-By: Brittany L. Reid
*Update to my original article: The website www.chipmunks.com has recently been remodeled to promote the upcoming 2015 television series. You can now connect with the show's Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube pages via the new website.
The 'History' tab that was present on the previous site has been removed.
“Watch out, ‘cause here we come! It’s been a while but, we’re back with
style!”
Indeed,
Alvin and the Chipmunks are back…AGAIN with another new look! After the success of their recent live-action
films, the munks’ designs are being revamped for a brand new television series
set to debut next year entitled, ALVINNN! And the Chipmunks!!!
Buzz of
the new TV series can be traced back to around 2010 with word spreading through
means such as
this YouTube video. Not more than two years later, fans were
treated with an idea of what the munks may look like through an interactive app
that allowed people to engage with Alvin, known as the iMunk app:
With this app, users could make
Alvin dance, play his guitar, and have him repeat whatever they said in a
rather munk-y voice.
The new design seemed to be a mesh
of the old school and the new school.
While Alvin’s basic foundation reflects the same anthropomorphic figure
of his renowned early 80s-early 90s incarnation, he is also equipped with a
chipmunk tail, stripe down the center of his face, a chipmunk nose, and darker
hair color that closely matches the fur color of his design in the live-action
features.
It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the munks
made their debut with their updated designs as well. The Chipettes’ new look quickly followed
Alvin’s in June of 2012, through the release of their cover for the song “Call
Me Maybe.” Simon and Theodore would finally
join the group with their designs in October of 2013, the year that also marked
the 30th anniversary of the Alvin
and the Chipmunks TV series, which debuted in 1983.
The chipmunks are no strangers to
redesigns. When Alvin, Simon, and
Theodore made their first appearance in 1958, they were displayed on their
album covers as real chipmunks, but were immensely different than how
they have looked in their recent motion pictures.
At the time, it was Ross
Bagdasarian Sr. who served as the munks’ “father,” having brought that munk-y
voice to life for his popular song “Witch Doctor.” He would soon affix that voice to many more novelty
records, including the infamous “The Chipmunk Song” (“Christmas Don’t Be Late”). “The Chipmunk Song” was produced after “Witch
Doctor,” and served as the melody that officially introduced Alvin, Simon, and
Theodore as a musical group. (To find out more, visit the 'History' tab on
www.chipmunks.com). With the
success of their records, they soon made their way into the homes of millions
by becoming re-mastered for the 1961 television series,
The Alvin Show, which ran for just under a year (October 1961-September 1962) and garnered a total of 26
episodes.
Bagdasarian voiced all three munks, as well as Dave Seville, throughout
the entirety of the show. After his
death in 1972, the munks were passed on to his son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., who
has kept the franchise alive alongside his wife, Janice Karman for more than
two decades. Together, they reintroduced
the munks to a new generation in the 1980s with A Chipmunk Christmas, a primetime TV special in which the munks’
designs had even more detail than they did in the 1960s. The popularity of the special led to the
creation of the Alvin and the Chipmunks television
series in 1983.
The series would last for 8 years
before being syndicated in reruns on a variety of television networks. This
was the cartoon in which The Chipettes first made their debut, giving
the female audience 3 characters in the animation world that they could
relate too alongside the boys. Ross and
Janice wrote the stories for the show, and provided the voices for the
characters. Ross voiced Alvin, Simon,
and Dave, while Janice voiced Theodore and the Chipettes.
The
franchise produced albums, lunchboxes, VHS tapes, apparel, and action
figures galore. The show’s popularity
would result in munks’ first theatrical feature, The Chipmunk Adventure, which premiered in 1987. In 1988, the series was renamed to, The
Chipmunks. By the early 1990s, they
were honored with a Rockin' through
the Decades special, recognizing their popularity throughout history.
It’s been over 20 years since the
munks have been showcased on the small screens of homes worldwide via their own
TV series. As it stands, their new show
has reportedly been picked up by over 70 Nickelodeon channels around the world
(excluding North America and Brazil).
According to an article published on February 24th, 2014 on
Animationmagazine.net, the
show has been scheduled for two seasons of 104 episodes, each 11 minutes
long. Each episode will also feature an
original song by the Bagdasarians. Ross
Bagdasarian Jr. and his wife, Janice Karman, shall provide the voices for the
characters once again, just as they did during the Eighties and the Nineties.
“It’s
a different style of animation. My dad created a look in the Sixties and Janice
redesigned it beautifully for the Eighties with a very classic look, less
stylized, and then redesigned it again for the movies. This is the next
iteration; fresh and new but with the essence of the characters, both in look
and story,” Ross has stated (
Tbivision.com).
The series will be produced by
Bagdasarian productions and OuiDO! (previously Genao) productions for PGS
Entertainment.
BUT WAIT! That’s not all! In addition to the television series, fans
can get hyped for an expected 4
th live-action movie to hit cinemas
during the 2015 holiday season! There’s
been no official word on the plot of the film yet. However, according to the
International MovieDatabase, the movie is currently in pre-production and aiming for a release
date of December 11.
Between
their return to TV and their new movie, you can bet that the year 2015 will
most likely see an increase in munk-y merchandise to promote their continuous
rise in entertainment industry.
