Alvin and The Chipmunks: Daytona Jones and the Pearl of Wisdom

The Chipmunks began life oddly enough as a singing group, of sorts. They were the brainchild of struggling songwriter Ross Bagdasarian and were named after the three chief executives at Liberty records. His own alter ego David Seville’s name came from his World War II Army station in Spain. The Chipmunks first appeared in a 1958 record called The Witch Doctor, but wouldn’t officially become The Chipmunks until later that year when The Chipmunks Christmas Song was released. It is for that Christmas music that I most remember the group. They first appeared as puppets on The Ed Sullivan Show. Alvin and the boys got their own television show in 1961. When Ross died in 1972, the Chipmunks would continue on under the guidance of his son. In 1983 The Chipmunks had yet another popular cartoon show and had appeared in countless specials and films. Today they are pretty much a hallmark at the holidays, and a Christmas song collection just wouldn’t be complete without them.

When the later cartoon series ran starting in 1983, the show from time to time spoofed many of the popular films of the time. Over the years everything from Star Trek to Star Wars received the Chipmunk treatment. Collectively these episodes have often been released under the title Chipmunks Go To The Movies and have even appeared with Roger Ebert. Now with the return of Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, it seemed like a good time to revisit one of those 20 minute Chipmunk adventures. The problem with that idea is that 20 minutes does not a sellable DVD make. I’m afraid this will hold more nostalgic value for the adults than entertainment value for the kids. The prints aren’t clean enough to work without trying their patience, and the Robocop references might be completely over their heads. This release features three of the gang’s spoofs:

Daytona Jones And The Pearl Of Wisdom: .Just as he’s about to recover the second half of a shell artifact, Dr. Jones is once again foiled by his arch nemesis Bellyache. The two shells together form two halves of a map to the location of The Pearl Of Wisdom, which can answer any question put to it. Can Daytona and his brother Saratoga stop Bellyache from finding the powerful pearl? Not likely.

Batmunk: Fighting crime with the use of clever gadgets and vehicles the billionaire toymaker Brice Wayne is Batmunk. The Jokester wants to control Wayne’s latest toy invention intended to raise money for orphans. Can Batmunk stop the evil plans of The Jokester? Maybe.

Robomunk: Part machine. Part cop. Robomunk must stop an evil trash machine from littering the entire city. Can Robomunk put a stop to this machine and its creator? Possibly.

Video

Each episode of The Chipmunks is presented in its original full frame broadcast format. Colors are actually pretty good here, but the print suffers from a lot of damage. There are a lot of specks and other unfriendly artifacts covering the entire print. The animation lines often appear fuzzy. It looks as though no real restoration effort was made here.

Audio

The Dolby Digital Mono track is actually in better shape than the video, but not by much. The songs sound pretty distorted, and I can’t even figure out what they’re saying most of the time. Of course, that might mean the songs are in for a comeback with the younger audiences of today. With some modern music you either can’t understand them or wish that you couldn’t.

Special Features

Nothing. The extra 2 episodes are considered “bonus episodes,” but when your feature is only 20 minutes, I don’t consider them as extra.

Final  Thoughts

Hey. Who doesn’t have a soft spot for The Chipmunks? This stuff is okay, but there’s really so darn little of it that I can’t recommend getting it unless you get a real sweet deal. I’d say about $5. There is also a glut of Chipmunk releases this month. This all might have worked out better as a meatier single release. There have been some wonderful Chipmunks parodies over the years, and the Daytona Jones one is pretty good. You’ll find many of the Raiders moments Chipmunks style including the rolling boulder. Hey, “It’s all part of the movie magic”.