Sunday, December 16, 2007

Walla Walla Bing Bang

As if to prove what I was saying the other day about her being criminally underused, here comes Tim Hill's film Alvin and the Chipmunks, in which the great Jane Lynch is fourth-billed but appears in literally ONE SCENE. To be fair, the voices of the chipmunks themselves are billed lower but have much more screen time, as it were. The human with the second-biggest amount of screen time is David Cross. I wonder if he ever thought, when he was on the razor-sharp cutting edge of comedy in Mr. Show, he'd be starring in a kids' movie opposite CGI rodents. Cross plays the villain here, a record-company weasel, and appears to be born to the part.

The movie does take some liberties with the Chipmunks' story: The group follows up "The Chipmunks Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with "Witch Doctor" as their second single, when in reality "Witch Doctor" was a solo joint from David Seville, the genius behind the Chipmunks music, and preceded "The Chipmunks Song." No actual Chipmunks sang on "Witch Doctor."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would swear that the little single I had of "Witch Doctor" in 1966 (or thereabouts) was labeled "David Seville and the Chipmunks." And if shown to be wrong in this assertion, I would swear more loudly and with greater enthusiasm.