Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks

⚠️Please note that this is a copy-and-paste of the original page from the Terrible Shows Wiki⚠️

Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks (also stylized ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks) is a computer-animated musical comedy television series created by Janice Karman. The series premiered on March 30, 2015.

### Why it will make you want to scream "ALVIN!!"

**Weak grasp of the source material**: It misunderstands why the 1983 series was a timeless classic. The atmosphere for this show has hardly any connection to the 1983 series at all, and it barely even has the Chipmunks singing. The designs of the chipmunks look like tiny humans with tails. They are also flanderized into having very generic personalities. At least, in the live-action franchise, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes were still likeable and kept their charm from the original series, as bad as the movies were.

Alvin suffers the worst flanderization of all the characters, as he went from being quite mischievous and rude but innocent and relatable in the live-action franchise and 1983 series, to becoming a grating, selfish, self-absorbed, egotistical and sadistic jackass. Good examples come from episodes like Liar Liar, where he lies to a kid that he has a brother in China and he even claims that Dave was the one who spread the lie or in Back to School where after he, Simon and Theodore figure out that Dave never graduated from high school, Alvin starts becoming a bad influence to Dave. In fact, all these reasons make it more justified for Dave to yell at Alvin. Along with that, he often tortures and manipulates his brothers (especially Theodore) in order to get his way, or try to pass the blame to them. Some major examples include: In "Talking Teddy", he gets tired of Theodore's Talking Teddy, so he gets Simon to make a keyboard so he can edit what Teddy says, but he goes too far, **making Theodore do his chores and sell his money**! In "Safety Third", he manipulates Simon into turning his bus project into a dangerous car that Dave won't buy for him. Then, when he steals the car, he breaks it and tries to hide it by taking the actual car but ends up breaking it as well. In "The Great Snack Off", when Theodore gets candy stuck in his nose, instead of going to the doctor, he tries to get it out on his own in dangerous ways, such as stealing Simon's invention, which, as Simon said, **literally could have blown Theodore's head off!** Not to mention he is also portrayed as the laughingstock of the series.

Simon went from a supportive, smart, and likable character, into a generic, Butt-Monkey character who acts like a jerk to Alvin (though, this can basically be understandable due to Alvin mistreating him and Theodore most of the time). A good example comes from the episodes "Geizmo's Day Out" and "Spoiler-itis". Though, he still remains tolerable for the most part.

Theodore, despite being flanderized the least, is also a notable butt-monkey, especially in episodes like "The Great Snack Off" or "Talking Teddy", and sometimes can be unlikable like when he **steals food** in "Allergic Reaction".

Dave has gone from a kind-hearted and likeable father who always punishes the Chipmunks for rightful reasons and cares about them into a strict and selfish father which makes him very unlikable sometimes. Though, he still remains tolerable for the most part.

The Chipettes are now unlikable jerks (with Brittany being the most unlikable of the bunch), who tend to abuse their male counterparts in a lot of episodes, particularly in the first season. Though, Jeanette is the least bad and still remains tolerable for the most part.

The theme song, while it is the same theme from the 1983 series, can get annoying after a while; in addition, the theme has been slightly sped up and the middle verse is cut to accommodate more commercial time.

Some continuity errors; the biggest example is in the episode "The Sub", Alvin claims that he's the middle child of the Seville family, when in the original series, he was the oldest.

It overuses a lot of soccer player stereotypes.

Sometimes it rehashes other concepts, for example, "Wax Dave" feels too similar to the 1983 series episode "Whatever Happened to Dave Seville?", as it involves Dave making a wax statue and the Chipmunks believing said statue is the real Dave.

Quantity Over Quality: Like Teen Titans Go!, it lasted way too long despite the overall reception, having a total of 5 seasons, 127 episodes, and a lifespan of 7 years so far, showing how Nickelodeon is blind to the criticisms of the show.

A lot of the female extras talk in a "Valley Girl" accent which can get obnoxious after a while.

The soundtrack and most of the songs are rather forgettable, bland, and a bit annoying thanks to the poor pitch shifting.

The CGI animation is rather weak, compared to the nice hand-drawn animation in the 1983 series, as it doesn't do a great job at translating the series to CGI as almost everything is extremely off in the show such as the poor character animations, plastic and fake designs for the characters, places, and objects, poor visuals that feel like they came from a mid-2000's CGI TV series, and a crappy frame rate that is rather slow-paced and barely sets up for the pacing in this show. Overall, it just looks generic.

Not to mention that the show sometimes reuses the same character models, for example, Mr Crabel had the same model as Mrs Smith but with different clothing and shorter hair.

It has cheap and unpleasant humor, with a lot of mean-spirited moments (especially from Miss Smith and Dave), fart jokes and toilet humor.

Annoying voice acting for the most part. Nearly all the characters speak with a lisp, an accent, and high-pitched voices, and the characters constantly stutter for the most part.

Speaking of voice acting, the show recycles voice actors, resulting in many of the show's characters sounding like each other to a cringeworthy degree. There are also many animation errors:

Eleanor somehow doesn't have her bag in the episode "Lice-enced to Teach".

Many of the babies (except the robot babies in the episode "Baby Mama Drama") in this show have the exact same appearance, consisting of light skin, blonde hair, and a lilac onesie, as well as voice.

Often at times, the chipmunks and their environment don't work. For example, the floor often changes just so the Chipmunks are visible.

Sometimes, they reuse scenes. For example, there are scenes where Brittany reorganizing the school files getting reused.

When someone is about to tell the truth, the confession is skipped. "Candy Confessions" is the biggest offender of this.

### Redeeming Qualities

Theodore is the only character who wasn't flanderized badly in the show. He still has most of his child-like food-loving personality from original show, although he was slightly flanderized, as seen in BQ#3.

And speaking of that, despite the other main characters being flanderized, they still retain their old and original personalities like in the classic series. Like a few examples:

Simon is still smart and supportive of the chipmunks and is still tolerable most of the time.

Jeanette still has her timid, and shy yet caring personality, and is still tolerable most of the time (and is probably the least unlikable and the least jerkish of the Chipettes).

Dave is still a caring and loyal father to his sons and is still tolerable most of the time.

Alvin, despite of course being selfish and cruel, can actually be somewhat tolerable at times, though rarely.

Despite what's said at BQ#14 and 15, there are some good voices, with Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (Dave, Alvin, and Simon) and Janice Karman (Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette) reprising their roles and a new voice actress, Vanessa Bagdasarian, replacing Karman as Eleanor. It's also impressive that the Bagdasarians are usually the only voice actors in the series.

The series has been improving since Season 2 as the characters became more tolerable in later episodes, the gross-out humor is toned down (mostly), and some of the episodes are now tolerable, but it isn't perfect, as many of the flaws still remain.

There are some good episodes like A Very Merry Chipmunk, The Littlest Robot, World Day, Warbie, Carts and Crafts, Ballet Boys, Ride Along, and Munk Man. In fact, several episodes have an entertaining amount of suspense/mystery like Good Luck Mr. Whiskers and Switch Witch.

The theme song for the 1983 series is at least used, although the middle verse is removed.

It contains little to no pop culture references and product placement, unlike the live-action movies.

Despite the problems with the music, the songwriters did try to write new songs for every episode, instead of going with the traditional chipmunk style of covering popular songs by well-known artists.

It's nice to see the Chipmunks back on TV after 25 years, even with the lacklustre execution.

There are some hilarious scenes and funny humor in this show.

Some episodes taught good lessons and morals.

"The Great Snack Off", despite being a Theodore torture episode, does tell you that you shouldn't play the game where you throw food up in the air and try to catch it with your mouth because there will be consequences.

While the animation is mostly mediocre and generic, it can be passable and fluid in certain scenes of the show.

There are some good songs, like "Awesome Town", "We are the Champions", and "Fist Of Shining Gold".

### Reception

Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks received mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans of the 1983 series. It scored a 4.5 on IMDb. It also has a 2.6/10 on Senscritique. Saberspark placed this on #6 on *The Top 10 Worst Nickelodeon Cartoons*.

### Closing

Overall, it's just forgettable as it has little to no depth which makes it admirable like the previous show.