SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

!!NAME : LOVIE TEY YIQING

STUDENT ID NO : 0318155

FILMS SELECTED : MUSICAL

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS

MAMMA MIA

WORD COUNT : 1038 WORDS

!!!!ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1 : COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURE : CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE : 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

!!!!!

‘ Do not judge a book by its cover ’ , the same goes to movie , we shouldn’t judge a

movie by its name. For this essay, i am going to talk about a contrast essay of a musical

film . The movie that i had chosen to compare are ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ by Tim Hill

and ‘Mamma Mia’ by Phyllida Lloyd. Alvin and the Chipmunks were released in the year of

2007 while Mamma Mia were released the year after, which is 2008. Alvin and the

C h i p m u n k s u s e s d i f f e r e n t c o m b i n a t i o n o f g e n r e s u c h a s f a n t a s y ,

animation ,family ,comedy and most of it, contains musical. As for Mamma Mia, the

director chose to use the genre of romance, comedy and of course, musical. The biggest

similarity between these two films is the genre, musical comedy.There are many

interesting scene in these two movie . What i will be doing will be , the setting of the movie,

the soundtrack or the songs used, plot of the movie and the characteristics of the main

character.

! First of all, the setting of the movie. For Alvin and the Chipmunks, they had

their movie taken in a city, which is USA. While for Mamma Mia, it is a completely different

place, as their movie were taken on a colourful Greek Island. The places that the main

character appeared most for Alvin and the Chipmunks is David Seville’s house. That was

the place where the chipmunks and David live. Besides, it is also the place where the

chipmunks are adopted and treated by David as his own sons. The location at the Seville

House is at Los Angeles, California. They also had their movie filmed at places such as

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Canoga Park, Sunset Gower Studios, Downtown, Hidden Valley,

June Lake and even Mammoth Mountain. On the other hand for Mamma Mia, the place

that the main character appear most in the movie is Villa Donna. Villa Donna is the name

of the hotel run by Donna , who was played by Meryl Streep. The villa doesn’t exist in

Greece because Villa Donna was a movie set and the exact hotel does not exist. While

some exterior sets were built on site on Skopelos. They were removed after the filming

was complete.

! Next, the soundtrack used in the movie or the songs that the singers sang. In Alvin

and the Chipmunks, the chipmunks sang a few nice song and they were quite impressive.

The examples of the song are ‘ Bad Day’ , ‘ The Chipmunk Song ‘, ‘Witch Doctor’ and ‘

Funkytown’. These songs were then released as singles and were on the billboard for

quite a few times. As for Mamma Mia, their song was a bit different from the Chipmunks

but they are as good as well. For example, ‘I have a Dream’ , ‘ Honey, Honey’ , ‘Mamma

Mia’ , ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘ Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’. Their song received good review

and their song was nominated for several prizes until the year of 2009. Other than that, the

bride-to-be , Sophia Sheridan , tried to find his real father using hit songs by the popular

70’s group ‘ ABBA’.

! On the other hand, the plot of the movie is also a great theme to be explored. In the

beginning of Alvin and the Chipmunks, they were actually three musically inclined

chipmunks who found that their tree, which was their home, was cut down and sent to Los

Angeles. At Los Angeles, they meet the frustrate songwriter , David Seville, and despite a

poor house wrecking first impression, they impress him with their singing talent. Seeing the

opportunity of success, David and Alvin’s chipmunk gang made a contract and pact for the

chipmunks to sing his song.While that ambition proves a frustrating struggle with the

difficult trio, their dream come true after all. Unfortunately, that success presents its own

trial as their unscrupulous record executive, Ian Hwake, in planning to break up the family

combination of a human and three chipmunks. As for Mamma Mia, the plot of the stories

goes on when the 20- years old bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan found her mother’s diary, and

four out three strangers, Sam, Harry or Bill who might be her father. That night, Sophie

dreamed on having her father walking with her to the altar on her wedding with Sky in the

Greek Kalokairi Island and she invited three men to her wedding as if she were her mother

Donna. When Donna saw her three former lovers together in her hotel, she gets stressed

and confused with the situation while Sky is upset with Sophie’s attitude.

! As for the characteristics of the main character, Alvin of the chipmunks is counted

as the main characters in the movie. Alvin Seville is one of The Chipmunks and the titular

protagonist of the series and movies.He is the leader of the group as well as the self-

proclaimed “ awesomest’ one. Alvin greatly relishes his role as band front man and his

antics and ego regularly get him and his brother, sometimes even David into trouble. As for

Mamma Mia, Sophie Sheridan is sweet, fun-loving girl who is getting married to the guy of

her dreams. Other dreams include getting walked down the aisle by her father. However,

growing up with a single mom and no dad seems more inconvenient than it did when

Sophie finds her mother’s diary. Sophie is a clever girl, at the same time, a curious

teenage girl. Her curiosity leads stresses to her mother and disappointment to Sky.

! As for conclusion, i can conclude that Alvin and the Chipmunks and Mamma Mia

are two different kind of movie, with different stories, different characteristics but a movie

with the same genre. Besides, i also get that sometimes musical movies can be very

interesting if we plan well. On the other hand, choosing a place as the setting of the movie

is also very important as it reflects what are we expressing. The songs what we picked as

our background music is important as well as it shows our feeling. However, we must not

forget to plan the plot and the characteristics of the main character as it will decide the

type of story and movie we are going to do.

!REFERENCES

1. IMDB (N.D) Filming Locations, retrieved 19 September 2014,http://www.imdb.com/title/

tt0952640/locations

2. De Traci Regula (N.D)Villa Donna- Mamma Mia Filming Location, retrieved 19

September 2014,http://gogreece.about.com/od/greecemovies/a/mammavilladonna.htm

3. Wikia (N.D) Seville House, retrieved 19 September 2014.http://alvin.wikia.com/wiki/

Seville_House

4. Wikia ( N.D) Alvin and the Chipmunks: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, retrieved 19

September 2014 http://alvin.wikia.com/wiki/Alvin_and_the_Chipmunks:_Original_Motion_Picture_Soundtrack

5. IMDB (N.D) Mamma Mia Soundtrack ,retrieved 19 September 2014http://www.imdb.com/title/

tt0795421/soundtrack

6. Kenneth Chisholm (N.D) Plot Summary, retrieved 19 September 2014 http://www.imdb.com/

title/tt0952640/plotsummary

7. jojo.acapulco@gmail.com (N.D) Plot Summary, retrieved 19 September 2014 http://

www.imdb.com/title/tt0795421/plotsummary

8. Wikia (N.D), Alvin Seville, retrieved 19 September 2014 http://alvin.wikia.com/wiki/Alvin_Seville

!!!!!

!!