Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. for a novelty record in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual; and Theodore, the chubby, impressionable one. The trio is managed by their human adoptive father, David Seville.
In reality, "David Seville" was Bagdasarian's stage name, and the Chipmunks themselves are named after the executives of their original record label Liberty Records.
{Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer.}
[As Liberty literally represents the Liberty (Phrygian) Cap Mushroom]
The characters became a success, and the singing Chipmunks and their manager were given life in several animated cartoon productions, using redrawn, anthropomorphic chipmunks, and eventually films.
The Symbolism
Do the Chipmunks represent the "Monk"?
A monk (from Greek: μοναχός, monachos, "single, solitary") is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy.
Although the term monachos (“monk”) is of Christian origin, in the English language it tends to be used analogously or loosely also for both male and female ascetics from other religious or philosophical backgrounds.
Early Promo for First Chipmunk Movie: The 3 Chipmunks are looking "stoned" or high on some certain drug/fungus and their 3 colors represent the main colors associated with the psychedelics of Psilocybin being blue when its bruised (libery caps), Amanita being red with white spots (fly argaric) and Cannabis being green.
Chipmunks are usually classified either as a single genus, Tamias. Tamias is Greek for "storer," a reference to the animals' habit of collecting and storing food for winter use. The common name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk" (from the Odawa word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel") The earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary (from 1842) is "chipmonk", but "chipmunk" appears in several books from the 1820s and 1830s.
So far in the Hollywood reboot of the Chipmunk franchise 3 films have been released and all 3 seems to follow the Archetypal theme presented in the original "The Stoned Chipmunks" post in 2007, 2 months before the first film in the franchise was released.
December 14, 2007, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks
The first film begins and obviously alludes to Christmas and its rituals (Christmas tree and Amanita), which was the original thesis in "The Stoned Chipmunks" post, being that Alvin was representing Amanita.
December 23, 2009, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
The 2nd film in the series then alludes to the obvious "dualism" of it being the 2nd film bringing in the counterparts to the Chipmunks, the "Chipettes". The Chipmunks also align with common symbols such as checkerboard, caduceus, eagle, rainbow and even a picture drawn by Theodore which looks like 3 mushrooms drawn in grass.
Alvins also closes out the film with a stylized Alvin Peace sign/Broken Cross.
December 16, 2011, Release of Alvin and The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
And then the 3rd film tackles Alchemy, with hidden treasure and X marks the spot. Symbols which represent the transmutation of ones consciousness to a higher plane through psychedelics.
Alvin the Amanita Apple
As noted in a earlier post Alvin the Chimpmunk is voiced by Justin Long who is known as "The Mac Guy" aka "The Apple Guy"
and following that up Britney the lead Chipette is voiced by Christina Applegate, confirming said apple theme with the Chipmunks.
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