Enough noise and neon to distract under eights for an hour and a half

Here's an alarming fact. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is the 116th most successful film of all time. That's after you've adjusted for inflation and before you factor in DVD sales, video game spin-offs and merchandising. So the story of three preteen cartoon beatboxing rodents is 3,707 places higher up the chart than Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.

Advances in CGI have meant that inserting comic strip favourites into live action flicks is now a cheap, often horrifically cheerful way of making a film. Even the duds turn a buck, from the Bill Murray-voiced Garfield (plus follow-up A Tale of Two Kitties), to last year's Yogi Bear 3D with Justin Timberlake as Boo-Boo.

But it's the man behind Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed to whom Sony have handed the reins on the first in a planned trilogy (yep,...