Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Media/Family Day (Photo : Getty Images)
Despite more Chinese acquiring English skills, old preferences still prevail when it comes to watching movies, even those produced in Hollywood.
On Jan. 26, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip” premiered in mainland China. The fourth installment of the animated chipmunk film produced by 20th Century Fox was in English language and Mandarin, which was dubbed.
The dubbed version was more popular one and helped the movie gross 46 million yuan ($7 million). With that gross sales, the film is now the second-highest grossing animation movie in China, next to “Kung Fu Panda 3” by DreamWorks Pictures.
Meanwhile, because of the large Chinese population in the U.S., "Kung Fu Panda 3" became the first Hollywood movie shown in Mandarin in the United States on Jan. 27, according to Hollywood Reporter. The dubbed version was a project of DreamWorks and AMC Entertainment, owned by Chinese movie giant Dalian Wanda Group.
A Beijing woman who watched “Alvin” with her daughter said, “The dialogues are funny and the movie feels friendly and natural, when the human characters or the animated chipmunks use Mandarin slang,” quoted China Daily.
But for Chinese moviegoers, the main highlight of the movie were Alvin, Simon and Theodore, the three chipmunks, singing and dancing. The fourth installment of the movie has a “classic” theme often used by telenovelas and dramatic films revolving around the children’s dislike for their future stepmother whom their father is set to marry.
