It seemed like such a simple concept. Kids like pizza, kids like games, kids like animatronics. While not combine all three into one fun-filled location? That was the brainchild of Atari executive Nolan Bushnell. He opened the first of what was then known as Chuck E. Cheese's PizzaTime Theatre in San Jose, California in 1977 and created what is today known as a family entertainment center. Though the subsequent 48 years have seen their ups and downs, Chuck E. Cheese as a concept and a character are still going strong, even as Chuck E. himself has morphed over the years from a vaudeville-style insult comic to a well-meaning, if klutzy, teenager/young adult mouse.
Despite having a long series of stage shows featuring the character and his friends, there hasn't been that much media featuring the character outside of the restaurants and commercials, a development that is not that surprising given that very few corporate mascots and product spokesmen get to break out of commercials, no matter how popular they are or how elaborate their backstory. To be fair, there was an attempt back in 1983 for a Christmas special involving Chuck, but the animation ended up never being finished, and the video of what they had--mostly still pictures with the vocal tracts--was eventually sold in the restaurants. This is a new day, however, and there are numerous streaming services hungry for content, so fresh for this holiday season is A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas.
Having aged out of Chuck E. Cheese's target audience sometime during the mid-1980s, I hadn't really been keeping up with the various changes to the characters over the years. In this current iteration, Chuck E. (as he's called by everyone--no one just calls him Chuck) is the aforementioned well-meaning mouse, living with his friends in a loft apartment above an Italian restaurant (one that bears no resemblance to an actual Chuck E. Cheese's). Despite the fact that Chuck and his group consists of three guys and two girls, there isn't even a hint of romance, as everything is strictly platonic, maybe because everyone is of a different species. There's the sarcastic dog Jasper, adorable bunny Bella, clever chicken Helen, and weird alien Munch, none of whom have much personas beyond that.
The plot is a pretty typical "There's no Christmas spirit!" one that takes big chunks from Elf and The Year Without a Santa Claus, with Santa himself losing faith in the holiday. Of course, it's up to Chuck E. and his friends to convince Santa that Christmas is worth saving, by...throwing him a surprise party on Christmas Eve night (wouldn't he be a tad busy?). Meanwhile, one of Santa's elves, eager to escape the workshop and get back to fighting trolls, conspires to keep Santa sad and end Christmas forever. Yes, this special has more of a backstory for Santa's elves than for its title character.
The animation is bright and colorful, with direction from vets Zac Moncrief, who had worked on, among others, Family Guy and Phineas and Ferb, and Disney vet Steve Trenbirth. There's a surprisingly decent original song, "What Would We Do Without Christmas", co-written by legendary songwriter Jeff Barry (his son Jon Colton Barry, also a Phineas and Ferb vet, co-wrote the special). Most surprisingly, this wasn't a credits-to-credits commercial for the restaurant chain. I mean, it ultimately is, but if you come to this not having any idea about the origins of the characters, you'd come away still not really knowing about the origins of the characters.
The problem is that I did know the origins, and I think that colored my perception of it. Not helping was the awfully generic storyline, which has been done better elsewhere. Again, this was done by Phineas and Ferb vets. You'd think they'd come up with something a bit more clever and original.
That said, I didn't hate A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas. It's far from a classic, and it doesn't inspire me to watch what will almost certainly be the upcoming series, but I've certainly seen worse takes on this same concept. That may be the best thing I can say about a special centered on a corporate mascot.
Next time: A remint from when a popular streaming service decided to produce originals.
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