Once every generation, a movie is made that acts as a clarion call for change. It slaps the movie industry in the face and tells it that, after this, nothing will ever be the same. Films as diverse as The Jazz Singer, 8½, Star Wars and Pulp Fiction have filled this role in times past and now, during this most holy and festive time of the year, a new movie has joined their ranks.
Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel is the kind of movie that works on so many levels that it's hard to know where to begin when talking about it. Is it a children's movie? A broad comedy? A musical? A portrait of courage, honor and friendship? A call for humans to live in greater harmony with the natural world? It's all of those and more.
This is not a sequel (or Squeakquel, a word we should all get used to saying in the same we got used to saying Recession and Chipotle) so much as it is a continuation of a timeless tale. The chipmunks are riding high with a successful music career. They have nothing to prove and no worlds to conquer yet they desire challenges so they go to high school. This episode of their lives is a searing, brutally honest portrait of prejudice against those who are different. Somehow, the movie manages to simultaneously make their experience sad and uplifting as it melds the pitfalls of the high school experience with the chipmunks trademark humor and a dash of music to make the whole thing one of the truly great moviegoing experiences.
Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel will serve as a blueprint for the next generation of filmmakers. It shines as a light in these trying times and uses anthropomorphic animals to show all of humanity the way forward. Seeing this movie is not mere entertainment but rather a privilege granted to us by God. When you see it, you will not be the person when you exit that you were when you entered. This is not just a Squeakquel for the first Chipmunks movie. It is the beginning of the Squeakquel of the human race itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment