Alvin and The Chipmunks: Holiday Gift Set

The holiday season is coming fast. It should come as no surprise with all of the Chipmunk DVDs being released that a Holiday Collection was going to be included. Of all of the sets, this is the best. There 12 episodes in all, and each is among the best of the classic show. You get three discs, one for each of the upcoming special days: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There’s plenty of Chipmunk antics and some great song selections included in each disc.

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.

Here’s a breakdown of the three discs and the cartoon episodes included in each:

Trick Or Treason:

Trick Or Treason

Babysitter Fright Night

Theodore’s Life As A Dog

Nightmare On Seville Street

No Chipmunk Is An Island

Alvin’s Thanksgiving Celebration:

A Chipmunk Celebration

Food For Thought

Cookie Chomper III

Dave’s Getting Married

A Chipmunk Christmas:

A Chipmunk Christmas

Merry Christmas Mr. Carroll

Dave’s Wonderful Life

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.

Final  Thoughts

Spend some quality time with the kids, the dog, the Chipmunks. It’s fun for the whole family. Look. No one is going to say that these 20 minute cartoons rank up there with The Peanuts Specials or How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The truth is they’re more silly than anything else. What better time to get silly than now?  You can only expect some easy mindless entertainment. You’re not going to learn any valuable lessons or be awarded some Christmas epiphany, but “If I were into personal growth I’d wear high heels”.