Family/Comedy. Jason Lee, David Cross, Cameron Richardson, Jane Lynch and the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney. Director: Tim Hill.
In the 1995 Oscar-winning Babe and its disappointing sequel, director George Miller employed a trio of singing mice as the farmyard's Greek chorus.
The diminutive critters introduced each chapter of the story and, most memorably, burst into helium-voiced renditions of Blue Moon and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
Imagine this cute gimmick expanded into a 91-minute feature and you have Alvin And The Chipmunks, an infernal racket based on mischievous characters created by Ross Bagdasarian Senior in the late '50s.
Director Tim Hill conjures an eye-catching conflation of live action and computer-animated mayhem as his three squeaky heroes warbling marks them out as the chart-topping superstars.
Young viewers might giggle at the sight of one chipmunk noisily breaking wind, but laughs are few and far between.
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