Accidentally-Correct Writing: To further distinguish chipmunk from chipmunk during the first part of the movie, Alvin and Theodore's eyes are recolored brownish-amber and green, respectively, while Simon keeps his blue eyes. Blue eyes are said to be the weakest common eye color and more likely to need glasses than green or brown.
Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and David Seville were all voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. starting with "The Chipmunk Song" all the way through The Alvin Show and the Chipmunks albums up to 1964, when he started having session singers handle the Chipmunk singing, while he still did their speaking voices.
Since the '80s, Alvin, Simon, and Dave have been voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., while Theodore and all three Chipettes are voiced by his wife, Janice Karman.
Later still, when the series switched to DiC for animation, almost all of the additional one-shot characters were voiced by their associate producer Thom Watkins, with Ross occasionally stepping in for other additional male characters, while Janice voiced most additional female characters.
On the second-draft Concept AlbumChipmunk Punk, each chipmunk is sung by a different singer as well: Ross Bagdasarian Jr. was Alvin, Steve Vining was Simon and Dave Adams of Glass Moon was Theodore.
Played for Laughs on one compilation album in which Alvin "interviews" Ross Bagdasarian Jr.
Approval of God: Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. asked The Beatles for permission to record The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits in 1964. The Fab Four said yes, but on the condition that the Chipmunks would just sing the songs straight without any comedic gimmicks, so they did.
Fan Community Nickname: Some fans call themselves "Chipaholics," though there really isn't (so far) an actual community nickname for the fandom.
Follow the Leader: In the immediate aftermath of "The Chipmunk Song" there was the emergence of other sped-up musical productions like The Nutty Squirrels and "The Happy Reindeer" by Dancer, Prancer and Nervous, a moderate Christmas novelty hit in 1959. In The '70s there was Shirley & Squirrely, who jumped on the Hollywood CB bandwagon and scored a Top 40 hit on the Country Music chart with “Hey Shirley (This Is Squirrely)”. In 1975 there was also a point-for-point Cover Version of "The Chipmunk Song" credited to The Whales, using the exact opposite gimmick of slowing voices down to give them a basso profundo sound, though it wasn't a hit.
He Also Did: In the early years of the franchise, before their basic designs were formalized for The Alvin Show, Ross Bagdasarian would do variety show appearances with rotating sets of Chipmunk puppets, with one set designed by none other than Bob Clampett (during his Time for Beany era).
KFC released figures of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore in the 1990 and 1991 holiday seasons. The 1991 set had articulated figures of Alvin on guitar, Simon on saxophone, and Theodore on drums.
McDonald's released a set of four figures with accessories in their Happy Meals in 1991. Alvin had a rock guitar, Simon had a movie camera, Theodore had a turntable, and Brittany had a jukebox.
Dairy Queen released a set of four musical instruments in 1994. These consisted of an Alvin pan flute, a Simon maraca, a Theodore kazoo, and a Chipmunks tambourine.
Market-Based Title: In Poland, the franchise is referred to as Alvin i wiewiórki (literally Alvin and the Squirrels). This might have something to do not only with chipmunks not being present in nature in Europe (unlike squirrels), but also because Alvin i pręgowce amerykańskie doesn't roll off the tongue that easily...
Outlived Its Creator: The franchise well outlived Ross Bagdasarian Sr., who passed away in 1972. His son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., revived the franchise in The '80s, starting with the 1980 album Chipmunk Punk.
Sleeper Hit: David Seville had already scored a #1 novelty hit in 1958 with "Witch Doctor", but no one expected that "The Chipmunk Song" (Christmas, Don't Be Late)" would become one of the biggest selling singles in the history of recorded music up to that point, with over 6 million copies sold. According to Liberty Records, it sold 600,000 copies in a single day in December of '58, with even places like flower shops and cigar shops stocking the single. It had one of the fastest climbs of its era on the Billboard Hot 100, hitting #1 in just its fourth week on the chart (debuting at 62 and jumping to 37, then 10, then 1). It's also credited with singlehandedly saving Liberty from bankruptcy.
Technology Marches On: Many times you see Simon referencing the latest computers as being incredible, despite graphics which have visible pixels and being roughly the size of a microwave oven. Audio equipment is similarly outdated, using reel-to-reel recording devices instead of digital media which was gaining popularity even in the late eighties when this show was produced. "Back to Our Future" lampshades this phenomenon by having the '60s Chipmunks all amazed at the advances in technology.
'60s Alvin: Incredible! There's music coming from these little silver thingies! '60s Simon: And this computer has as much information on it as the public library! '60s Theodore: Look at this TV! It's color! And it has more than three channels!
The entire franchise almost didn't happen. After writing "The Chipmunk Song" in 1958, Ross Bagdasarian recognized that it had a catchy melody, but wasn't sure if the public would buy the "chipmunk" concept, so he attempted to rework it as both an Instrumental and a straight pop song called "In a Village Park", before deciding that the chipmunk version worked the best.
An art portfolio of Dan Haskett's has a series of drawings of the Chipettes all grown up, which might possibly lead to an animated Chipmunks movie where the Chipmunks and Chipettes grew up.
Write Who You Know: Bagdasarian chose chipmunks for the "sped up" voice on his novelty records after a chance encounter with a feisty chipmunk he braked for while out for a drive, who seemed to egg him on.
This special's the first time both Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman took over the vocal roles of Dave Seville and the Chipmunks note Ross Bagdasarian Jr. voicing Alvin and Simon with Janice Karman voicing Theodore and would be throughout the franchise until the live action/CGI movies with Jason Lee. note Though Ross still provides Alvin's singing voice, Janice does Theodore and the Chipettes' singing voice and Steve Vining for Simon
Charles Berendt voices Clyde Crashcup instead of Shepard Menken here.
Real-Life Relative: Husband and wife Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman picked up the franchise. Then later on, their kids Vanessa and Michael started helping them.
In the original Latin American Spanish dub, María Fernanda Morales voiced both Alvin and Brittany.
Really taken to new levels during the DiC era of the show; by then, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and Janice Karman did almost all of the voices themselves (notice an increase in characters who sound almost like Dave, and all the female characters have the same voice), while their associate producer, Thom Watkins, did the rest. By then, the only characters who weren't voiced by Bagdasarian, Karman, or Watkins were Miss Miller (Dody Goodman) and Lilly the puppy (Frank Welker).
Beam Me Up, Scotty!: A rare visual example. For many years, fans believed that the infamous "Sploosh" episode had Simon and Jeanette kissing (mostly thanks to the few screencaps from the episode circulating around the internet including a cap of them leaning in for a smooch). When the episode finally surfaced briefly on YouTube in 2011, and officially released on DVD later that same year, it turns out The Big Damn Kiss was nothing more than an Almost Kiss.
Creator Backlash: Ross Bagdasarian Jr. is not very fond of the Ruby-Spears -produced episodes of the series, which are the first five seasons.
The Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) for the Italian and Japanese dubs.
A somewhat bizarre example happens in the Latin American Spanish dub: In the first half of the series, Alvin is voiced by María Fernanda Morales, a woman, but in the rest of the series, she was replaced by Jesse Conde, a male voice actor who normally voice old men rather than kids (like Asterix, Kozo Fuyutsuki and being also Stan Lee's voice in many of his cameos), albeit this is not very notable in this case, because his voice, just like the rest of the chipmunks, was sped-up. The same happens with Simon as well.
Edited for Syndication: 65 episodes were syndicated by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1988. They were the first five seasons, both Valentines and Reunion primetime specials, and the 11 Murakami-Wolf-Swenson episodes from season 6. In most markets, almost every episode from the first three seasons, as well as a handful from the fourth are sped up (similar to PAL) to conserve time for longer commercial breaks. Some season 3 episodes left the speed alone, but trimmed certain scenes out. In the U.S., a later broadcast on the Cartoon Network left out the the individual episode title cards from the Ruby-Spears episodes, though international markets always retained them. These title cards were originally narrated by Casey Kasem (the announcer for NBC's Saturday Morning programming at the time), but were replaced with Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.'s voice-overs for Dave and Alvin. New commercial bumpers were also added (also narrated by Ross Jr. performing as Dave and Alvin), and a Lorimar-Telepictures logo was inserted at the end of each episode from this package.
While there have been plenty of DVDs featuring episodes from the show, many episodes have yet to be rereleased on video thanks to the show not receiving a full rerelease. It doesn't help that Bagdasarian Productions has a habit of re-releasing the exact same compilation DVDs (with maybe an additional entry or two with certain releases) year after year, under different titles.
Different episodes, in different forms, continually pop up on various different video sharing sites, such as YouTube or Dailymotion, though they do suffer from being pulled for copyright, whether from Bagdasarian Productions, or other companies such as Warner Bros. (particularly uploads from Cartoon Network recordings).
Long-Runners: While most Saturday Morning cartoons lasted a season or two at best, this cartoon lasted for eight seasons, with over 100 episodes, and spawning a number of TV specials associated with it.
Missing Episode: "Cookie Chomper III" was rarely rerun after its' initial airing due to its' subject matter.
No Export for You: The Japanese dub aired select episodes of the series. For example, Kong! and Robomunk were the only episodes from The Chipmunks Go To The Movies (the final season) to be dubbed and aired in Japanese.
The Hungarian dub only aired the first two seasons.
Grandma Seville seems to gain a new voice each time she appears and Ross Jr. replaced Alan Young as Grandpa Seville in his last appearance.
Janice Karman voices Vinny instead on June Foray in her second appearance.
Real-Life Relative: In the first Italian dub (in which Cooperativa Doppiatori Cinematografici (CDC)note Film Dubbing Cooperative in Italian covered the Ruby-Spears episodes, seasons 1-5), Dave Seville was voiced by Vittorio Stagni, the real-life father of Ilaria Stagni (who voiced Alvin since season 2). For the Chipettes, Barbara De Bortoli (who voiced Brittany since season 2) is sisters with Federica De Bortoli (Eleanor Miller).
Recycled Script: "Home Sweet Home" (season 7, episode 2a) parallels "My Pharoah Lady" (season 5, episode 2b). In the former, Alvin claims that Michael Jackson will visit the school in exchange for votes for Carnival King (in which Ricky is also campaigning for). In the latter, Brittany bets Missy Snootson that if King Rutintootin was not real, then Brittany would resign from running from Carnival Queen. Unlike "Pharoah Lady" (where Brittany loses the bet at the end), Alvin's fate for Carnival King is inconclusive.
Despite Jason Lee being the new Dave Seville, Ross Jr. still provides his vocals on a couple of soundtracks.
Goodman reprised her role of Miss Miller in Meet Frankenstein as well as Meet the Wolfman nine years after the 80s/90s series.
Janice Karman still provides the singing voices of Theodore and the Chipettes as well as doing their voices in two of the video games. She fully reprises her role for the 2015 series.
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: In their debut episode, The Chipettes don matching pleated yellow dresses for concerts and public appearances. It was the only episode of the series to feature them in these dresses. However, when The Chipmunks Posable Play Pals line was released, figures of The Chipettes wearing the dresses were released.
Write Who You Know: In "Cookie Chomper III", the dog the Chipmunks adopted is named Lilly, who was named after Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman's dog, Tiger Lily. She served as the real-life inspiration for this episode, and like Cookie Chomper III, Tiger Lily was also run over by a car and died.
This incident also served as inspiration for elements of the Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures episode "Mighty's Benefit Plan," which features a Chipmunk parody called Elwee and the Tree Weasels. Producer-director Ralph Bakshi sublet studio space from the Bagdasarians, and witnessed the event in question. How Bakshi incorporated it into Mighty Mouse is in questionable taste, but consistent with his sense of humor.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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."
The Squeakquel
Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released a set of six talking figures in their Happy Meals. These consisted of Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor.
Reality Subtext: The Squeakquel involved Brittany being elevated to the front of the band against their wishes. Reminiscent of the naming of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" no doubt, but what song are they rehearsing? "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé, who went through this in Real Life.
So My Kids Can Watch: Zachary Levi's reason for doing The Squeakquel was so once he had kids of his own, he could watch this film with them.
What Could Have Been: Dave was supposed to have a larger role in The Squeakquel. However, his screentime was shortened, due to scheduling conflicts with Jason Lee's lead role in the fourth and final season of My Name Is Earl, and ultimately changed to Alvin accidentally injuring Dave and leaving him hospitalized for days. His caretaker role was taken over by Zachary Levi, Dave's lazy cousin Toby.
Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released a set of eight figures in beach gear in their Happy Meals. These consisted of Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette, Eleanor, and two different variants of Alvin and Simon.
The Other Darrin: Alan Tudyk replaces Matthew Gray Gubler (for reasons unknown) when Simon gains the French accent, but Steve Vining still does the singing. Then when Simon’s back to normal, he’s voiced by Gubler once again.
Recycled Script: The film is likely based on the episode, from the '80 animated show, "Island Fever" where The Chipmunks and The Chipettes go to perform on a high class cruise ship, the Island Lady and, because of Alvin, they drift in the ocean until they shipwreck on an desert island.
The Road Chip:
Adored by the Network: And how! Cartoon Networkloved airing this movie in 2018 and 2019 to the point where they would air it twice in just one day. There was one point in 2018 where it aired every weekday.
Dawson Casting: Miles is apparently a teenager, but is played by the 23-year-old Josh Green.
Franchise Killer: While the previous three Chipmunks films did well at the box office (although they all had a poor critical reception), Twentieth Century Fox, originally planning a December 23rd release for the fourth installment of the series, decided to cash in on counter-programming by bumping it up to a Dec. 18th date, putting it in direct competition with the highly anticipated Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens from former longtime partner Lucasfilm, who disassociated themselves from Fox after being bought by Disney. The Road Chip didn't stand a chance — The Force Awakens proceeded to utterly demolish it at the box office, raking in a record-breaking $100 million on opening day alone and over $1 billion worldwide just barely after its first week, making it the highest-grossing film of the 2010s. The Road Chip crashed and burned at a meager $14,287,159 on the same weekend, limping to $47,539,910 the same week, then $64,050,442 worldwide. On top of that, The Force Awakens was universally lauded by critics as a true-to-form comeback for the Star Wars franchise, while The Road Chip was utterly eviscerated by critics. In all likelihood, the film's resounding failure brought the Chipmunks film series to an end, being the second negative business-changing bust of the year for Fox after the attempted Fantastic Four reboot. Fortunately, ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks did well enough to escape this fate.
Release Date Change: The film was originally targeted for a December 23, 2015 release, but Fox changed it to the same date as the highly-anticipated seventhStar Warsmovie in an attempt to cash in on counter-programming. While not making as much money as previous films in the series, it's surprisingly done rather well, with a worldwide gross of $171,423,832 as of February 9th.
What Could Have Been: If IMDb trivia is to be believed, one early draft of the script featured Claire from the first movie returning and fulfilling the role taken by Samantha in the final film.
◊ took the ‘Dave Seville’ mantle, Janice Karman wanted the character to be based on her husband, well, take a look at all the incarnation from A Chipmunk Christmas
