When Chuck E. Cheese announced in May of 2024 that they were doing away with all but two of the animatronic bands that defined their brand of pizza-serving arcades since their inception, the company’s chief executive officer, David McKillips, told The New York Times that the change was motivated by the fact that “kids are consuming entertainment differently than they were 10, 20 years ago … kids, really of all ages, are consuming their entertainment on a screen.”
The response to Mr. Cheese’s announcement was so overwhelming negative that the chain eventually shifted their plans slightly, preserving three more Chuck E. Cheese animatronic bands in North Carolina, Illinois, and Long Island, New York. But the axe still fell on many other robotic rat musicians. And the sentiment behind McKillips’ words is all over the brand’s latest endeavor: A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas movie kids can consume with the rest of their entertainment on a screen.
Chuck E. Cheese
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A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas went up recently on YouTube, and it is a very strange object. At less than 50 minutes long, it’s barely feature-length. It is also a feature-length commercial — if not specifically and directly for Chuck E. Cheese restaurants than for the company’s mascot and, in a slightly less obvious way, for its pizza.
The special stars cartoon versions of the chain’s formerly animatronic mascot and his bandmates: Chipper mouse Chuck E. Cheese, sarcastic dog Jasper T. Jowls, kind chicken Helen Henny, adorable rabbit Bella Bunny, Grimace-like monster Munch, and Italian stereotype pizza chef Pasqually P. Pieplate.
Chuck E. — who everyone calls “Chuck E.” instead of just Chuck, making it very hard not to think about the similarly named slasher movie icon constantly while watching this heartwarming holiday film — works as a delivery man, driving around in his “Partymobile,” which is shaped like a giant party blower. He spends his days delivering Christmas decorations to everyone in town, at least until Santa Claus decides to call it quits because of the world’s lack of Christmas spirit.
Chuck E. Cheese
Santa berates the townspeople for abandoning Christmas, and tries to remind them that the holiday’s true meaning is not presents but rather the way its allows us all to find “the fuel to recharge our loving, optimistic hearts for the new year.” Chuck E. Cheese decides the only way to do that (and to revive Santa’s own love of Christmas) is by “throwing him a perfect Christmas party” because, in Chuck (E.)’s own words “the right party can solve any problem!”
The none-too-subtle message: The correct way to celebrate Christmas is by throwing a party with Chuck E. Cheese. Given that since time immemorial (i.e. 1977), Chuck E. Cheese pizzerias have been the mecca of kids’ birthday parties, that’s not an especially surprising summation.
While the Christmas party in A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas is technically not held inside a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, it is held at an Italian restaurant named Pasqually’s, which savvy viewers know as the name of the spinoff pizza delivery service the company launched in 2020 to keep their business afloat during the worst of the Covid pandemic. (They supposedly adopted the name, taken from one of Chuck E.’s buddies, to mask their pizza’s childish origins and recipes.)
Chuck E. Cheese
In other words, A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas is pro-ghost kitchen propaganda that, in keeping with the company’s animatronic band roots, includes a musical number where Chuck E. and his pals sing about how the world would be lost without Christmas. (Pasqually also “invents” a cookie pizza to serve to Santa Claus, so I assume that will be on the dessert menu at Chuck E. Cheese soon, if it’s not already.)
Oh, and did I mention that for no reason whatsoever, the film has a villain named “Legamos,” an elf clearly inspired by The Lord of the Rings’ Legolas, who wants to destroy Christmas because he is tired of working for Santa at the North Pole and wants to resume his life as a troll-fighting warrior? Because it does.
Chuck E. Cheese
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The best thing I can say about A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas is that it looks a little better than I would have expected given its origins, and a lot better than actual streaming animated junk like the Netflix Marmaduke movie. Mercifully, it’s also available for free on YouTube; my heart would break for anyone who had paid money to watch it. Then again, it does contain ads, meaning there are occasional breaks for other brands’ commercials nestled inside the 49-minute longform advertisement for Chuck E. Cheese you’re already watching. That, I guess, is the true reason for the season.
Watch A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas Below
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