Jan 22, 2020

Video essay on the highs and lows of Alvin and the Chipmunks

Sixty years is a long time in the life of a chipmunk. Alvin and his siblings were born in 1958 as insubstantial voices on a novelty record and first appeared in animated form in the 1961 CBS primetime series The Alvin Show. Since then, Ross Bagdasarian Sr.'s work has been reborn in series, films, and video games, radically changing his appearance, but never losing his squeaky voice. [Animator and Youtuber Al-Tariq Shakur Harris, aka ToonrificTariq, has created a 28-minute video essay that is a testament to his work. The video is nominally about the franchise's character design, but in the commentary he touches on everything from the show's color palette to sound mixing. Start with the following:

ToonrificTariq focuses on “The Alvin Show” and the 1980s “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and contrasts the way the two series characterize their rodent heroes. He also notes the limited animation in both series and explores how this relates to design.

He prefers the look of Alvin and friends in the 1980s, but concludes that the original series was more visually coherent. At least then, limitations were built into the design. The [later] designs were designed to be almost fluid and animated, which they were not.” The video ends as a fascinating exploration of the risks and benefits of franchise redesign.

In the process, the Youtuber mentions a “murderous” puppet incarnation of a chimpanzee, a singalong video he had as a child, and other Alvin Canon trivia. He speaks with humor and authority, and I'm glad he doesn't sound like a chipmunk.