That Weird Time Alvin And The Chipmunks Had A Horror Crossover With The Wolfman

With his new movie "Wolf Man," Leigh Whannell becomes the latest filmmaker to tackle the titular shape-shifting classic Universal monster on the screen. In his review of Whannell's re-imagining, /Film's Jeremy Mathai observed that the film "reinvents the title character and its accompanying curse as a moody, atmospheric thriller that cares just as much (if not more) about the family at the center of this tragedy as the actual scares."

Part of what makes werewolf movies unique is that these are not just monsters, but also people who transform back and forth between being monster and human. This allows the werewolf movie to be versatile; rather than having to rely on their characters to keep coming around to encounter the monster for the convenience of the plot, the monster stays with the characters throughout these films, hiding amongst them, until it's too late. Werewolf movies make great fantasy movies, horror-comedies, body horror pics, dramas, Westerns, and much more — as evidenced by our own list of the best werewolf movies ever. It's not just R-rated genre films for adult audiences either; in fact, there's plenty of children's media that tackles the werewolf with whimsy and playfullness, with "Goosebumps," "Scooby-Doo," and the "Ghostbusters" cartoon series all putting a kid-friendly spin on the concept.

Indeed, one of the more curious and unexpected takes on the horror sub-genre combine the classic werewolf story with a beloved franchise about singing rodents. That's right, Alvin and the Chipmunks met the Wolfman at one point, and it's about as weirdly fun as you might imagine.

In "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman," Alvin is convinced that his neighbor is a werewolf and has nightmares about him. While looking for proof, him and his brother Simon are oblivious to the fact that their neighbor is innocent, but that there is a werewolf among them — namely, Theodore. Yes, this is a kids' cartoon about a roden that turns into an adorable wolf (a chip-wolf, if you will). It is very silly and cute, and an amusing take on the classic monster.

It's also not the first time Alvin and his siblings met a classic Universal monster. Much like Abbott and Costello, the Chipmunks were on a path to meet every major Universal monster at one point, starting with Frankenstein in 1999's "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein" before their "Wolfman" crossover in 2000. (Sadly, none of the Chipmunks get turned into Frankenstein's monster during the former.) Unfortunately, the chipmunks never got to meet Dracula. A third "Meet" film was proposed following "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman," but it was canceled after franchise creators Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman sued Universal for breach of contract and won the rights to the characters back in 2000 — meaning, Universal could no longer make more direct-to-home-media "Chipmunks" animated movies. C'est la vie.