Trivia / Alvin and The Chipmunks

• Christmas Rushed: Ross Bagdasarian Jr. agreed to the project when he thought that it would be released in 2008, just in time for the Chipmunks' 50th anniversary. By the time he signed on, Fox informed him that they wanted it ready by that coming Christmas.
• The Danza: In Italy, Simon Seville is voiced by Simone Crisari.
• Executive Meddling: Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and Janice Karman were set to voice the characters for the first film, (they had already done some of the voices in the trailers), and Ross was even going to play Dave, however, Twentieth Century Fox rejected this, and insisted that younger people do the voices and a younger actor for the role of Dave... though, there is speculation that Fox made this move because they wanted more marketable names attached to the movie.
• Money, Dear Boy: David Cross has made it no secret that he is only in these movies for the paycheck, publicly noting in an interview that his salary from the first film was larger than any other project he had been working on and helped him pay for a new house. He seems to have had enough with Chipwrecked though, which he called "literally, without question, the most unpleasant experience I've ever had in my professional life".
• The Other Darrin:
  • Seeing that this has been going for over fifty years, it’s understandable. Although, the reason why Jason Lee was cast as Dave Seville for the live-action movies is because the makers wanted a younger actor at the time instead of the older Ross Bagdasarian Jr..
  • Initially, Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman reprised their roles as Alvin, Simon and Theodore in the film, but were replaced at the studio's insistence with younger actors Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney respectively.
  • Simon's singing voice is provided by Steve Vining and it’s not known if he provides the singing as well as voice on new soundtracks, though either he or Matthew Gray Gubler provided one line on the ‘Ho, Ho, Ho,’ song on the Undeniable soundtrack.
• The Other Marty: Ross Bagdasarian and Janice Karman recorded all the lines for Alvin, Simon and Theodore.
• Role Reprise: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Ricardo Mendoza voices Dave Seville, reprising his previous role from the 1997 re-dub of The Chipmunk Adventure.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ross Bagdasarian Jr. was originally set to portray David Seville; however, due to his age (58 at the time of filming), the younger Jason Lee was chosen.
  • Both he and Janice recorded their lines for the Chipmunks but were replaced by younger actors for promotional reasons.
  • Tim Allen, Jim Carrey, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Ben Stiller and John Travolta were all offered and declined the role of Dave Seville.
  • Tom Cruise, Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn were offered but rejected the role of Ian Hawke.
  • Drew Barrymore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Salma Hayek and Jennifer Love Hewitt were considered for Claire Wilson.
  • Universal (under the same licensing deal that resulted in the Frankenstein and Wolfman movies) was set to release a live-action film directed by Robert Zemeckis, but production was halted.
• Word of God:
  • According to Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (and Zachary Levi) the piano seen in the movie is the actual piano Ross Bagdasarian Sr. used to write and perform "The Chipmunk Song" as well as "The Witch Doctor" that launched the Chipmunks franchise.
  • Dave's house number is 1958, the year Ross Bagdasarian created the Chipmunks and released "Witch Doctor" and the "Chipmunk Song."