Hollywood: Ruining One Childhood Memory at a Time

I’ve known about the movie development of popular, classic cartoon from the 80s (and, originally, the 50s) Alvin and the Chipmunks for awhile now. Upon seeing the first poster, with its image of our beloved chipmunks “hip-hop-ified”, which is a strange sight in itself, I was apprehensive about this news of a Hollywood adaptation of a cartoon that has been so entrenched into my childhood memories. I am, after all, a child of the 80s (and by “child of the 80s”, I don’t mean I am one of those kids born in the later end of the 80s and yet still refers to themselves as “child of the 80s”). On one hand, I was happy because hey, I love the Chipmunks and it would be great to see it back in mainstream popular culture. On the other hand, if the movie remake is made without respect to the essence of the show, its characters and basically what made the show what it was, then I would rather just leave the show in the past. And judging by the web’s response to the movie so far, this is a sentiment shared by many. Yes, there have been quite a few movies based on TV shows from the 80s prior to this, like the recent Transformers movie, for example. Without being as invested in those shows as I am with Alvin and the Chipmunks, I was pretty much indifferent to it all. What makes this remake different is that this is for a TV show I watched religiously as a child and, for the sake of nostalgia, I would rather keep my memories untarnished by a shoddy Hollywood remake.

Original Chipmunks > this new, bastardized versionWell, the first trailer for the movie has come out. From what I’ve seen, it reminds me of what they did to Garfield, which is to say, it just seems… off. Whenever they decide to make a cartoon into a live-action movie, with digitalized characters but actual actors and background, it just doesn’t feel right. Or I may even go as far as to say it simply ruins the original and ruins childhood memories in the process. As much as I am unimpressed by how they seem to have digitally rendered the Chipmunks, I have to admit that the movie version of Theodore is pretty darn cute. I might watch the movie when it’s released at the end of the year if the reviews are decent though, mostly for the sake of curiosity. I really hope they do it justice.

They’ve already ruined Inspector Gadget. I say, they better stay away from my Babar, Muppet Babies and Duck Tales. And anyone else remember the short-lived Denver the Last Dinosaur and My Pet Monster? Those were awesome shows with even more awesome theme songs. They had some good cartoons back in my day.

And just for old times’ sake…