Chipmunks VS. Star Wars · 12:19am Dec 8th, 2015
As some of you may be well aware, I am not a very big fan of Alvin and the Chipmunks. I absolutely despise the film series and the 2015 cartoon series is even worse. The problem with both of these installments is that the writing is as generic as you can get. No clever plot twists. No tweaking with old ideas and doing something new with them. No originality or creativity. No new ideas. No anything. So when the synopsis for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip came about, I was not the least bit surprised. Think of The Parent Trap, but with the Chipmunks instead of Lindsay Lohan. (Or Haley Mills if you’re not a big fan of the remake and like the original instead.)
For those of you who have never seen The Parent Trap, I’ll fill you in. Basically, it’s about these two twin sisters who were separated at birth, but they bump into each other at summer camp eleven years later. When they realize that they’re sisters and that the other has been living with the other’s parent after the parents split up, the two sisters hatch a plan to switch places so that they can meet the other’s parent. But things turn south when it turns out that the dad is getting remarried to a woman who isn’t exactly very friendly. In fact, the day she gets married to him, she plans on hauling the kid off to a foreign country. So the race is on for the kids to convince the dad to ditch the bitch and get back together with his old flame.
I’m pretty sure that even before The Parent Trap was written, this sort of plot had been done before. In fact, it was based on a book by Erich Kastner. So I’m sitting here wondering why the writers of The Road Chip are using this plotline. This is why I say that the writing for these films is extremely generic. This is all the same crap we’ve seen before, and I can’t stand it whenever someone uses the excuse,” So what? It’s for kids. Who cares?!” I care, because it seems some people like to use the excuse “it’s for kids” to mean that they don’t have to put forth any real effort or talent. This is why I love shows like Kim Possible and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Avatar: The Last Airbender. These shows are not made for kids; they’re made for a general audience. Even if you’re not a kid, you can still sit down and watch these shows and get a lot of enjoyment out of them. While I do feel like season five finale to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was so dark and depressing that it was uncomfortable, I really didn’t mind it because I like the fact that these writers are taking huge risks with their show; they don’t pull any punches when it comes to the dark stuff. They’re going to shove it in your face to the point where it makes you uncomfortable. I still get choked up whenever I listen to “The Pony I Want to Be” and “Smile Smile Smile” still puts a huge grin on my face. It cheers me right up!
It’s because of this why I can’t stand films like the Alvin and the Chipmunks series, because these writers seem to think that simply cramming in as many pop culture references and toilet humor is enough to get passed off as entertainment for kids. These writers aren’t clever or creative enough to write a compelling plot or give their characters any development. These films are basically made because the studio knows that they will make money no matter what they do. It’s junk food for your mind, a film you put on to keep the kids quiet. And I understand that as humans, we’re not always going to make the best choices in life. Some of us would much rather have a bag of chips over a celery stick. But, my God, give me a choice between Alvin and the Chipmunks or Avatar: The Last Airbender and I’ll choose the latter any day of the week.
Like I said, the writing in these films is extremely generic. I say this because the plotline for The Road Chip is basically that Dave is getting married to a woman that the Chipmunks do not approve of. Therefore, it is up to them to convince Dave to not go through with it. Hell, even Rugrats In Paris had this exact same plot, but there it was handled well because of the internal conflict Chuckie was going through with not having a mom. And at least Madame La Bouche was able to put on an act to convince Chaz into marrying her.
With talking about The Road Chip, I of course have to talk about another big film that’s coming out in a couple of weeks: Star Wars; The Force Awakens. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a Star Wars film in the theaters. The last one, I believe, was Revenge of the Sith. But, to my recollection, most people didn’t like that one, and with the fact that this film is being made by Disney, I highly doubt that this film is going to do anything to sway peoples’ opinion that the Star Wars franchise can still be salvaged, especially if it isn’t being headed by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. In any case, I imagine that this film is going to make a killing at the box-office, destroying any chance of The Road Chip ever making money.
I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan (it’s been forever since I last saw the films), but I would much rather watch this over The Road Chip, even if it is being made by Disney. Because we have a new Star Wars film coming out on the exact same day as The Road Chip, I imagine that The Road Chip isn’t going to make very much money. Literally no one is going to be interested in seeing this. Why would you want to go see this when you can pay to see the new Star Wars movie?
I hope to God that The Road Chip bombs at the box-office, so that we can make way for good films that have decent writing and good characters. I wish I could say the same for the television series, seeing as how no one ever talks about it, but I guess that’s just wishful thinking at this point.
The fact that they're releasing the film on the same day as the new Star Wars movie shows how little fate they have in the movie.
3601152 I agree. I don't see the new Chipmunks film making any money whatsoever. It's going to bomb at the box office, hard!
3601338 Let's hope so. I actually liked the first three movies, they were decent. But Shipwrecked is where it should've ended. The trailer alone gives away pretty much everything you need to know, and stuff like that Big Butts rap went out of style several years ago.
3601357 Ugh! I hate that song!
Actually Avatar and MLP are made for kids. The adult appeal is a nice bonus but kids appeal comes first.
Disney has done great work with the Marvel movies so they can be quite versatile. Also the general consensus is that Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels and the closest to the original trilogy. Also Georga's skills as a director is quite questionable.
3795998
Really? You could've fooled me, especially with Avatar. There's a lot of points where you have to say, "Wait, this is a kids' show? Really?" Unfortunately, Avatar is so good that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic pales by comparison.
3796414
It's more subtle. The colors and the behavior of the main characters are meant for kids to relate to.
Also you can't really compare FIM and Avatar. They are just too different. Avatar has a long, dramatic and violent story that is tightly written and who's characters go through hell and back. MLP is a light and loosely structured magical slice-of-life tale.
3796434
And that's why we all love the hell out of it!
3796586
Yes but that makes it so different from MLP that the two can't be compared.
3796763 True, but in terms of characters, story, and writing, Avatar is just better all around.
3798269
in terms of characters MLP is far superior to Avatar. However that makes sense since MLP is slice of life. It gives them far more time to flesh out the characters and develop them in complex ways. One thing that you keep doing is be so black and white.
3798666 No, the characters in Avatar are far more complex and interesting.
3798693
I don't know about interesting but the one of MLP are more complex. They actually have more different motivations and hobbies, they are very different reactions to different situations. The ones of Avatar are more simple, which makes sense for a adventure tale since complex personalities would get in the way.