Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015)

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip arrives as the fourth entry in a franchise that has never pretended to be anything but a delivery mechanism for squeaky cover songs and mild property damage. Three animated rodents misread an engagement ring and cross the country to sabotage a proposal that was never happening. Walt Becker directs with the efficiency of a man who knows his audience is seven and will not be filing a complaint. The supporting cast includes Uzo Aduba, Retta, and Eddie Steeples in incidental roles. These performers are competent and entirely unremarked upon. The film does not pause to congratulate itself for their presence, which is the correct approach and also the reason our more contemporary metrics barely stir.

The Chipettes appear, and Brittany is described as independent and determined, mostly so she can bicker with Alvin. This is not a thesis. It is a personality trait assigned to a singing chipmunk in a purple dress. There is no LGBTQ material, no racial argument, no environmental sermon, no critique of the music industry that employs Dave, and no body-positive or neurodivergent framework anywhere in the running time. The villain is an air marshal who resents the Chipmunks because they cost him a girlfriend. That is the entire psychology of the antagonist. The moral, such as it is, amounts to returning stolen property and apologizing to your father, a lesson older than cinema and considerably less fashionable.

Here is a studio product assembled from road-trip clichés, a Mardi Gras parade, and a squirrel-based deception. It earned a Razzie and a 16 percent approval rating, then grossed a quarter of a billion dollars anyway. There is no lecture, no sermon, no moment where a character turns to the camera and explains how we ought to live. In the present climate, that restraint deserves a grudging nod from those of us who spend our evenings cataloguing ideological subtext in children's entertainment. The chipmunks sing. The chipmunks learn nothing of consequence. The chipmunks will return.

{"thematic_tags": ["sequel"]}