When Dave (Jason Lee) gets injured during a concert, Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler, Criminal Minds) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney, music-star and most recently in Greek) are going to have to stay with Dave's Aunt Jackie (Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives) and actually attend school. What Dave doesn't know is that Aunt Jackie quickly suffers an injury of her own, and the group is left in the care of Jackie's grandson, Toby (Zachary Levi of Chuck fame). Much to Dave's chagrin, Toby isn't the most responsible person around, as he spends all his time playing videogames instead of working, and the most responsibility he has ever had was taking care of his cat (which now prowls the neighborhood as a wild animal that hisses at Toby all the time). Thankfully for Toby and the boys, Dave doesn't know Jackie's in the hospital, but of course, this leads to quite a bit of mischief in the movie since the house quickly degrades to a mess and the daily struggle of getting Alvin, Simon and Theodore to school gets worse and worse.
As for their school life, things start off okay when half the school (mostly the female half) falls head-over-heels for the latest rock stars to join their class. What's bad is that the other half (mostly the guys) are jealous and start doing everything they can to take the little guys down a notch or two. Actually, things aren't all that bad as Alvin ends up joining the jocks and becoming the football team's secret weapon, but Alvin's new activities start to put a bit of distance between him and his two brothers, which makes Simon mad, which makes Theodore depressed.
To make matters worse, it seems three of The Chipmunks' biggest little fans (three female chipmunks) have shipped themselves to L.A. and have signed up with Ian Hawke (David Cross), The Chipmunks' former manager. These three ladies, known as The Chipettes, are Brittany (Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?), Jeanette (Anna Faris, The Scary Movie Series, The House Bunny) and Eleanor (Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live, Upright Citizen's Brigade, Parks and Recreation) who seem to identify with Alvin, Simon and Theodore (respectively). What The Chipettes don't know is how badly Ian treated Alvin and the gang and when he starts bad-mouthing their heroes, they believe that The Chipmunks aren't as good as they once thought. Ian enrolls The Chipettes at the same school The Chipmunks go to and challenges them to a singing competition to decide who will represent the school in a major county-wide competition that could bring in a lot of money for the school's music department.
As any Chipmunk fan would expect, the film is filled with tons of music covers sung by the six high-pitched characters. Everything from parodies of "Staying Alive", to "We Are a Family", "Single Ladies" an "Shake Your Groove Thing" are just a few of what the movie has to offer, and the Blu-ray's surround sound capabilities makes each one of these songs a delight. I will say though, that the high-definition video doesn't really make the Chipmunks and Chipettes look as good as they could. It might not be as obvious on standard definition DVDs, but the six furry characters definitely come off as not-quite-right on the Blu-ray.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel's Blu-ray release comes with more special features than any kid will know what to do with, and as you might expect from a Chipmunk release, most of them are music related. Besides music videos for several of the film's songs and a menu option that lets you skip to each of the Chipmunk's various performances, there is also a Song Trivia track and an Album Maker feature that allows kids to make covers with various screen shots from the film and their choice of songs and add it all to a collection of other albums they have created. To round out the musical side of the Blu-ray's extras is the film choreographer, Rosero, teaching home viewers the moves to the movie's final number.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel isn't all about the music though. There are also seven featurettes that covers a wide variety of topics. My favorite featurette was "Making History: 50 Years of Chipmunk Mischief, Mayhem and Music" which interviews Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. (the son of the creator of the license and top man at Bagdasarian Productions) and his wife, Janice Karman, about how the Chipmunks have changed over the years and how it has evolved from the classic 60's style, to that of the 80's and now the current CG movies. It really is a great overview of the characters and how they have evolved over the years. Special features like "Behind the Squeaking" and "Meet the Stuffies" have a very amusing air to them as both treat the Chipmunks and their fuzzy stand-ins as real people and interview various cast and crew members about working with them. In "A-NUT-omy of a Scene," we get a detailed look into the actors performing against the plush stand-ins, and then empty air, and then the visual effects teams' efforts at putting Alvin and the gang on the screen and blending it all together. Two other special features, "Meet the Chipettes" and "Music Mania," go behind the scenes with the female leads of the film and also the movie's final sequence. The last, short featurette interviews two rising stars in the musical world, a band called Honor Society and a soloist named Charice Pempengco (as seen on Oprah).
When it comes down to it, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is for the kids and they will love it. I personally enjoyed the film, and as a long-time Chipmunk follower, I think that counts a lot to. There isn't anything too deep about The Squeakquel, and there doesn't really need to be for it's target audience. Families with kids will want this packaged deal as the Blu-ray is great for playing at home, the DVD goes great in the car or the kid's room and the digital copy is easy to put on your mobile video player. Most people will probably pass this film up, but those that have even the slightest interest in the new wave of Chipmunk fun, will want to buy the film outright.
