Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked Review, or Adults Should Not Judge a Children's Movie

Here is an apparent problem with film criticism. Let me start by showing you two one-paragraph reviews, the first by a thirty-something adult, and the second by a seven-year old child.

ADULT

"We won't stop making movies until you all have sex and have chipmunk babies!"

Oh, Hollywood, make it stop. Please! How many sequels are you going to make before you quit? Are you going to wait for Jason Lee's hair to grow white? Yes, the Chipmunks were hit in the 60s─when music came in magnetic tapes that rolled faster when the player malfunctioned, thus creating high-pitched voices. But now, in this day and age? This is obviously a lame attempt for the Chipmunks creators to make them "appeal to a whole new generation". Frankly, they've lost their novelty decades ago, and I think we have too many people competing for the Best Pop Song Gimmick Award. I'm looking at you, Glee.


CHILD¹

I like Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chiprecked because it's funny. My favorite chipmunk is Alvin because he is wearing red. My favorite color is red. I also like Theo because he is cute and fat. The girl chipmunks are pretty. I always laugh when Dave shouts Alvin's name. He is so funny. I hate the bald man in a pelican costume because he is evil but in the end he became nice so I do not hate him anymore. I hope there is Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. I will watch it with my little sister so we can sing the songs and dance together.


There. See the problem I'm getting at? An adult judging a work meant for children will be using adult standards. But all those artsy-fartsy criticism jargon gets thrown out the window once a child decides that something is worth his or her precious time. Who are adults to judge what is or is not good for children? Broccoli is good for kids, but do kids really want to eat that?

So to resolve this conundrum, we shall just give this movie two ratings.



Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked. USA. 2011.



Adult's Rating: Four out of ten.
Children's Rating: Eight out of ten.




¹Not really a child
*some info from IMDb
pics from YouTube and All Movie Photo