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The Chipmunks -- self-centered Alvin, brainy Simon and naïve Theodore – are back in this CGI adaptation of the cartoon favorite. This time around, the boys interrupt their concert tour and are taken in by slacker Toby and forced to attend high school. Despite being bullied and Alvin lured away by the “popular kids,” the Chipmunks stick together through thick and thin – until their embittered former manager Ian Hawke returns to steal their thunder with a new musical group, featuring three lovely Chipettes.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squequel contains little that is outright violent, harmful or dangerous to children; but parental notions of politeness and appropriate behavior are nowhere to be found in the film. Slapstick and bullying are intense and even harsh at times, with both the Chipmunks’ mentor Dave and their Aunt Jackie hospitalized due to accidents caused by the Chipmunks. (Dave spends most of his limited screen time in traction or on crutches, while the elderly Jackie rolls down a stairway backwards in her wheelchair – and THEN is run over by a car.) At school, bullies slam balls into the Chipmunks and attempt to flush Simon down a toilet. The human Toby is also shown receiving such treatment in a flashback. Alvin retaliates by giving the bullies “wedgies” by pulling up the back of their underwear. Additional toilet and gross-out humor abounds, with Toby passing gas loudly while Theodore is trapped in bed with him; Ian eating out of a garbage can and brushing his teeth in a public fountain; and Simon thrown into the trash and fighting Alvin in a dumpster. Ian is later bashed about, and Alvin runs a miniature motorcycle into his crotch. Language is limited to a few characters exclaiming “God” or using phrases like “move your butt.” The movie’s only reference to sex is one line in which Theodore tells Dave the hospitalized Jackie is “practicing her pole dancing.”

The movie contains extensive and complimentary visual and verbal references to Toys for Tots, and Alvin learns the token lesson about family being more important than fame; but lessons are not really the point of Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squequel. Like the TV cartoon series of old, the movie is an excuse for mildly misbehaving stand-ins for children to engage in slapstick and mischief. While parents may roll their eyes, it is unquestionable that kids will find the movie irresistible – particularly young boys.  Due to the movie’s dubious propriety and hyperactive tone, the Parents Television Council does not recommend this movie for viewers under age seven.

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