Fans of songs so high-pitched that only dogs can properly appreciate them are in for a treat. The long-mooted Alvin and the Chipmunks movie has a director, in the shape of kids movie veteran Tim Hill.
The story, for those three of you not familiar with the series, follows a trio of chipmunks who form their own musical group, managed by their human adoptive father, Dave. The three chipmunks are Alvin, the troublemaker and star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespecled intellectual, and Theodore, the nice but dim baby of the group. Originally created in the 1950s for novelty records and then a cartoon series, most people today probably remember the 1980s adventures of the three lovable scamps. Oh, and those helium vocals, actually created by speeding up the voice of their creator, Ross Bagdasarian Sr.
The film will be a CG-live action hybrid, like Hill's last effort, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. But don't hold that against him - he was also the head writer on the much better Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie, and directed Muppets From Space, which wasn't bad. The script for this effort comes from Jon Vitti, a longterm Simpsons writing veteran (he's one of the screenwriters on the movie) and King of the Hill. So while it still has the potential to be really annoying and utterly eardrum bursting, let's keep our fingers crossed and our voices high as this one moves forward.