I'm making this post because Christmas is a coming and 2023 is the 65th anniversary of the Chipmunks.
Man, up until Christmas 2023, it's been a while since I heard
The Chipmunk's Christmas song "CHRISTMAS DON'T BE LATE".
It was recorded on Vinyl way back in 1958... odd that it was recorded on Halloween but appropriately released on December.
And the Chipmunks didn't look like the cartoon rodents or baby-faced rodents we know and love. Instead, the album art made them look a lot more like actual Chipmunks.So why did they change from these realistic designs to the cartoony designs we now know and love?
This was the beginning of the era of limited animation where many animation studios were moving away from theatres to television.
Of course, Alvin didn't start it's life as a cartoon at first.
As you can see from that LP Cover, the chipmunks started as a series of Novelty songs.
As a matter of fact, the Chipmunks didn't start with Christmas.... well sort of.
The Chipmunks first officially appeared in "Christmas Don't be late!" but their voices or rather the amalgamation of the technique used for their voices was first featured in an earlier album Witch Doctor.
If you've noticed, The Chipmunk's ditched their realistic designs for a more appealing Cartoony Rodent design shown above because this was the early 1960s and the age of semi-realistic characters was frowned upon by many an animation house due to budget constraints.
Also, Dave Seville looks much more simplistic compared to the semi-realistic version from the 1980s series but to be honest, I prefer this version of Dave than his 80's incarnation.
The reason I prefer 60's Dave Seville is because here, he was a no-nonsense curmudgeon who wants his adopted sons to be model American Citizens but the Chipmunk's drive him nuts.
But in the end, he deeply cares for his rodent children and wants the best for them.
So what happened? Why is the 1960's ALVIN SHOW not talk about that often compared to the 1980s version to which a lot of people believe was the first time they've seen the Chipmunks?
Well blame it on CBS's executives for mishandling the marketing and timeslot. Just like The Flintstones, The Alvin Show was broadcast on Primetime, meaning, it was broadcast during the night hours when most of it's intended audience which is children were already fast asleep.
A combination of competition from The Flintstones as well as Spaghetti Westerns spelled the death knelt for the series and the only reason people have even heard of the series is due to it's ratings improving in syndication during the 1970s.
On top of that, Ross Bagdasarian Sr. suffered a heart attack and died in 1972 so that left the property to his son Ross Bagdarasian Jr.
Ross Jr. was able to keep his father's creations alive and well,
by making more albums...
as well as a 1981 Christmas Special featuring animation from Chuck Jones.
That being A CHIPMUNK CHRISTMAS.
Broadcast on NBC on December 14 1981.
After the Success of the Christmas Special, NBC wanted to continue on with new ALVIN material so they gave the go-ahead to create a new version for 80s Children.
(Either born in the early 80s or are hold outs from the mid to late 70s.)
But for some bizarre reason, NBC's executives mandated a design change to the Chipmunks where they took away the Chipmunk's earlier 60s Hanna-Barbera designs and redrew them with these Baby-Faced designs shown below.
"First: RUBY SPEARS, Second: Murakami Wolf-Swenson, Last: DIC Entertainment."
I never understood why Bagdasarian Productions ditched the already perfectly cartoony look for the Chipmunks from the prior years for this baby-faced look. I blame it all on NBC executives who veto all the good design ideas for what they feel should appeal to children.
While appeal to children it achieved, I felt it alienated the older fans of the 60's incarnation.
But this is the version many Gen Xers grew up with and those same Gen Xers who've opened up these Facebook or Instagram pages on 80's nostalgia fiercely believe that the Chipmunks started in the 1980s because they were barely exposed to TV reruns or VHS recordings of the 1960s version.
If I were to watch this incarnation, I'd prefer the earlier Ruby-Spears episodes over the later Murakami-Wolf and DIC episodes since the earliest episodes retain the designs from the earlier Christmas Special.
Here's some interesting meta:
"WE'RE THE CHIPMUNKS" the opening song in the 80s version makes it pretty clear that the show is actually the second incarnation of the franchise as it contains a part in the lyrics that references it's
1961 predecessor.
If you hear the verse "It's been while but we're back in style now!" it clearly references the 60s version which by the time the 80's version premiered, it had been 21 years since CBS's cancelation of the 60's version so yeah, even the show has to make meta references to an earlier incarnation.
Same with how Disney's DOUG was required to make references to the earlier Nick Version by not only including re-animated flashbacks to the Nick episodes but when ever characters have their own flashbacks, they are required to wear their original Nick outfits to maintain consistency.
You know how Dave Seville, despite his simplistic design, was a caricature of Ross Sr, well the artists wanted to make the 80's version look more like a caricature of Ross Jr and this was actually reflected in the times Seville appeared on screen where he looked a lot like Ross Jr.
My criticism of the 80's designs of the Chipmunk's however are moot because the show pretty much was taken over by the Chipettes
Created by Corny Cole, these three girls practically stole the show from the Chipmunks to the point that the show was renamed to THE CHIPMUNKS in 1988 during the later Murakami Wolf era.
However, just as I prefer the 60's version of the Chipmunks, I personally prefer the original Corny Cole Designs of the Chipettes over the later Sandra Berez designs.
I don't care for the live action films and certainly don't care for the CG incarnation of the property either but I just want to point out a few things regarding the cartoons in general.
I know why the Bagdasarians won't release the complete 1960s series on DVD or Streaming. It's not because Ross Jr. wants to respect the Gen Xers who are mostly unfamiliar with the 60s version but the issue is that the rights to THE ALVIN SHOW are in a legality snarl with therest of the Bagdasarian family....
Talk about fighting over the elder Bagdasarian's property, it must give Ross Jr a headache fighting over his father's property. Hopefully the family dispute will simmer down in the future.
PS: If Ross decides to revive Alvin for 2D animation but is forced to use puppet rigs, tell him and the animation studios just to reuse the 1960s designs since they're simple enough to construct the rigs and are tried and true anyway.
Oh, and the fact that Most Gen Xers barely even know of the 60's version is hilariously referenced in THE SIMPSONS back in 1993.
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