The Chipmunk Adventure

Alvin, Simon and Theodore and the Chipettes enter a race: they will circle the world by hot air balloon and the winner takes a hundred thousand dollars. Two siblings organise the race and their intentions are otherwise. Dolls are loaded into the balloons; the dolls are full of diamonds and both teams are smuggling without knowing it. The journey moves continent by continent: Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Asia. At every stop there is a song and a mishap. At one point Theodore is declared king by a tribe. Janice Karman directs and wrote the script with Ross Bagdasarian Jr. Both are among the voices. It is an American production. The film is the feature version of the television series and was made for cinemas; the animation is above the standard of the series. The songs are its centre of gravity and a different musical style is used for each region. The Chipettes have more room here than in the series and have songs of their own. What the narrative builds is not the race itself; while the two groups try to beat each other they do not see the real danger. Its limit is plot; the smuggling strand is thin and the sections are loosely joined. Another limit is cultural representation; the countries visited are passed through in stock images. Who it is for: viewers who like children's animation of the eighties and musical sequences. Who it is not for: the story is weak, the representation shallow, and it offers an adult viewer little.