Alvin And The Chipmunks: Funny, We Shrunk The Adults DVD Review

Alvin and The Chipmunks: Funny, We Shrunk the Adults may sound like a feature length spoof in its new DVD release, but it’s actually a compilation of three episodes crammed together from the 1980s/1990s television show. During the show’s run, there were a variety of episode-length movie spoofs starring Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. This DVD features three spoofs entitled “Funny, We Shrunk the Adults,” “Bigger,” and “Back to Our Future.”

“Funny, We Shrunk the Adults” is the first episode on the DVD and it proves to be the worst episode of the three, despite the fact that it’s the only episode featured on the cover of the DVD. In case the name of the episode isn’t obvious, it’s a parody of Honey, We Shrunk the Kids. In the episode, Simon’s experimental shrinking machine accidentally shrinks Dave and Ms. Miller and the Chipmunk boys have to pull together to clean up the giant mess they’ve made. The episode is too long on the front end as it has a lot of exposition to set up with Ms. Miller and Alvin’s new neighbor—a cute girl who he’s trying to impress. Even when Dave and Ms. Miller finally get shrunk, the rest of the episode essentially consists of Alvin and his brothers breaking rules around the house, which isn’t enough to sustain the third act of the episode. There was definitely potential for a great episode in the setup, but for the most part it didn’t pay off.

In “Bigger,” Alvin keeps getting trampled on because he’s a kid, so he decides that he would just skip straight to adulthood if he could. His big wish is granted when he encounters a magical jukebox, but after discovering how much work and responsibility it takes being a grown-up, he sees the value of just being a kid. “Bigger,” based on the Tom Hanks classic, Big (I know it was obvious), fairs bit better than “Funny, We Shrunk the Adults.” There is a lot more ground covered in the episode and a lot more variety to the proceedings. The Chipettes also make a cameo appearance for a musical number, which makes for a nice change of pace. You may be a little unnerved by seeing Alvin rendered as a fully grown adult, but the episode itself is much more enjoyable than the one preceding it.

Finally, in “Back to Our Future,” the boys visit the doo-wopping days of 1958, the year they were actually created, in an attempt to fix their present lives. While in the past, they meet their retro counterparts and find a lesson to be learned about history, and how it affects the events of today. This episode, a parody of Back to the Future, is easily the most entertaining and unique of the three episodes. The most enjoyable element is that when Alvin, Simon, and Theodore go back in time to meet up with themselves, their 1958 incarnations are actually the original character drawings from The Alvin Show. This means the characters look and sound the way they did in the 1960s, and it’s a blast to see the two unique incarnations of the characters juxtaposed together. In a comical self-referential nod, Alvin even comments on the art style of the 1960s world, saying that everything’s so flat and strange looking. This episode is a great one to end on, as it’s imaginative and enjoyable, and probably could have even been expanded into a feature film without running out of steam.

In fact, I would have much rather seen that episode expanded to feature length for this DVD, rather than three episodes cobbled together like they are here. It seems like a haphazard decision on the part of the studio to throw three episodes together onto a DVD when fans would rather own an entire season. Furthermore, there have been other movie spoofs done on Alvin and the Chipmunks that are better than the first two episodes on this DVD, such as the Batman, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones spoofs. Couple that with the fact that there are zero special features to be found, and this release leaves a little to be desired. Alas, this DVD is probably a shameless attempt at cashing in on the release of the 2007 film, which is being released on DVD the same day as this one. My advice would be to pick up The Chipmunk Adventure, the 1987 feature length film, for a good dose of Chipmunk fun, and wait for the show to be released in a proper DVD set.