The original Alvin and the Chipmunks, not the modern CGI ones.
Long shirts? Dresses? Nuns’ habits?
I always thought that they were long sweaters.
They sort of look like monk’s (or in this case, *‘munk’*s) robes.
Ankle-length turtle-neck sweaters, probably to avoid questions about why they’re not wearing pants. And why does Alvin get an “A” on his, but Simon and Theodore don’t get an “S” or “T”?
Tge same thing Uncle Fester wears, though a better cut.
Caftans.
To hell with their clothes. I want to know how chipmunks could grow so large. They’re usually about the size of a hamster.
I don’t know if this helps but:
The first record alvin had a sweater and the other two had vests with their letters.
The original cover of the second album had them all with sweaters, (maybe?)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/SingAgainWithTheChipmunksActualcover.jpg
The cartoon came later and as the animator was Herbert Klynn’s Format Films which also did Mr. Magoo I would assume that maybe they extended the sweater to simplify the animation for the Alvin Show.
But this is only a guess as Mr. Magoo was greatly simplified after the original Mr. Magoo - Ragtime Bear from 1949.
If you look for “When Magoo Flew” from 1955 all of the legs are just simple black lines.
There is a boy in another award winning animation by the same person called Gerald McBoing-Boing that has a boy wearing a shirt that looks similar.
So to me it is unclear if this was for ease of animation or just an artistic style.
A fairly common way for (sort of) animal cartoon characters to be dressed is for them to have human clothes above the waist and nothing below it. Look for pictures of Donald Duck (and Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie), Porky Pig, Winnie the Pooh, Yogi Bear (well, he only wears a tie), Top Cat, etc. The rule seemed to be to give them a little bit of clothes to signal that they were intelligent creatures, but it didn’t matter what else they wore.
Ziggy famously (well, once Pearls Before Swine brought it up, at least) didn’t have pants.
Wearing pants is a big enough pain when you don’t have a tail complicating things
And, inexplicably, a shirt collar.
Edit: Well, I understand the animation reason for it. Still hella weird though.
Wendell Wagner:
<Yax>You know what I say is weird? Clothes on animals!</Yax>
Cindy Bear was topless, wearing only a skirt and a scarf.
I think the idea was that Yogi’s and Cindy’s fur was actually their clothing, so Yogi’s collar was actually part of his pelt. Or something. Anyway, that’s my fact-free opinion.
Tails and clothing are an awkward intersection among the anthropomorphic set, it’s true. In the old days, artists and animators skirted the issue (so to speak). They either had their creations eschew lower-body coverings, or clothing entirely, or they gave them loose enough outfits to cover the tail. (Conveniently, this also simplified drawing them.)
The Chipmunks’ original look was the former, combined with a much stronger animal element in their appearance. They were critters dressed up in little costumes. In their later, more anthropomorphic incarnations, their sweaters were extended to cover the rest of their bodies. Since they have short tails, it’s not a big leap to just cover them up. Why exactly the artist felt the need to cover them, I don’t know–it could be for ease of animation, as rat avatar suggests, or it could be that they ended up looking a little too human-like, and someone decided that having them parade around with their tails hanging out was a problem.
Now, of course, the Tail Problem is mostly solved: a simple notch in the back waistline of the clothing article with a button or snap flap that goes over it, sort of like a zipperless fly in the back. Tail goes in the notch, flap is buttoned over the base of the tail, and everything is secure. (Of course, not everyone has gotten the memo. Or maybe the theriomorph in question has just been slow to update her wardrobe, since she’s only recently wered.)
Well, the Tail and Clothing Problem. Chairs and other seats are still an issue.
I wish Smokey the Bear would put on a shirt. I passed the fire department this morning and he just doesn’t look right with just jeans and a hat.
I’ve just been searching and can’t find it…but there was a comic book in the 80s or 90s with a title like “Screwy Squirrel” that took a Tex Avery-style wacky squirrel…
Hold yer horses! That’s it! It was “Wacky Squirrel!”
Anyway (what, ain’tcha ever heard of stream-of-consciousness) – they took a wacky squirrel and gave him nephews, a la Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and they went out and had Carl Barks-style adventures. In one, Wacky was in an old-fashioned diving suit – the kind with hoses to an air pump – and much was made of the “tail gasket,” so the tail could be out in the water, without having to be inside the suit.
Fred Perry, in Gold Digger, deals with costume modifications such as you describe.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl just keeps hers inside her pants…
Nuts. Word came down from the TOP ECHELONS to draw Donald Duck and Porky Pig with no pants on. It was a sex thing.
How come it’s ok for you boys, but when a woman… Chip, what are you doing? (not exactly NSFW, but you might want to wear headphones)
Yeah, those talking, singing chipmunks are far too big to be realistic! 