I'll admit, I watched a lot of Alvin and the Chipmunks when I was little, despite all its awkward 80s animation tendencies and general pointlessness. I even kind of liked it. When the Chipettes joined the gang, bringing even more high-pitched sass, I felt no need to cry shark-jumping (probably because the phrase had yet to be coined and I hadn't gotten to that Happy Days episode).

The Chipettes animated on the small screen were kind of girly and cute. The Chipettes in Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel are what you see before you die.

I got a great letter this week from a fan named Harold Dickinson.

He writes, "I'm trying to get the name of a cartoon from the late 50's or early 60's. It had two characters who -- at least in my memory -- remind me of Penn and Teller. The one character was tall and bombastic, the other was shorter and never spoke- although he would whisper to the other character. I believe the smaller character was named Leonardo- but I wouldn't swear to it."

Television and comic book writer Mark Evanier found a very cool animated commercial for Soaky bubblebath featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks, which you can view after the jump. Like a lot of YouTube videos, the soundtrack is not exactly in sync, but whatever, it's still a fun and cool retro commercial. I don't think I've ever heard of Soaky, though. According to Evanier, the voice of the kid in the commercial is Dick Beals, who also appeared in a more famous commercial campaign as the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer. Anyway, check out the video, and see how much fun it can be to bathe with woodland creatures at an amusement park in full public view.