Alvin and the Chipmunks take a break from their rock star careers and enroll in high school in this "Squeakquel," which again mixes live action and computer animation. The trio is as cute and cuddly as ever, but the cobbled-together story, which reintroduces their female counterparts, the Chipettes, warms over a lot of high school movie cliches. (The worst is how the girls immediately defer to bullying jocks.)
The plot leaves the Chipmunks in the care of Toby, their guardian's slacker cousin. He enrolls them in high school, where the girls think they're cute and the jocks bully them (there are toilet-dunking "swirlies"). But when the Chipmunks enter a city-wide high school music competition, up shows the villain from the first film, slimy music promoter Ian, determined to make his fortune with a Chipmunk sister trio, the Chipettes. The film includes flatulence humor, a few semi-crude expressions and very mild sexual innuendo. One Chipmunk is briefly menaced by a large bird of prey. Fine for kids 6 and older.
Favorite Family Films of 2009 There was a real shortage of live-action family films about "real people" in 2009 but a bumper crop of terrific animated features, some, such as "Coraline" and "Where the Wild Things Are," dealing with actual childhood crises in highly imaginative ways. What follows is the Family Filmgoer's list of Top 10 Family Films for 2009. These are films that will entertain children (suggested ages specified) but also older siblings and adults -- i.e. families.
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