My Friends the Chipmunks

My Friends the Chipmunks is the Alvin and the Chipmunks first full-length feature film. The film was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures, and produced by Bagdasarian Productions, Herbert Klynn's Format Productions (for the storyboards and animated the opening sequence), and Walt Disney Productions (animated for the rest of the film). It was released to theatres on November 15, 1969.
== Synopsis ==
Jennifer Sweetheart, a free-spirited young woman, visits the home of the Sevilles to see Dave with Alvin and the Chipmunks. She becomes the Chipmunks' new nanny.
== Plot ==
Jennifer enters the forest on a wonderful morning at the beginning of the film. She sings the song It's A Wonderful World (All About in Los Angeles) which is a parody of the title song for The Sound of Music. She spins around and dances with every and each one of the animals. Then runs off and sees the beautiful sunlight and trees that brighten upon Los Angeles. Soon, she spins around and dances through the meadow and to the woods once again. Just then, she spots the home of the Sevilles. Jennifer ponders about what's going on in the home of the Sevilles. She decides that they should go have a look in the window and she proceed. Once that she got over to the Sevilles' household, she was worried of what's happening in the house, since it was many chaos and madness in every part of the home.
Inside the Sevilles' household, Alvin and Theodore were fighting over a teddy bear. The teddy bear flung out of their hands, hitting Simon softly on the head. Alvin prepares to hit Theodore with Simon's book, and Simon rushes to take his book back from Alvin, resulting in a brawling cloud by the three Chipmunks. Dave came to see what's going on, but the brawling cloud leaves the Chipmunks' room as Dave moves out of the way. Dave hears noises coming from the kitchen. He came quick and is shocked of how his boys' brawling is destroying the entire kitchen. He exclaims, "MY KITCHEN!!!" in fear. Dave tries to stop the boys, but they continued to ignore Dave and battled in Dave's face, resulting in him being brutally hurt and mangled. The Chipmunks continued to brawl throughout the entire living room. Dave is shocked of what happened to the living room. Then the Chipmunks destroyed the entire recording room with their extensive battle, and Dave came in to see the recording room being destroyed. Soon, the Chipmunks brawled all the way back to their room. Dave ran in anger and slammed the door, even locked it. Then, in sorrow and despair, Dave looked around the house and sat there. Outside the household, Jennifer felt bad for Dave and decided to ring the doorbell. Dave says softly, "Come in." and Jennifer opened the door to ask Dave what's the matter. Dave explained to her what happened and told her that he always tries to stop the Chipmunks from fighting, but ultimately fails. Jennifer pondered until she got an idea. She said, "I'll be willing to help you discipline the poor little Chipmunks for you, kind sir." Then she introduced herself, and Dave decides to give her a job as the Chipmunks' new nanny.
Dave walks up the stairs to the Chipmunks' room, unlocks the door and slowly opens it. He says, "Boys, someone is here to see you." Jennifer enters the room. Dave introduces the boys to their new nanny. Simon and Theodore are impressed with having a new nanny around the house, but Alvin says angrily "New nanny?! Phooey!". Dave was about to scold Alvin, but Jennifer insists that she shall take care of it. Although Alvin misbehaves at first, Jennifer responds with kindness and patience, and soon Alvin came to trust and respect her along with his brothers. Then, Dave Seville and The Chipmunks sing a song to her which is a parody of Maria. After the song, The Chipmunks introduce themselves to Jennifer. Later at night, while Dave is out shopping for recording tape, Jennifer makes dinner for the Chipmunks. She prepares Broccoli Souffle for the three. Alvin asks "What is that?". Jennifer explains to Alvin that she had prepared Broccoli Souffle for him and his brothers. Alvin responds, "I don't wanna eat broccoli! I hate it! It is disgusting! Bleah!" Jennifer explains to him that broccoli is good for him, and would make him healthy, big and strong. She explains the rest by singing, Eat All Your Broccoli, a song which is a parody of Climb Every Mountain. After the song was finished, Alvin knew now that he won't say he'll never like it unless he tries it. Alvin eats up all of his Broccoli souffle on his plate, as well as his brothers. Dave came back and asked how the boys did with her. She responds that Alvin learned how to try new things, and Dave was really impressed. She also tells him that he and the Chipmunks will have a picnic with her tomorrow afternoon, and Dave agreed to the idea.
The next day, The Chipmunks and Dave get ready to go to the picnic. Jennifer had prepared sandwiches for the four in the picnic basket and Dave assigned Alvin to get out and carry the picnic blanket. Alvin couldn't see while complaining about carrying the picnic blanket as they set off into the woods. Not knowing where he was going, Alvin bumped into a tree. Simon and Theodore walked off to see Alvin after he hit into a tree. Simon asks "Alvin, are you alright?". Alvin got up and responds, "I'll be alright!". The three Chipmunks walk back to follow Dave and Jennifer. As the Chipmunks are setting up the picnic. Dave tells Jennifer how pretty she is. Jennifer is flattered by his compliment, and the two dance together as they sing Picnic Made For Two, which is a parody of a song from The Alvin Show's Bicycle Built for Two segment. The Chipmunks join in as the chorus, and Alvin asks "May I have this dance?". Jennifer agrees and dances with Alvin. Then, Simon comes around and asks, "May I?" Jennifer then dances with Simon, until they come along to Theodore. Theodore asks as he giggles, "May I?". Jennifer then dances with Theodore for a while until the other two Chipmunks joined in. The three Chipmunks are dancing with her, right until Dave says, "Ahem!". Then the Chipmunks moved away from her and Dave dances with her while singing the last verse as the song ends. Alvin turns to the audience and says, "What does she see in him?".
Later at night, Dave and Jennifer spend the night at the Sevilles' home, dressed up with fancy decor. Dave tells her that for the first time in forever, he had never had a nanny like her around the house. Jennifer thanked him for the compliment. Dave asks the boys if their fancy dinner is ready. Alvin said off-screen, "It'll be out in a mere moment, Dave." Soon, The Chipmunks dressed as waiters served them a gourmet. Roast duck, mashed potatoes with garlic, french bread, french fries and salad were on the table of the Sevilles' this night. Alvin asks Dave what they want to sing for them during that fancy evening. Dave selects My Wild Irish Rose. Alvin asks if he's Irish and Dave replies, "Well, not exactly." Alvin and his brothers decided to sing it for them, anyway. Dave and Jennifer enjoy their dinner as Alvin brings out the wine for the two. Alvin asks, "Would you two care to have some wine?". Dave responds nicely, "Certainly. Thank you very much." Alvin pour wine into the drinking glasses and returns it to the cabinet. Dave and Jenny take a sip of their wine and looked into each other's eyes romantically. As the song ends, Dave said, "Well, Alvin. For once, you surprised us. You didn't goof things up." The Chipmunks giggled and Dave wondered what's so funny. He turns around, revealing a "Lovebird" sign on his back.
The next day, The Chipmunks, Dave and Jenny took a walk in the park. Soon, the Chipmunks spotted a playground in the park and asked Dave if they go play on the playground. Dave agrees to this and assigns Jenny to take the boys out to the playground while he sits at the bench. Jenny gladly agrees and takes the boys out to the playground. Jenny insists that they will have lots of fun here. As she starts to sing the song, Those Are The Fun Things That Give Me A Thrill which is a parody of My Favorite Things. Jenny and The Chipmunks play on the swings, go down on the slide, play on the monkey bars, the Merry-Go-Round, and many other fun things to do at the park besides the playground like hide and seek, and play tag with each other. Then, Jenny and the Chipmunks blow bubbles together. As the song soon ends, Dave wakes up as a bubble went into his head. He yells out in muffles, "ALVIN!!!". Alvin rushes over to Dave, pops the bubble and responds "OKAY!!!"
In the afternoon, Jenny and The Chipmunks look over raggy old clothes in the attic. They play dress-up as Jenny begins to sing Fancy Clothes which is a parody of Edelweiss. The Chipmunks dance with Jenny in the attic. Meanwhile, Dave was downstairs working on another song as he starts to wonder what's going on in the attic. He got up and went over to the attic to see what's going on. There, he spotted Jenny and The Chipmunks dancing together in fancy clothes. After the song ends, Jenny explains to Dave how much fun she is having with The Chipmunks wearing old fancy clothes and dancing together. Dave was pleased with it and went back downstairs to work on the next song. Alvin tells Jenny of how much fun they've had with her over the past days. Simon and Theodore agreed with him on that one too. And thus, Jenny hugged the boys and are very happy to see each other.
Later at night, Dave tells Jenny to watch out if any burglars come by and take all of their stuff. She tells him, "Aye-aye, David!" whilst saluting. Dave and The Chipmunks then get off to bed, leaving Jenny to make something in the kitchen while keeping an eye out for burglars. Soon, one big burglar came to the entrance of the house, and he tells the audience that he is going to sneak in and rob all of everything from the Sevilles' household. As he enter the house without Jenny not knowing about it, he enters Dave's bedroom. Dave wakes up shocked, and is tied to the chair and gagged by the burglar. The Chipmunks woke up and heard what's going on. Alvin thought of something and decided to check it out. As they got inside, they saw Dave tied and gagged inside. The Chipmunks exclaim, "DAVE!" and saw the burglar who is about to rob all of his stuff. Alvin stopped him and told him that if he wants to rob all of his stuff, he has to take him down first. This results in Alvin taking off his sweater, revealing his tanktop and magenta red pants. Simon joins in with Alvin and takes off his sweater too, revealing his tanktop and light blue pants. Theodore joins in with the other two by taking off his sweater, revealing his tanktop and light yellow green pants.
Meanwhile, Jenny was busy with cooking until she pondered. She decides to go check on Dave and see how he's sleeping. Once she got upstairs, she saw the burglar about to to kill the Chipmunks. She tells the robber, "You naughty man. You know that robbing is a terrible thing to do. How about a dance instead?" The robber had forgotten what he was supposed to do, and he danced with her anyway while trying to let go in fright. As they danced and spinned, The Chipmunks helped untie and degag Dave. Simon convinces Dave to call the police, and Dave told Jenny to keep dancing with the robber while he does so. Dave also said, "Uh, fellas? Would you mind putting your sweaters back on?". Alvin responds, "Okay!" The Chipmunks put their sweaters back on as Dave called the police to come and arrest the burglar whose been trying to rob his house. As the policeman heard about this, they came to the Sevilles' household in time to arrest the burglar. The burglar stops dancing with her and begged the policeman to take him away from all this. One of the officers sentenced him to 5 years of jail time. The Chipmunks and Dave thanked her for catching the robber and the $1 million dollar reward is hers.
The next day, the Chipmunks' nanny decided to leave. The Chipmunks begged her not to leave. She explained that she is finding a new home with the reward she got and is giving half of it to pay for the bills at the Sevilles household, being very much generous. The boys understood her and they and Dave said good-bye to her. Jenny said, "Toodle-oo!" and away she spun off as The Chipmunks and Dave waved good-bye to her. Dave said, "I am sure gonna miss her, boys." Alvin said, "You said it, Dave." And so, with the Chipmunks and Dave finally happy together, we go to where Jenny leaves off to find a new home to live in while the closing music cue from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is heard as the film ends.
== Characters ==
* Jennifer "Jenny" Sweetheart (voiced by Julie Andrews) - The Chipmunks' new nanny. She likes to sing and dance, and has an interest in animals. She also has a love of music and the mountains, her youthful enthusiasm and imagination, and her lack of discipline.
* David "Dave" Seville (voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) - The Chipmunks' adoptive father, songwriter and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly every day by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells his trademark yell "ALVIN!!!". Despite all this, he loves all of his boys equally.
* Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (all voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) - Three rambunctious singing Chipmunk kids who mostly sing in barbershop. Alvin is the talented troublemaker of the group. Simon is the intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group. Theodore is the cute and innocent member of the group who likes to eat a lot.
* The Burglar (voiced by Dallas McKennon) - A guy with a striped convict turtleneck and a black mask who is trying to rob the Sevilles' household, but is suddenly frightened by the Chipmunks' new nanny's extreme niceness.
== Production ==
=== Development ===
When The Alvin Show was cancelled after one season on CBS in 1961, Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. had decided to make a film based on the Chipmunks. The decision was to give the film a more Walt Disney-like feel, so he pitched the film to Walt Disney, which he accepted.
Animators, which came from Disney shorts, such as Glen Keane and Dick Lundy, helped out with the animation of the film.
Format Productions handled the storyboards for the entire film, and Chuck Harriton animated the animals in the opening sequence. The rest of the film is animated entirely by Disney, with layouts of The Chipmunks, Dave, and The Robber being drawn by Phil DeLara.
Voice recording sessions for the dialogue began in 1963. Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. recorded his voices as Dave Seville and The Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon, and Theodore respectively). Jennifer Sweetheart is voiced and portrayed for live action reference by Julie Andrews. Dallas McKennon played the voice of the robber in the film as well. This was the first and only film, and the last in animated media to feature Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. as the voice of his respective characters. The voice recording sessions were finished by early 1965.
The film is notably for being, along with The Jungle Book (1967) and The Aristocats (1970), the last film project to be approved by Walt Disney himself, as he died in late 1966, before the film was released. (However, Walt did work on a few projects before his death as well, most notably the majority of Disney's animated films that came out in the 1970s.)
=== Writing ===
The film was written by Ross Bagdasarian Sr., Dan Gordon, Cal Howard, Tedd Pierce, and Ernest Lehman.
=== Voices ===
Julie Andrews was cast to the role of the Chipmunks' new nanny, Jennifer Sweetheart. Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. reprises his roles as the Chipmunks and Dave Seville for the film.
=== Animation ===
The animation resulted in a peculiar mix between the cartoony Disney style (The Chipmunks and Dave for the entire film), the cutesy and realistic Disney style (the animals for the rest of the film), The Alvin Show's distinctive animation style (which could be spotted only in the opening sequence for the animals in the forest), and the rotoscoped animation (Jennifer is an example). This was due to Format Productions suffering from low budgets in their animation for only the opening sequence, while Disney animated the rest of the entire film. And as a result, the animation took three years to be completed.
=== Music ===
The music scores were composed by Irwin Kostal. The opening and closing title music cues from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, were re-used and re-recorded for the film.
== Reception ==
The film received generally favorable positive reviews and it was a box office success.
== Home media ==
Bagdasarian Productions released a DVD/Blu-ray edition of the film in 2011, digitally restored and remastered from its original 70mm Technicolor negatives, which were originally in Disney's vault prior to 1989.
== Trivia ==
* Jennifer is the only character in this film to be rotoscoped in a similar manner to Disney's rotoscoping techniques. Though the Chipmunks and/or Dave would be rotoscoped for the dancing sequences while on-model. The Chipmunks and Dave, however, were animated in a Disney style throughout the entire film.
* After its release, the film was never shown again except once at a retrospective “Tribute to Walt Disney” at the National Film Theater in 1970. As of 2000, there are no home video releases of the film available, making it even rarer than Song of the South (1946) and Victory Through Air Power (1943).
** However, the film premiered on NBC in 1979. It went into syndication in the 80's and later Nickelodeon picked up television rights to the movie in 1994. This was one of the only Disney-produced films to air on said channel during the mid-90s', and ran until 1996 (when Nickelodeon decided to stop airing The Alvin Show and the movie went off-the-air with it).
** According to Leonard Maltin, the film was never shown again on American television after 1996. The only one remaining was the soundtrack for the film. And according to fans, tapings of the film from its airing on Nickelodeon were uploaded on YouTube in the mid-2000s. However, in 2011, Bagdasarian Productions released a DVD/Blu-ray edition of the film digitally restored and remastered from its original 70mm Technicolor negatives, which were originally in Disney's vault prior to 1989.
** According to Janice Karman in a review from 1992, Disney pretty much disowned the film and clearly stated that Bagdasarian Productions fully owned the Chipmunks and not them. In 1989, Disney sold the film to Bagdasarian Productions. And as of today, Bagdasarian owned the film and held the original 70mm Technicolor negatives of the Disney movie in their film vault.
** Disney still has the theatrical rights to the film. Bagdasarian had the ownership and DVD/Blu-ray rights, and Viacom had the TV rights. In newer DVD/Blu-ray and TV prints, all mentions to Walt Disney and Buena Vista were digitally removed, with the Buena Vista Distribution logo replaced by the late 1960s Paramount Pictures logo with the Gulf+Western byline and Walt Disney presents changed to Paramount presents, respectively. The ending title after the Bagdasarian logo was plastered over with the late 1960s Paramount Pictures logo with the Gulf+Western byline.
== Gallery==
=== Concept art ===
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===Title Cards===
====Original====
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====2011 DVD/Blu-ray release====
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Category:Bagdasarian Productions
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Category:1969
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