WOW!! I’m amazed. Six months ago today I started this blog with the desire to ramble about music in general and seek out people who love music as much as I do. Time most certainly does fly when you’re having fun. And fun I’ve had. I’m so proud of myself and my blog. Also happy to be able to have a medium in which I can voice my opinions and thoughts with the world.
OK. Recently I had a hankering for throwing on the nostalgia goggles and I watched The Chipmunks Adventure. You remember the one with the hot air balloon race? You know, the entertaining Chipmunk movie. Anyway I had the urge to watch this movie again because a coworker of mine was talking to me about being mocked about it by his friends who believed he made it up. They had never seen or heard of it and therefore did not believe it existed. He almost started to believe him. But we were hanging out one day and we saw it being played on tv. He was overjoyed that he was indeed not crazy.
I, as a self professed large child, have no qualms about breaking out and watching the cartoons I saw as a kid. So I watch this every couple of years. I remember everything about it. The plot, the dialogue and ALL the songs. Heck I have the soundtrack, so this is a given. There were 10 songs but only 7 were in the movie and each was sang in traditional awesome Alvin and the Chipmunk goodness against a backdrop of kickass(for the 80s) animation.
I like all of the songs. Believe me when I said I figured out ways to sing them whenever possible. I have two favorites though. One of them is the song “Off To See The World”. This was sang in a montage of the kids going on their adventure in exotic locales all over the world. Even as a kid, I knew that this song was an embodiment of things that I wanted. Here are the chorus:
“Hey don’t you know that we’re off to see the world
We’re off to find our dreams
Why are our hearts beating so fast
Why is there suddenly a brand new hope inside us
that will surely last
Hey don’t you know that we’re off to see the world
We’re off to find things new
So we will follow every clue
Just think there’s suddenly
A chance to find it, all we dreamed in dreams come true”
I still to this day get chills listening to that. It is something in my life that I want to experience so badly. It is a goal in my life to see as much of the world as possible. There is too much to see and do and experience to sit at home. One day. I have this song to thank for constantly reminding me of this dream every time I hear it.
We’ll get to my other fave in a minute, but let me talk about the song that everyone will probably remember. “The Girls and Boys of Rock & Roll” is the song that they sang when they met up in Greece in a mutual display of egotism to see who was better. And it was awesome. This is the one that I would dance to. Why? Because they were dancing! Give me a break I was 8. I never could decide if I liked the Chipmunks or Chipettes better. At the end of the day I guess it really doesn’t matter. They both live in the nostalgic center of my brain as equals.
Now my other song played at the end when all was revealed. “Diamond Dolls” thank goodness is played in its entirety on the CD because it’s broken up in the movie which was always distracting. It was mostly the music that drew me to this song because I did not know what they were saying and probably would not have understood it if I did. It took me years to finally understand the ‘girl power’ type message behind the lyrics. Go out there and get what you want ladies. It may be hard work, but if that’s what it takes to get what you’re after, DO IT!
I love this movie. I love these songs. If you haven’t you have most certainly missed out. Even as an 80s film I think it still holds up as very entertaining. This is during a time when kid shows were actually entertaining. This was quirky, cute, classic Chipmunks.
Musical Mashup 