Mark Kermode, Observer film critic 

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip review – kids’ franchise loses its way

A reliance on adult humour sees the animated chipmunks forgetting their core audience
  
  

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
Running on empty: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Photograph: Allstar/20th Century Fox

“Don’t judge me, I saw Pink Flamingos…” The latest instalment in the singing chipmunks kids’ franchise comes replete with a John Waters cameo and fleeting gags about The Exorcist, The Shining, Taken, and The Terminator. Not so much winking at its childminder audience as waving at them with both hands, this sends the rodents to Miama via New Orleans. En route, an air marshal gets drunk on moonshine, the chips wind up on the anti-terrorist no-fly list, and a carnival band plays Uptown Funk with a sousaphone. The absence of long-standing series stalwart David Cross is a shame (Tony Hale can’t quite fill the gap) but Jason Lee is back, making it business as usual.

 

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