Entertainment
Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Road Chip’ – Entertaining roadless trip
Mumbai: Film: “Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip”;
Director: Walt Becker;
Cast: Jason Lee, Tony Hale, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Josh Green, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse MacCartney;
Rating: **1/2
“Alvin and The Chipmunks” films, which are based on anthropomorphic, strato-falsetto characters created by Ross Bagdasarian Sr which began in 2007, are a highly anticipated series. And with “The Road Chip” hitting the marquee four years after the last edition, children have been surely looking forward to it.
Directed by Walt Becker, “The Road Chip” is the fourth instalment in the film hierarchy.
It is an adventure story with the usual hyper-frantic, song and dance sequences that will appeal to its young audience.
The narration begins in Los Angeles with the three chipmunks – Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse MacCartney) – organising a surprise birthday party for Dave Seville (Jason Lee), their beloved surrogate father and a farewell for their friends — the three Chippettes; Brittany (Christina Applegate), Jeanette (Anna Faris) and Eleano (Kaley Cuoco).
After a series of misunderstandings, the furry heroes believe that Dave is in love with a new woman, Samantha (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), whose teenage son Miles (Josh Green) is a big bully.
When the Chipmunks begin to suspect that Dave is planning to propose to Samantha during a Miami getaway, they decide to head down and put a stop to his plans.
Helping them prevent the engagement is Miles, who has the Chipmunks believing that they’ll be side-tracked the minute Dave ties the knot.
With pee and poop humour and plenty of pop culture gags, singing, dancing and chasing along the way, there is a sub-plot of a vengefully obsessive air marshal, Agent Suggs (Tony Hale) chasing the Chipmunks that adds to this jamboree.
Combining live action and computer-generated characters, it is a fun-filled, family comedy caper, but with a relatively weak script penned by Randi Mayem and Adam Sztykiel.
While the film is enjoyable and entertaining, it is the easy resolutions of the main plot that disappoint. Also with the subplots not closed, the narration appears episodic and jerky.
On the production front, the animated characters are lovable brats – cute, cuddly and at the same time riotous. The effects are praiseworthy and well integrated into the exciting action.
The music is stimulating as it seamlessly flows into the narration.
Overall, as a “road-movie for kids”, the film is a bit of a let down, as it has barely any road in it. But an entertainer it is, nevertheless.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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