Alvin and the Chipmunks is a 2007 American live-action/animated jukebox musical comedy film directed by Tim Hill from a screenplay by Jon Vitti and the writing team of Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi.

The cast includes Jason Lee, David Cross, and Cameron Richardson, with voices by Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Jesse McCartney.

The plot follows chipmunks Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, who move in with struggling songwriter Dave Seville after losing their home.

When Dave discovers their singing talent, he introduces them to JETT Records executive Ian Hawke, whose plans threaten the chipmunks' newfound family dynamic.

The animation for the film was handled by Rhythm & Hues Studios, which studied real chipmunks and previous versions of the characters to design CGI models that retained the original essence.

The day worsens as Dave is fired from his marketing job due to the Chipmunks having unknowingly ruined his presentation boards.

After a misunderstanding and reading an old letter Dave wrote, the Chipmunks decide to live with Ian, who exploits their naivety by overworking them constantly.

When Ian's plan to take the Chipmunks on a twelve-month international tour is revealed on the news, Dave decides to infiltrate their concert at the Orpheum Theatre to get them back.

[8] Its success, which included topping the Billboard charts,[8] inspired Bagdasarian to apply the recording technique to create The Chipmunks: Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

[13] In June 1997, Robert Zemeckis was assigned to direct a live action adaptation with Steven Spielberg producing with Universal Pictures,[14] but the project was put on hold after the estate of Ross Bagdasarian Sr. filed a lawsuit against Universal in September 2000, claiming the studio had failed to properly license products featuring Alvin and his singing companions.

[18] Chevy Chase, Tim Allen, John Travolta, and Bill Murray were originally considered for the role of David Seville.

[32] The Chipmunks were animated by visual effects company Rhythm & Hues Studios,[33] who previously animated creatures for projects such as Babe (1995), Mouse Hunt (1997), Scooby-Doo (2002), The Cat in the Hat (2003), and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), the lattermost of which garnered Rhythm & Hues an Academy Award.

[34][35] According to Bagdasarian Jr., getting the look of the chipmunks suited for a live-action setting while maintaining the essence of the cartoon designs was challenging, and it took until September 2006 for the artists to get it right.

[40] The film score was composed and conducted by Christopher Lennertz;[41] La-La Land Records released an album of it in September 2008.

[42] Months before its release, film bloggers anticipated that Alvin and the Chipmunks would be a failure due to the involvement of the director of Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006),[43][44] the writers of Snow Day (2000), the Ice Age films, Robots (2005), Big Momma's House 2 (2006),[44] and the poor quality of previous live-action adaptations of old cartoons.

[43][45] In an August 2007 survey of 750 American teens ran by eCRUSH and OTX, Alvin and the Chipmunks was one of the most anticipated films of the 2007 fall and winter seasons in the group.

[52] The sustained box-office success surprised the studio; Elizabeth Gabler of Fox 2000 told the Los Angeles Times, "I look at the numbers every day, and we just laugh".

In December 2007, comedian Patton Oswalt made a blog joke that he and Brian Posehn were offered the role of Ian but rejected it, adding, "We both threw the script across the room in disgust.

The website's consensus reads: "Though cutely rendered, Alvin and the Chipmunks suffers from bland potty humor and a rehashed kids' movie formula.

"[62][63][64] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 39 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.

[65] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it grade A, on a scale of A+ to F.[66] Ty Burr of the Boston Globe said, "the script leans heavily on the pranks and big-eyed cuteness of the li'l guys and leaves the live actors with unfunny dialogue and nothing to do.

[70] The film's satire on commercialism faced criticism for being contradictory, as it prominently featured popular brands, including the chipmunks themselves.

"[75] However, Lee's acting did have some supporters for working as a likable protagonist,[74][79] such as Time Out, a source that thought his "wry approach lends an edge to some of the script's wittier moments.

[73] Andrew Grant called Richardson "sufficiently adorable and winsome, though the film's purity makes it difficult to imagine any sort of romantic entanglement.

"[78] Roger Ebert of RogerEbert.com wrote, "Jason Lee and David Cross manfully play roles that require them, as actors, to relate with empty space that would later be filled with CGI.