'Alvin and the Chipmunks': Cute as they ever were

As a kid, I remember the song "Christmas, Don't Be Late" by Alvin and the Chipmunks on the radio. It was singable, cute and different from the usual Christmas fare with Dave screaming "Alvin!!!" on cue (creator Ross Bagdasarian, who died in 1972, did all the voices, including Dave, the short-tempered father figure).

The movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" is about the same: cute, singable and different from the usual Christmas fare, with the story now very predictable. Because of the history of this trio of rodents, the adults in the audience will feel like it's almost a documentary, or "inspired by real events." The Christmas novelty track recorded voices sped up to sound like kids on helium was No. 1 with a bullet in the 1950s. Then, in 1983, the little guys made a comeback, bursting into animated life as a Saturday morning cartoon.

The movie, which opened last Friday, does not suck.

The kids in the audience were thrilled with "Alvin and the Chipmunks." I don't think I have heard such genuine laughter in a movie for years. The antics of the chipmunks, whether farting, or swinging from the rafters, or generally causing mayhem in Dave's house, caused the mostly very young audience to howl with delight.

For those of you not familiar with the original story, Dave (charmingly played by Jason Lee of "My Name is Earl" fame) is a hapless songwriter who cannot commit to his girlfriend and cannot seem to get a hit song. Enter three superbly choreographed specimens of tamias striatus who find themselves homeless after their pine tree is chopped down to serve as a Christmas tree at the record label's office building (this after a harmonically trilling rendition of the "American Idol" standard "Bad Day").

By antic means, Alvin, Simon and Theodore end up in Dave's house, knocking things over and overindulging. Dave, upon seeing three chipmunks in his house, almost kills them, then recovers quickly, discovers they talk and wonders if he should kill himself. When he finds out they also sing, though, he writes the Christmas classic song for them. The "Munks" promptly get signed to a record label by a producer buddy of Dave's (nasty Ian played by David Cross) and quickly become a smash sensation.

The chipmunks can cause greater, more realistic mayhem thanks to modern technology. And the whole idea of them as destructive kids gets enlarged and updated when they're turned into overworked teen pop idols. The affectionate little critters are voiced by Justin Long (Alvin), Matthew Gray Gubler of "Criminal Minds" (Simon) and real-life singing star Jesse McCartney (Theodore) -- all sped up.

The dancing cheek-stuffers cover the Bagdasarian classic "Witch Doctor" and less inspired choices such as "Funky Town." They do a few new tunes as well, and move and look more like real chipmunks than in most previous incarnations (they could have had one person do all three chipmunks, as the words with helium are almost unrecognizable). Longtime munks fans will be pleased to see that Alvin is still reckless, a self-styled "artiste." Theodore is the adorable innocent. Simon wears designer glasses now, but he's as smart as ever.

This is the pop-psych framework around which the Chipmunks is built, with Dave having to decide that he's mature enough to play father and pull his "boys" away from the corrupting life of showbiz (with those three magic words "Alvin ... Alvin ... ALVIN!!!). Lee is surprisingly convincing in the emotion department. I don't know if that's because of or despite interacting with animated co-stars, but it couldn't have been the easiest thing to do.

The director is Tim Hill of "Muppets from Space" and "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties." He is improving. The plot is predictable (cutthroat entertainment business spoils the talent), but the entertaining antics never end and the writers resort to only one poop joke (concerning the nature of raisins on the breakfast table). Hill hasn'tdone the Chipmunk tradition any damage. Not even when Alvin sings, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?"

Could've been a lot worse; it's a singing chipmunk movie, for Pete's sake.

Me, I want a hula-hoop.