Post by Simon on Apr 29, 2015 15:55:56 GMT -6
A lot of you know that I'm a puppeteer, so I figure I might as well share my thoughts and reactions to LITTLE ALVIN AND THE MINI-MUNKS, and throw in my half-a-cent's worth on it.
First things first, from the get-go, I love the concept of having the Chipmunks and Chipettes depicted as puppets with live-action Dave, I really do - I'll even admit I used to have the fantasy in the back of my mind of one day producing a co-production with Bagdasarian Productions with the characters as puppets (though I would have taken a different route and age the characters up to thirteen and put them in Grade 8, to further explore possible character development like I did in my fanfics). The premise of the Mini-munks, however, is a cute idea that's been done before, it's like the reverse effect of Muppet Babies, where the characters were originally puppets and became animated characters as tots, whereas the Munks and Ettes were originally animated characters and became puppets as tots.
The puppets themselves look great from a design and character standpoint, but as far as the actual puppets go, I can see small number of flaws that could have been worked out. For one thing, the puppets really didn't seem to have any necks, or at least necks that would have allowed for better movement and flexiblity, because they come off as stiff and tad cumbersome to see their whole bodies move when they move their heads from one side to another (and believe me, that one my very first mistake I learned from eleven years ago). I'm also trying to figure out how exactly they moved their arms and hands without rods or anything like that (it looks similar to how puppets like Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse work, but I've never been able to figure those out, unless they have some kind of mechie - short for mechanism - that moves their arms). The overall manipulation of the puppets, while pretty good, isn't the best I've ever seen, but then again, this isn't the Muppets we're working with. The voices were odd, too: Theodore and Brittany were really the only ones who sounded like Chipmunks (Britt's little speech impediment was adorable), Alvin sounded like an actual little kid, Simon sounded a little deeper than he usually does, and at times Jeanette could sound like Dexter (I kept waiting to hear her screech, "Bree-ta-nee! Geet out of my la-bor-a-tor-ee!") The characterizations seemed a little off: Simon and Theodore were okay, Alvin was kind of wimpy, Brittany was a little static, and Jeanette was surprisingly a little brat.
Ross and Janice were rather good as Dave and Lalu. Seeing Ross as Dave really makes me wish Fox wasn't such a fuddy-duddy and let him be Dave in the movies; Jason Lee was horribly, horribly miscast, you can tell he doesn't even want to be there (in fact, I heartell the only reason he accepted the role was because among others it had been offered to Bill Murray, his hero). I mean, whereas Ross, Sr. was David Seville back in the day, Ross, Jr. pretty much embodies David Seville now. Janice as Lalu was also pretty good too, and seeing that Mini-munks was actually her creation brings to mind that prior to her and Ross coming together, she actually had something of an acting/producing career . . . even though it was mostly B-grade sexploitation movies. Lalu was a rather caring and loving babysitter, even going to far as to decorate her cottage for the Munks and Ettes' visit, that was sweet. The other characters were okay - not that great, but they served their purpose.
The songs were all really sweet too. I really liked the Elvis-inspired number "Dumped for Someone New" (I actually remember when an excerpt from it used to be on chipmunks.com), but I believe "Friends" was probably my favorite: seeing Dave and Lalu sitting at the piano with the kids, all singing together, kinda makes you feel all warm and tingly and squishy inside.
The little Imagine Spots sprinkled throughout the movie makes it feel akin to ARTHUR as well, so those were nice little additions as well . . . ah, remember the days when kids had imaginations? I mean, yeah, I may have grown up in the 90s, and we already had cable, video games, and the internet was a tadpole at the time, but even then we prefered actual playtime and we had imaginations then, as opposed to today when babies have tablets and phones placed in their hands as soon as their yanked out of the womb.
So, all in all, I think this definitely merits some checking out for those who haven't already seen it. It's a shame this movie is as rare as it is, I believe Bagdasarian Productions only put out 1,000 copies of the DVD or so. It was still on YouTube the last I checked.
First things first, from the get-go, I love the concept of having the Chipmunks and Chipettes depicted as puppets with live-action Dave, I really do - I'll even admit I used to have the fantasy in the back of my mind of one day producing a co-production with Bagdasarian Productions with the characters as puppets (though I would have taken a different route and age the characters up to thirteen and put them in Grade 8, to further explore possible character development like I did in my fanfics). The premise of the Mini-munks, however, is a cute idea that's been done before, it's like the reverse effect of Muppet Babies, where the characters were originally puppets and became animated characters as tots, whereas the Munks and Ettes were originally animated characters and became puppets as tots.
The puppets themselves look great from a design and character standpoint, but as far as the actual puppets go, I can see small number of flaws that could have been worked out. For one thing, the puppets really didn't seem to have any necks, or at least necks that would have allowed for better movement and flexiblity, because they come off as stiff and tad cumbersome to see their whole bodies move when they move their heads from one side to another (and believe me, that one my very first mistake I learned from eleven years ago). I'm also trying to figure out how exactly they moved their arms and hands without rods or anything like that (it looks similar to how puppets like Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse work, but I've never been able to figure those out, unless they have some kind of mechie - short for mechanism - that moves their arms). The overall manipulation of the puppets, while pretty good, isn't the best I've ever seen, but then again, this isn't the Muppets we're working with. The voices were odd, too: Theodore and Brittany were really the only ones who sounded like Chipmunks (Britt's little speech impediment was adorable), Alvin sounded like an actual little kid, Simon sounded a little deeper than he usually does, and at times Jeanette could sound like Dexter (I kept waiting to hear her screech, "Bree-ta-nee! Geet out of my la-bor-a-tor-ee!") The characterizations seemed a little off: Simon and Theodore were okay, Alvin was kind of wimpy, Brittany was a little static, and Jeanette was surprisingly a little brat.
Ross and Janice were rather good as Dave and Lalu. Seeing Ross as Dave really makes me wish Fox wasn't such a fuddy-duddy and let him be Dave in the movies; Jason Lee was horribly, horribly miscast, you can tell he doesn't even want to be there (in fact, I heartell the only reason he accepted the role was because among others it had been offered to Bill Murray, his hero). I mean, whereas Ross, Sr. was David Seville back in the day, Ross, Jr. pretty much embodies David Seville now. Janice as Lalu was also pretty good too, and seeing that Mini-munks was actually her creation brings to mind that prior to her and Ross coming together, she actually had something of an acting/producing career . . . even though it was mostly B-grade sexploitation movies. Lalu was a rather caring and loving babysitter, even going to far as to decorate her cottage for the Munks and Ettes' visit, that was sweet. The other characters were okay - not that great, but they served their purpose.
The songs were all really sweet too. I really liked the Elvis-inspired number "Dumped for Someone New" (I actually remember when an excerpt from it used to be on chipmunks.com), but I believe "Friends" was probably my favorite: seeing Dave and Lalu sitting at the piano with the kids, all singing together, kinda makes you feel all warm and tingly and squishy inside.
The little Imagine Spots sprinkled throughout the movie makes it feel akin to ARTHUR as well, so those were nice little additions as well . . . ah, remember the days when kids had imaginations? I mean, yeah, I may have grown up in the 90s, and we already had cable, video games, and the internet was a tadpole at the time, but even then we prefered actual playtime and we had imaginations then, as opposed to today when babies have tablets and phones placed in their hands as soon as their yanked out of the womb.
So, all in all, I think this definitely merits some checking out for those who haven't already seen it. It's a shame this movie is as rare as it is, I believe Bagdasarian Productions only put out 1,000 copies of the DVD or so. It was still on YouTube the last I checked.
