It's Janice Karman's 70th birthday next week, and it was arguably Ross Bagdasarian Jr's 75th a week and a bit ago (a cursory internet search gives me two completely different birthdays for him). So I'm sure you'll forgive me going on about Alvin and the Chipmunks one more time, in celebration!
I'm pretty sure they and their family are going to continue the epic and diverse history of chipmunk media for ever more, so before the next incarnation comes along I just want to introduce my blog-readers to a couple of the more obscure outer reaches of the multiverse I've recently acquired. Come and see alternate worlds where Theodore wants the hula-hoop and gophers can get inside your brain!
We'll start with A Little Golden Book - "The Chipmunks' Merry Christmas". Now, I stand by what I said about that Dell Four-Color Comic being the first real work of Chipmunk literature (this book's copyright date is 1959, and I assume from the Christmas theme it was released later than the probable August publication of the comic), but I admit there's some wiggle room here. And while the comic was inspired by the boys' second hit single "Alvin's Harmonica", this book is based on the first, "The Chipmunk Song". So it's quite possibly the first real Chipmunk literature to be written, if not published!
The first thing you notice about "The Chipmunks' Merry Christmas" is that there's no Dave! Instead, as you can see on the cover, his traditional role is taken by Mr Owl!
The second thing you might notice is when you turn to the credits page - the book was written by one David Corwin, and illustrated by Richard Scarry. The famous Richard Scarry! Now there's another illustrious name to be associated with early Chipmunks!
But let's turn to the story!
Stop being silly, you silly, silly chipmunk. Thedore's giggling shows his characterisation in the early records has caught on with the writer of this book, at least. And Mr Owl steals Dave's dialogue!
And in this world, the chipmunks aren't making a record - their singing is, as it turns out, for the purpose of letting Santa know what they want for Christmas. It's a slightly strange idea that this is how you convey your requests for presents, but it all seems to make sense in the internal logic of the story!
But Alvin is continuously running away, and not singing! Mr Owl is concerned, and so are... Mr and Mrs Chipmunk!
The chipmunks have parents! In all the myriad worlds of Alvin and the Chipmunks, this might be the only time they have both a mother and a father! And, fascinatingly, Theodore (later to be voiced by Janice Karman) takes after the mother, while Simon and Alvin (Ross Bagdasarian) have their father's fur colour!
But after a lot more running around, things work out all right in the end, of course!
Isn't that nice? This non-materialistic Alvin is a delight to experience!
Little Alvin and the Mini-Munks! A direct-to-DVD movie adventure for the Chipmunks and Chipettes! As puppets! As preschoolers!
And now, from the ancient times of 1959, let's move on to the modern world of 2003. The last glimmer of the long-running cartoon series (Alvin and the Chipmunks meet the Wolfman) has been and gone, the CGI movies are still to come, but in between them there was this one oddity...
This seems to have been intended as a backdoor pilot for a "Chipmunk Babies" type of TV series (Baby Looney Tunes had been a big hit the previous year) which didn't take off, maybe just because the movies came along instead. But with the movies, the Bagdasarians seem to have lost a certain amount of control over their chipmunks, which is a shame - this one, on the other hand, is all about Janice Karman's personal vision! And while I'm not sure it's entirely a success, it's growing on me. I was going to be more scathing about the whole thing when I first watched it, but now I come to look back at it a second time... yes, I'm starting to like it.
So let me get one complaint out of the way now. There's not enough Simon! I've mentioned a few times that Simon is my favourite. He's me! In so many ways! Especially in modern-day episodes written by Janice Karman! And in this film, he's the least prominent of the six chipmunks, which doesn't sit well with me. Everyone else here gets a solo scene or two in the spotlight, learns an important lesson, sings a song... Simon is just a supporting character. I want more Simon in my chipmunk media.
Our story begins at the house of Lalu (Janice Karman). She's hanging up a banner saying "Welcome Chipmunks", and a passing butterfly helps her pin it in place. Lalu shares her home with Gilda, a pompous cockatoo puppet who disapproves of noisy children, and PC (short for Prince Charming), a laid-back frog who talks in a surfer-dude kind of way. Also hanging around the place are two gophers, who talk to the viewers in the style of American news reporters and have the ability to go inside people's minds and analyse their feelings with the aid of symbolic imagery.
This is the kind of thing I don't really get. Or rather, I don't believe the target audience of small children really get. It's very much in the Sesame Street tradition, I suppose, but I can only see the kid viewers being confused and outright disturbed by these scenes. Anyway, the chipmunks have arrived, brought by Dave (Ross Bagdasarian Jr) to spend a few days with Lalu while he's away working!
The chipmunks wear versions of their classic costumes (Alvin's shirt has a lower-case 'a'), with Theodore sporting an unusual pair of blue denim dungarees over his usual green ensemble. I admit, as usual, to paying much much more attention to the boys than the girls in this whole movie. I really need to get over this ingrained prejudice against girls!
The relative ages of the chipmunks in different fictional realities is endlessly fascinating. Here, Eleanor is a particularly young baby who needs to be taken care of. The others are more general preschool/toddler age, although Theodore comes across as a younger brother to Alvin and Simon (who form a double-act when Alvin's not doing something on his own). But on the other hand, it's Alvin who feels his place in Lalu's affections has been supplanted by new baby Eleanor, and in a rather lovely scene when she uses candles to illustrate the qualities of love, Lalu seems to suggest she first met Simon and Theodore, then Brittany and Jeanette, then Alvin, and then Eleanor. It's all a bit ambiguous, but maybe the chronology goes Simon-Alvin-Theodore as per the most recent series.
Brittany's speech is less developed, while Simon and especially Jeanette are very advanced, but that seems to be a deliberate and well-written representation of the different speeds at which children acquire language skills. And they all switch to adult fluency when it comes to singing songs about their feelings!
Of course, songs are a central part of any Chipmunk production, and I was originally going to say the songs in this one are nothing special. But again... they grow on you. And quite frankly, Theodore's "Why Can't We Play?" is a thing of beauty! So yes, great musical productions on display here!
And lessons to be learned by everyone (except Simon, who's obviously mature enough not to need it). Even Lalu - there's a definite continuing thread here of teaching the grown-ups how to take care of kids, as much as teaching kids how to deal with emotions. But everyone deals with issues such as missing Dave, being left out of games, getting in trouble for doing something bad, not getting enough attention, and so on. It's good stuff, really! The whole thing can be watched on Vimeo (nobody's copyright-blocked it in my country, anyway) if you want to give it a try. I love the insightful comment someone provided - "Movie sucks since they chipmunks are puppets Madagascar is way better"
Or if you can't spare the time for an hour and a quarter of baby chipmunks learning life-lessons (shame on you), at least listen to this track! "But you don't want to fly with me, so I am feeling blue, cause I still want to fly away with you..." Honestly, anyone without a tear in their eye at hearing that is some kind of monster.
Anyway, I'm going to rehearsals in Reading for my own puppet performance this weekend. And then, I've got the week off work before the big show the weekend following! I booked the days off just because I'm going out of my mind with stress at work and life in general lately, and want to follow the example of Simon (in the excellent episode "Back to Basics") and go and live in a tree for a few days to clear my mind. So I'll see you around!
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