Given that I haven't seen the original live-action Chipmunks movie, I thought that the sequel was reasonably entertaining. And so did my three-year-old... but then again, he's pretty easily entertained when talking animals are around. We've crashed through the 1987 animated flick, The Chipmunk Adventure, which also found the Chipmunks vying with and teaming with the Chipettes. Both movies are reasonably music-oriented, but this live-action one finds both the guys and the girls rockin' it to get their school's attention.

Jason Lee returns as Dave Seville but Zachary Levi's role as Tobey Seville, who ends up accidentally responsible for the Chipmunks while Dave is incapacitated, is worthy of the Chipmunks' slapstick humor, and Wendie Malick plays Dr. Rubin as one of the "straight" characters to all of the Chipmunks' humor. Kids (and adults like me) will find themselves laughing out loud at some of the physical hijinks; but seriously, fans of Curious George, Garfield, Horton, or any of these other talking animal characters will dig this show.

Regardless of who we're talking about, though, it does always come back to the Chipmunks, who are pretty well seamlessly integrated in the action of the film. And it's these three brothers (Alvin, Simon, and Theodore) through whom the audience learns, regardless of age.

Alvin is the "whippersnapper" who thinks he doesn't need anybody, and who strays from the herd, whether it's falling for a Chippette, or experiencing the wilder side at school through his popularity as a "jock." Simon is the thoughtful one, who wants to keep the three brothers together responsibly, but who can't seem to summon the charisma to keep the other two together. And Theodore, well, he's the one who is torn emotionally when the three of them aren't getting along, and he ends up leaving them, causing the two other brothers to come together to work things out.

The Chipmunk movies are about working things out, keeping family at the forefront, and recognizing that you have to sublimate your own desires for the good of the community. Okay, so that's a pretty heavy way of saying it, but kids can easily take away that while the music is great. It's all about who loves you and how you love them back at the end of the day. There are certainly deeper lessons adults will learn over time, but for families, it's not a bad start to consider what it looks like when a family works together... and rises above it all.