Alvin & the Chipmunks (1983–1990)

The Chipmunks are almost unknown here in Sweden, but in the mid-1990s one TV channel showed the 1980-90s series on Sunday mornings. I found it by sheer coincidence while zapping between channels, and it was love at first sight! I was a nearly 30-yrs old cartoon buff with the penchant for classic Looney Tunes and the like, I couldn't dream of falling for a cutesy-pootsy "kiddies" cartoon like that. But I simply HAD TO get up early every Sunday morning to watch it! The plots were usually rather tame (with some brilliant exceptions), but the dialog was fun and witty with lots of jokes a grown-up could appreciate. And these little guys were soooo CUTE and so COOL! The animation was so well done, and then there was the MUSIC!! It was so fun hearing those classic rock-and-roll tunes sung with those silly Chip&Dale-type voices.

But I must admit it took a few episodes to get the grip of things. Like: What are these very peculiar-looking little boys supposed to be? "Chipmunks"???!!!... They doesn't look the slightest like chipmunks to me. Why are they goofing around in those ridiculous nightshirts all the time? Why are they living with that human guy in a realistically drawn human world? All other talking cartoon animals live among other cartoon animals, not among humans. Weird, weird...

For many years I assumed The Chipmunks was something new, that David Seville was just a cartoon character, and Alvin, Simon and Theodore had always looked like their 1980-90s versions. I didn't knew there had been something before! So it was rather confusing to come across songs written by "David Seville", plush animals from 1959 resembling an ugly rat or distorted guinea-pig but supposed to be "Alvin from the Chipmunks", gramophone records from 1960 showing the boys as "real" chipmunks on the cover, and so on! But the Internet soon made all clear to me. Anyway, a great cartoon, so unlike the mass produced cheap crap of today (but the "Chipmunks goes to the Movies" series were rather poor -the movie spoofs were often not even funny).