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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: January 13, 2009 Distributor: Paramount Grade: C+

The Chipmunks are undeniably one of the longest lasting boy bands in the music industry -- which also left them susceptible to one specific weakness: they couldn't cover female-centric songs.

Enter the Chipettes -- Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor -- ready to enter musical territory that would have made Alvin squirm. The female trio that serve as gender-flipped analogs to Alvin, Simon and Theodore apparently live in a treehouse without any adult supervision (although they're meant to be minded by the Seville family friend, Miss Miller), and begin attending Thomas Edison Elementary School with Alvin and company.

This six episode set from the animated television series, Alvin and the Chipmunks, starts with the girls being the new students, arriving as Alvin is ramping up his campaign for class president. When Alvin's advice to an insecure Brittany gets taken the wrong way, he finds himself competing with Brittany for the position, with the one and final swing vote coming down to Brittany's brainy sister, Jeanette.

Later, the Chipettes serve as candystripers in a children's ward, with Brittany left in charge of a mischief-making patient. When the patient disappears, she asks Theodore to take his place in the bed to save her job. But while she goes on the hunt for her missing charge, the doctors come in to prep Theodore for his operation!

Brittany, like Alvin, is a popularity seeker, and when presented with an opportunity to join a prestigious snobby group known as "the Sisters," she doesn't think twice about ignoring her real sister, Jeanette, just to impress the elite. However, when Brittany's attempts to climb the social ladder fail, Jeanette is the one who exhibits true sisterly conduct.

The more entertaining of the episodes are those that pit Alvin against Brittany. Aside from campaigning against each other for class president, Alvin also makes a bet with Brittany that he can get Jeanette to win a beauty contest (in which Brittany herself is competing). And when Alvin takes Dave's brand new ten-speed out for a spin, he trashes it after avoiding a collision with a roller-skating Brittany, causing both of them to wind up on a television court show seeking damages.

Even when the boys and girls are working together, like when they're trying to save a local circus from the evil Snidely Whiplash style banker who is eager to foreclose, they end up in competition to see who can develop the better act to draw in crowds.

Featuring songs like "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," "It's My Party," and more, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Chipettes finds itself a bit too mired in the 80s to be attractive to younger audiences who may have developed an interest in the long-running characters after their live-action film. Perhaps the real reason for releasing this subset of episodes is to develop a receptive fan base for the Chipettes, since Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor will be making their own live action appearance in 2009's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," in which they'll be voiced by Drew Barrymore, JoJo Levesque, and Miley Cyrus, respectively.

The animation quality is average, and the plots are only mildly entertaining. As with all things Chipmunks, it's the music that's worth tuning in for, and there's just not enough of it in this set of cartoons.