Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | Film review

After declaring creative bankruptcy in its product-placement-laden opening shot, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked liquidates the franchise’s meager assets with a story devoted to inane pop-culture references (the Sarah Palin joke is a full election cycle too late), a raft of nasty fat-kid jokes, ridiculous continuity errors (when it’s raining buckets on one side of a tiny island, the other side should be damp) and a plot that would leave even Scooby-Doo saying “ruh-roh” with his paws clamped over his eyes. The assembled acting talents, such as they are, go to waste in this cynical, slack-jawed tale of singing striped mammals who get lost at sea on their way to picking up an international music award. (David Cross, wearing a pelican mascot suit with a missing head, should take out a contract on his agent.) The only thing that rings true here is that the Chipmunks would become pop sensations by covering the likes of Lady Gaga in the age of Auto-Tune. The seven-year-old with me said it was the best of the series because the ’Munks went on an adventure, and the animation isn’t bad. So save this one for a rental when you can be safely out of the room, but know this: Chipwrecked is a train wreck.