Film Preview: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015)

Page Revisions:

(November 1, 2015) Original
(December 13, 2015) New Posters (#7-#11)

Release Date:

December 18, 2015

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Through a series of misunderstandings, Alvin, Simon and Theodore come to believe that Dave is going to propose to his new girlfriend in Miami…and dump them. They have three days to get to him and stop the proposal, saving themselves not only from losing Dave but possibly from gaining a terrible stepbrother.”

Poster Rating: D+ / D / C / B- (3) / C / C- / C / C- / B-

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) Apart from the car element, there’s nothing particularly inventive about the connection between title and design. (#2) The reference to the Fast and Furious franchise is obvious and plainly cheap. (#3) This is one of the franchise’s better designs even if it isn’t that clever or exciting. (#4-#6) While not a great trio of character designs, the reflections in the sunglasses fit each character’s personality more or less accurately, which makes them admirably effective.

(#7) By adding in one of the human characters, the poster gets a slight grounding effect, but that is simply not sufficient to improve over the general mediocrity on display of the posters immediately preceding and those immediately following. (#8 & #10) These two designs look like they were largely copied from prior designs, which doesn’t create any vitality to the work. (#11) This may be similar to the others, but it at least tries something entirely different, removing the vehicular element. (#12) What should have been a Chipettes version of character posters to go with #4-#6, is ultimately only one chipmunk and should be more.

Trailer Rating: C+

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: It gives away too much of the film’s plot, but that’s never dissuaded the target audience from seeking films like this out. It doesn’t deserve as much attention as it will get, but at least the cloying elements are kept to a minimum.