My Friends the Chipmunks

My Friends The Chipmunks was the Alvin and the Chipmunks first full-length feature. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and produced by Bagdasarian Productions and Herbert Klynn's Format Productions. It was released to theatres on November 15, 1969.

Synopsis
Jennifer, a kind-hearted girl in her early 20s, visits the home of the Sevilles to see Dave with Alvin and the Chipmunks. She becomes the Chipmunks' new nanny.

Characters

 * Jennifer (voiced by Barbara Streisand) - The Chipmunks' new nanny. She likes to sing and dance, and has an interest in animals.
 * David "Dave" Seville (voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) - The Chipmunks' adoptive father, songwriter and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly every day by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells his trademark yell "ALVIN!!!". Despite all this, he loves all of his boys equally.
 * Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.) - Three rambunctious singing Chipmunk kids who mostly sing in barbershop. Alvin is the talented troublemaker of the group. Simon is the intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group. Theodore is the cute and innocent member of the group who likes to eat a lot.

Development
The Alvin Show was cancelled after one season on CBS in 1961. Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. had decided to make a film based on the Chipmunks. The decision was to give the film a more Disney feel.

Animators, which came from Disney, such as Glen Keane and Dick Lundy, helped out with the animation of the film.

Writing
The film was written by Ross Bagdasarian Sr., Dan Gordon, Cal Howard, Tedd Pierce, and Ernest Lehman.

Animation
The animation resulted in a peculiar mix between the Disney style, The Alvin Show's distinctive animation style, and the rotoscoped animation.

Music
The beautiful Disney-like music scores were composed by Irwin Kostal.

Trivia

 * Jennifer is the only character in this film to be rotoscoped in a similar manner to Disney and Fleischer Studios' rotoscoping techniques. Though the Chipmunks and/or Dave would be rotoscoped for the dancing sequences while on-model.