over Quality: Like Teen Titans Go!, it lasted way too long despite the overall reception, having a total of 5 seasons, 127 episodes, and a lifespan of 7 years so far, showing how Nickelodeon is blind to the criticisms of the show.
 * 20) A lot of the female extras talk in a "Valley Girl" accent which can get obnoxious after a while.
 * 21) The soundtrack and most of the songs are rather forgettable, bland, and a bit annoying thanks to the poor pitch shifting.
 * 22) The CGI animation is rather weak, compared to the nice hand-drawn animation in the 1983 series, as it doesn't do a great job at translating the series to CGI as almost everything is extremely off in the show such as the poor character animations, plastic and fake designs for the characters, places, and objects, poor visuals that feel like they came from a mid 2000's CGI TV series, and a crappy frame rate that is rather slow-paced and barely sets up for the pacing in this show. Overall, it just looks generic.
 * 23) *Not to mention that the show sometimes reuses the same character models, for example, Mr Crabel had the same model as Mrs Smith but with different clothing and shorter hair.
 * 24) It has cheap and unpleasant humor, with a lot of mean-spirited moments (especially from Miss Smith and Dave), fart jokes and toilet humor.
 * 25) Annoying voice acting for the most part. Nearly all the characters speak with a lisp, an accent, high-pitched voices, and the characters constantly stutter for the most part.
 * 26) *Speaking of voice acting, the show recycles voice actors, resulting in many of the shows characters sounding like each other to a cringe worthy degree.
 * 27) There are also many animation errors:
 * 28) Eleanor somehow doesn't have her bag in the episode "Lice-enced to Teach".
 * 29) Many of the babies (except the robot babies in the episode "Baby Mama Drama") in this show have the exact same appearance, consisting of light skin, blonde hair, and a lilac onesie, as well as voice.
 * 30) Often at times, the chipmunks and their environment don't work. For example, the floor often changes just so the Chipmunks are visible.
 * 31) The promotional image of the series that you can see is bad because literally the characters and the setting are not even in sync it even looks like a green screen.
 * 32) Sometimes, they reuse scenes. For example, there are scenes where Brittany reorganizing the school files getting reused.
 * 33) When someone is about to tell the truth, the confession is skipped. "Candy Confessions" is the biggest offender of this.
 * 34) Overall, it's just forgettable as it has little to no depth that makes it admirable like the previous show.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Theodore is the only character who wasn't flanderized badly in the show. He still has most of his child-like food-loving personality from original show, although he was slightly flanderized, as seen in BQ#3.
 * 2) *And speaking of that, despite the other main characters being flanderized, they still remain their old and original personalities like in the classic series. Like a few examples:
 * 3) **Simon is still smart and supportive in the chipmunks, and is still tolerable most of the time.
 * 4) **Jeanette still has her timid, and shy yet caring personality, and is still tolerable most of the time (and is probably the least unlikable and the least jerkish of the chipettes).
 * 5) **Dave is still a caring and loyal father to his sons, and is still tolerable most of the time.
 * 6) **Alvin, despite of course being selfish and cruel, can actually be somewhat tolerable at times, though rarely.
 * 7) Despite what's said at BQ#14 and 15, there are some good voices, with Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (Dave, Alvin, and Simon) and Janice Karman (Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette) reprising their roles and a new voice actress, Vanessa Bagdasarian, replacing Karman as Eleanor. It's also impressive that the Bagdasarians are usually the only voice actors in the series.
 * 8) The series has been improving since Season 2 as the characters became more tolerable in later episodes, the gross-out humor is toned down (mostly), and some of the episodes are now tolerable, but it isn't perfect, as many of the flaws still remain.
 * 9) There are some good episodes like A Very Merry Chipmunk, The Littlest Robot, World Day, Warbie, Carts and Crafts, Ballet Boys, Ride Along, and Munk Man. In fact, several episodes have an entertaining amount of suspense/mystery like Good Luck Mr. Whiskers and Switch Witch.
 * 10) The theme song for the 1983 series is at least used, although the middle verse is removed.
 * 11) It contains little to no pop culture references and product placement, unlike the live-action movies.
 * 12) Despite the problems with the music, the songwriters did try to write new songs for every episode, instead of going with the traditional chipmunk style of covering popular songs by well-known artists.
 * 13) It's nice to see the Chipmunks back on TV after 25 years, even with the lackluster execution.
 * 14) There are some hilarious scenes and funny humor in this show.
 * 15) Some episodes taught good lessons and morals.
 * 16) *"The Great Snack Off", despite being a Theodore torture episode, does tell you that you shouldn't play the game where you throw food up in the air and try to catch it with your mouth because there will be consequences.
 * 17) While the animation is mostly mediocre and generic, it can be passable and fluid in certain scenes of the show.
 * 18) There are some good songs, like "Awesome Town", "We are the Champions", and "Fist Of Shining Gold".

Episodes with their own pages

 * 1) "Double Trouble"
 * 2) "Spoiler-Itis"
 * 3) "Blabber Mouth"
 * 4) "Monster Madness"
 * 5) "Germs"
 * 6) "Alvin Management"
 * 7) "The Great Snack Off"

Reception
Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks received negative reviews from critics and fans of the 1983 series. It scored a 4.5 on IMDb. It also has a 2.6/10 on Senscritique. Saberspark placed this on #6 on The Top 10 Worst Nickelodeon Cartoons.

Trivia

 * At one point, it aired on Nick Jr. and in other countries, though it is not a preschool show and absolutely not educational. This has since been corrected.
 * The animation is made by the same company that animated Sonic Boom and Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years (Under the name OuiDo! in Season 1, and Technicolor in Season 2 onwards).

Video
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