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DVD Review: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP

Home » DVD Review: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP

Mar 27, 2016 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

Everyone’s favorite singing rodents are back for their fourth feature film adventure in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Music producer Dave (Jason Lee) has been dating surgeon Samantha (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) for several months and the couple has been really hitting it off. So he decides to introduce his “children”, Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney), to the love of his life. While the Chipmunks really like Samantha, her teenage son Miles (Josh Green) is a bully to them.

When Dave heads to Miami to attend the release party for pop star client Ashley Grey (Bella Thorne), he takes Samatha as his plus one, leaving Miles and the Chipmunks staying at his house in LA. However, when they discover that Dave plans to propose to Samantha on the trip—something none of them want—the group bands together to book a flight to Miami to stop the engagement. However, a mishap in the air causes the gang to end up on the No Fly list, and while they try to make their way from Austin to Miami, they are constantly being tracked and hunted down by a ruthless and determined air marshal named Agent Suggs (Tony Hale), who has a personal vendetta against The Chipmunks.

 

I enjoyed this film a lot more than I expected to. I had only seen the original Chipmunks film, but the “The Story So Far” featurette on the DVD got me up to speed before starting this one. While the story is a bit predictable (it is a kids movie after all), there are a lot of really fun moments—I particularly enjoyed the hilarious airport security sequence. The Chipmunks are up to all of their usual antics—Alvin comes up with plans that end badly, Theodore is always looking for food, and Simon is the oft-ignored neurotic voice of reason. This time around, the Chipettes are off serving as American Idol audition judges for much of the film, though they do make some humorous (and musical) appearances.

Tony Hale is an excellent “villain”, and really adds a lot of humor to the film. He kind of reminds me of the bad guys from Home Alone—no matter how badly he is hurt or whatever horrible things happen to him, he always has one thing on his mind: tracking down The Chipmunks, and the backstory as to why he hates this singing trio is a lot of fun! While some of the humor resorts to fart jokes and the like, there is also a lot of great physical humor, puns and meta-humor with the Chipmunks themselves.

The soundtrack of the film is great, with lots of Chipmunk covers of modern songs—and for fans of the music, all of these are easily accessible in the DVD bonus features. There is also a really catchy original song, “Home”, that is sure to be stuck in your head long after watching the film.

The disc comes with a Digital HD copy of the film, so I ended up watching the movie via the Apple TV instead of on the DVD itself. However, both presentations are top notch. The Digital HD picture quality is very crisp and detailed and the Chipmunks were seamlessly blended into their scenes. It really felt like they were real characters and not animated. The DVD picture quality was nearly just as good. The audio track provided clear dialogue and made excellent use of the surround channels to add dimension to the film—in a bar fight scene you could hear the action all around you; and the musical performances sounded fantastic.

There are a lot of great bonus features included with this release, especially for those who enjoy The Chipmunks’ music—in addition to being having quick access to all of the various songs from the film, you can also watch other music videos and sing-along songs. The DVD disc also contains a recap of the first three films and two behind-the-scenes featurettes about filming in Georgia. The Blu-ray disc in the Blu-ray Combo Pack version of this release also contains seven additional featurettes that do not appear on the DVD. However, the good news is that all of these features are available via the iTunes Digital HD Copy (they may also be included on the UltraViloet version, but since I had already selected iTunes when redeeming my digital copy code, I cannot confirm this).


What’s Included:
Film: (1:31:59)

    DVD:

    • 480p / Widescreen 1.85:1
    • Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Surround Dolby Digital 2.0, French Surround Dolby Digital 2.0
    • Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

    Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 3/15/2019):

    • Digital HD Copy redeemable via iTunes, Flixster (UltraViolet), Google Play or Vudu (UltraViolet)

Extras:

  • Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Story So Far (4:57)
    Clips from the first three movies recap The Chipmunks’ previous feature film adventures.
  • Ultimate Playlist:
    • Music Machine (19:51)
      Re-watch your favorite musical moments from the film. Play All, Play Music Machine Non-Stop (Continuous Repeat), or select from:

      • “Juicy Wiggle” (2:32)
      • “South Side” (1:56)
      • “Iko Iko” (2:03)
      • “When the Saints Go Marching In/Uptown Funk” (3:10)
      • “Home” (2:45)
      • “Funkytown” (:37)
      • “I Love Rock N Roll” (:43)
      • “Get You Goin’” (1:31)
      • “Hot N Cold” (1:10)
      • “Real Wild Child” (1:40)
      • “Born This Way/Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now/Firework” (2:18)
    • Music Videos (with Optional Sing-Along): (12:17)
      Collection of music videos from the previous Chipmunk film soundtracks, with or without the lyrics appearing on-screen to sing along with. Play All or select from:

      • “Shake Your Groove Thing” (4:35)
      • “Vacation” (3:02)
      • “Bad Romance” (4:38)
    • Lyric Videos: (5:22)
      A collection of music videos with large lyrics that appear on screen throughout. Play All or select from:

      • “Juicy Wiggle” (1:18)
      • “Uptown Munk” (1:12)
      • “Wreck the Halls” (:59)
      • “Pizza Toots” (1:21)
      • “I Want Chipmunks for Christmas (a.k.a. Pester Song)” (:32)
  • Theatrical Trailers: (3:30)
    Play All or select from “Theatrical Trailer 1” (1:04) and “Theatrical Trailer 2” (2:26).
  • Bound For Georgia (2:16)
    The cast and filmmakers talk about shooting in Gerogia, which doubles for Los Angeles, Austin and New Orleans in the film. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with executive producer/unit production manager John Starke, director Walt Becker, 2nd unit camera operator Edward A. Gutentag, Fox 2000 Pictures president Elizabeth Gabler, and stars Jason Lee, Kimberly Williams-Paisley (“Samantha”) and Tony Hale.
  • Road Chippin’ Through Georgia (5:03)
    A behind-the-scenes look at the various film locations in Georgia. This contains reused interview footage from the previous feature as well as additional interviews with actor Josh Green and choreographers Rich and Tone Talauega.
  • Sneak Peek (7:19)
    Play All or select from trailers for “The Peanuts Movie”, “Kung Fu Panda 3”, “Ice Age: Collision Course”, “Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Tales” and “The Sound of Music: 50th Anniversary”.

Additional features are also available only on the Digital Copy and Blu-ray release.
(These have only been verified as being included with the iTunes version of the Digital Copy, the features included with the other digital format choices may vary.)

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