Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked


Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked is a 2011 American live action/computer animated musical family comedy adventure film directed by Mike Mitchell. It is the third live action/animated film starring Alvin and the Chipmunks following the 2009 film ', which was a sequel to the 2007 film Alvin and the Chipmunks. The film stars Jason Lee, David Cross, and Jenny Slate with the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Amy Poehler, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate. It was distributed by 20th Century Fox and produced by Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises and Bagdasarian Company. The film was released on December 16, 2011 and grossed $343 million on an $80 million budget. A fourth live action/animated film, ', was released on December 18, 2015.

Plot

Two years after, Dave, The Chipmunks, and The Chipettes go on a vacation on a Carnival Dream heading to the International Music Awards. The Chipmunks and the Chipettes, especially Alvin, end up creating pandemonium. Later that night, after Dave leaves for dinner at the captain's table to apologize for Alvin's behavior, Alvin sneaks out to the ship's casino, followed by Simon, who hopes to keep Alvin out of further exposure; meanwhile the Chipettes go to the ship's dance club where they have an epic dance fight with three party goers, leaving Theodore alone in the room, watching an unsuitable jungle monster movie. Dave discovers that his old boss, Ian Hawke, is working as the ship's safety monitor dressed as a pelican, and is out to inform the captain if the Chipmunks and Chipettes cause more problems so he can ruin Dave’s life in revenge. Simon and Alvin are eventually caught in the casino, and are brought back to the room, along with the Chipettes, and all are accused by Dave for not being trustworthy. The next day, Alvin goes para-sailing on a kite, but the kite flies away with him and the other Chipmunks. Dave goes on a hang-glider to find them, but Ian attempts to stop him, and they both end up in the Pacific Ocean.
Meanwhile, the Chipmunks find an island, and they sleep for the night. Dave enlists Ian's help to find the same island and begin looking for the Chipmunks. The next morning, the Chipmunks go and find food, and while they do so, an island castaway named Zoe shows up and sees the Chipmunks and Chipettes for the first time, as she explains that she has been on the island for nine years. They then go to Zoe's tree house, where Eleanor sprains her ankle after falling off a zip line, and Simon gets bitten by a spider, the side effects including personality changes and loss of inhibition.
The morning after, everyone observes Simon's personality has changed, he has amnesia and thinks he is a French adventurous chipmunk named Simone. "Simone" becomes attracted to Jeanette and falls in love with her, but does not take as kindly to Alvin and Brittany. Later, Zoe takes Simone, Jeanette, Eleanor, and Theodore to a lake with a waterfall, and “Simone” finds a cave. He returns with a gold bracelet which he gives to Jeanette as a crown. Brittany and Alvin, having become the "responsible" ones since Jeanette and “Simone” stole their identities, see an active volcano the next day, and they decide that they have to leave the island with the others. Theodore and "Simone" find Dave and Ian, and they go to meet with the other chipmunks. With Alvin and Brittany in charge, they are all assigned jobs to build a raft to leave the island. When Jeanette and "Simone" go and look for food, "Simone" is knocked unconscious, and Jeanette is kidnapped; "Simone" reverts to Simon afterward.
Everyone finds Simon awake, and he cannot remember anything that had happened to him since the change. They discover that Zoe has taken Jeanette, and they head towards the waterfall. When they approach the tree log to cross, Dave and Alvin decide that they will go and find Jeanette. As Zoe encourages Jeanette to find the treasure in the cave by tying her to a rope, Alvin and Dave come to her rescue. Zoe reveals that she purposefully came to the island in hopes of finding the treasure, but due to nine years she spent alone without human interaction and several spider bites while on the island, her personality was altered and has become a crazy maniac while desperately wanting the treasure. The island begins to rumble again, as Zoe lets go of the rope, and Jeanette runs with Dave and Alvin back to the raft, but is pulled back at the log bridge. Simon swings in to help Jeanette before Alvin can cut the ropes with a Swiss Army Knife. Dave is left hanging from the log when it almost gives away.
Alvin and Ian convince Zoe to help save Dave. They then run towards the raft and escape the eruption. While on the raft, Zoe apologizes to Jeanette for kidnapping her and forcing her to retrieve the treasure. As a gift, Jeanette gives Zoe the gold bracelet that Simon had given to her. Alvin reconciles with Dave, and they are rescued. The Chipmunks and Chipettes perform at the International Music Awards. A new reformed Ian also starts a new career as a screenwriter by selling a screenplay about Zoe's story to Hollywood, earning him his wealth back and making Zoe famous. The Chipmunks, the Chipettes, and Dave take a plane back to Los Angeles.

Cast

On October 26, 2010, according to 24 Frames from the Los Angeles Times, Mike Mitchell, the director behind Shrek Forever After, was in negotiations with Fox to direct the new film. The film featured one of Carnival's newest and biggest cruise ships, Carnival Dream. The external shots and interior stateroom suite were filmed during a 7-day Caribbean cruise. The casino, dance club, and dining room were filmed on a set not attempting to match the actual interior of the Carnival Dream cruise ship.

Release

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was released in the U.S. on December 16, 2011, and was the first and only live-action/CGI Chipmunks film to be rated G by the MPAA.

Home media

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was released on DVD and Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D on March 27, 2012 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed a total of $133,110,742 in North America, and another $209,584,693 internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $342,695,435. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked made $6.7 million on its opening day, which was lower than the opening day grosses of the original film and its . For its opening weekend, the film ranked at the #2 spot behind with $23.2 million, which was less than the opening weekends of the franchise's previous two films, the original film's $44.3 million and its sequel's $48.9 million respectively.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 12% based on 82 reviews and an average rating of 3.51/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lazy, rote, and grating, Chipwrecked is lowest-common-denominator family entertainment that's strictly for the very, very, very young at heart." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 24 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
David Cross, who played Ian in this film and the previous two installments, has spoken critically of the film, calling it “the most miserable experience I ever had in my professional life”.

Accolades

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked: Music from the Motion Picture is the licensed soundtrack based on the film. It was released on November 15, 2011 by Atlantic Records. Released to US Target stores, a limited edition version of the soundtrack was released containing four exclusive bonus tracks. iTunes and Amazon.com released a deluxe edition available only on digital download containing three bonus tracks.

Track listing

Chipwrecked - Queenberry Chipwrecked - Queenberry - denotes original song

Chart performance

Video game

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked is a video game based on the film. It was released for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Xbox 360 on November 15, 2011 in North America and on November 25, 2011 in Europe. Like the previous "Alvin & The Chipmunks" and adaptations, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and Janice Karman reprised their respective roles. Jason Lee and David Cross reprise their roles as well.
The game follows the plot of the movie. The Chipmunks and Chipettes get washed up on an island. It's up to the player to play as the Chipmunks, Chipettes, Dave, or Ian to get back to the city.

Sequel

In June 2013, 20th Century Fox announced that a sequel, , would be released on December 11, 2015. On December 18, 2014 however, it was announced for a December 23, 2015 release. On October 14, 2015, the release date was pushed forward to December 18, 2015.