I was positively surprised by this one.

I'm not a fan of the high-pitched Chipmunks and Chipettes music, but I grew up with the cartoon show and, yes, I like the live action movies because all six + Dave always have quite likable personalities.

And that's the same in this movie. If you like the 1983 show, this is a perfectly fitting movie to it with the characters actually engaging in a quite serious adventure including criminals, smuggling and kidnapping.

The plot isn't crazy special, and certainly off to an unrealistic start, but hey, if you wanna see the girls and boys having an adventure, just like what they're always about, it's certainly fun!

I was surprised about the backgrounds. Like in many bigger animated movies with theatrical release at that time, many of the scebe backgrounds look really lovely and detailed.

Several statues in Greece, detailed trees and other plants in the jungle, the movie really uses the "travel around the world" theme to show off some really nicely painted locations!

In addition to that, the characters, well, mostly the Chipettes, are even shown in several different kind of outfits of several styles, and I always love when cartoons actually give characters different outfits from time to time.

With the quite serious antagonists, parts of the movie even felt like a slightly more lighthearted, slightly less emotionally deep "Rescuers" adventure, and thr variety of music moods is nice, as well.
I mean, hey, there's a dance scene with snakes!

So, yeah, if you liked the 1983 show, Chipmunks and Chipettes in general, or just a cute, mostly child-friendly adventure, you might like this. I certainly did.

Fair warning: Like other reviews said, this movie DOES contain several racial stereotypes, like dangerous Arabs and human sacrifice indigenous people.

But that aside, a fun and cute movie.

As usual I like Simon and Jeanette the most! 😊