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64%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #7,650
...out of 20,702 movies
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When Alvin discovers that his neighbor is a werewolf, he begins an exhilarating race against time before the full moon arrives. But the real terror will come when Theodore starts acting weird too.
--IMDb
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Review by Crispy
Added: February 29, 2016
While February has been my annual werewolf celebration for some time now, some personal matters stopped me from writing any new reviews this month. Still, I wanted to get at least one done, so I figured I'd go with a bit of a novelty: this classic mischievous trio meeting the equally classic lycanthrope, Lawrence Talbot.
For the last month, Dave and the chipmunks have been woken up by the screams of Alvin's nightmares. While they typically involve the classic monsters of horror's heyday, the Wolf Man makes the most appearances by a long shot. While his family believes he just can't handle his obsessive monster fandom, Alvin is convinced it's because of his new neighbor's dog howling all night. Indeed, said neighbor, one Lawrence Talbot, is a strange, ornery guy and Alvin is quickly convinced he's a werewolf. Still, the Chipmunks have other problems keeping them occupied at school. They're involved with their school's play of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Alvin is hamming it up in the eponymous dual roles, but Theodore is being harassed by a huge bully named Nathan and his timid nature is preventing him from defending himself. When Alvin blows up the auditorium playing with a mad scientist kit, Dave and the principal decide that he needs to detox from the monsters while Theodore is recast as the evil Mr. Hyde hoping it will boost his confidence. And of course, there's still the matter of Mr. Talbot. A matter that becomes all the more pressing when Theodore suddenly becomes a lot hairier and more aggressive following a dog bite one moonlit night.
I'm sure it goes without saying that this is actually a comedy aimed at younger kids instead of an actual horror movie. Sure, the monster elements are there, but they're PG at best. I'll tell you though, with a combination of slapstick and sarcastic retorts it actually got a few laughs out of me. Always a plus, because "kiddie humor" can be annoying as shit. Also, you might notice that the plot is decently complex for an hour-long cartoon. There's three or four little subplots all winding around each other, and while the wolf man isn't exactly the main focus of the entire movie, he certainly gets his time to shine. As a werewolf fan, both the monster itself and the constant references to the 1941 classic had a smile on my face. This being an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, there's also a handful of songs throughout the running time. Like the comedy, they're certainly kids songs but they're undeniably catchy and I can't say I hated them. Again, these are usually a grating experience to endure so it was nice that they were actually tolerable.
So even with its monster themes aside, this is unabashedly a kids movie. Fortunately, it's not a horrible one for the adults to sit through either. It's perfect if your little tykes are budding horror fans but aren't quite ready for the visceral stuff. No, I wouldn't pop this in again for my own personal enjoyment, but if my kid has a flair for darker stuff, I'd have no reservations about sitting down with them for this. 7/10. Plus as an added bonus for us '90s kids, the movie features Maurice LaMarche voicing Talbot and Rob Paulsen as the play's director, in effect reuniting Pinky and the Brain for us. Nice.
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