YMMV / Chuck E. Cheese

• Accidental Nightmare Fuel: The design of the animatronics, mainly the Cyberamics and the original portraits, looks very off, and appeared creepy and unsettling for some children, especially if they're not properly maintained by the mechanics. It's been said to be among the inspirations for Five Nights at Freddy's.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Due to how long the chain has been active and how much material has been produced, there are some eras that are not well-received by fans:
  • The mid-1980s shows generally had poor writing, with one show using very poor soundalikes for Chuck E. and Munch (which even the franchisees disliked); this was around the time Pizza Time Theatre went bankrupt and was bought out by ShowBiz Pizza, which inherited PTT's financial issues during the merged company's early years.
  • The initial Studio C shows from 1997-98, due to CEC corporate's attempts at getting rid of Chuck E.'s friends and their ill-received show format that notoriously had the characters make comments over music videos instead of actually singing; both were scrapped when Jeremy Blaido became Director of Entertainment and the shows saw an uptick in quality.
  • The 2012-present era, for the characters' ill-received redesigns (first Chuck E. in 2012, then the other characters in 2013), replacing Chuck E.'s longtime voice actor Duncan Brannan with Bowling for Soup frontman Jaret Reddick, getting rid of licensed cover songs in 2014 and reducing the shows to single original songs mixed with skits, flanderizing several characters (notably, Jasper behaves very out-of-character in "Nothing Like a Walk" and Chuck E. has several Jerkass moments not unlike his early self in some other songs), inferior new characters, and other questionable decisions such as getting rid of the animatronics and replacing them with a dance floor. The decline only worsened in 2023, with songs such as "Wash the Bus" that are very clearly targeted at preschoolers.
• Awesome Music:
  • Many of their song covers and original songs they've made over the years qualify, such as "Together We've Got It" and "Chuck E.'s Place".
  • The 1989-91 Cyberstar intro's music. The graphics (obviously depicting the Cyberstar sending the programming signals to the animatronics) also help.
• Broken Base: Which Munch voice is better? The gruff Pizza Time Theatre-era voice or the Fatz-inspired "smooth" voice?
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Harmony Howlette is generally considered the most popular of the Pizza Time Theatre guest stars for her confident, tomboyish personality, and her ability to stand up to Chuck E.'s insults.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception
  • Whatever you do, don’t ever claim to a fan that Chuck E. Cheese’s recycles their pizzas. Especially if said fan is/was an actual employee of a Chuck E Cheese’s restaurant. The main reason the pizzas look the way they do is because the tool used to make slices isn't very sharp. As such, employees have to essentially force the cutter down the pizzas just to slice them. This results in pizzas with uneven slices, and toppings seemingly without a second half because they fell off during the process. Furthermore, uneven slices are nothing new in the industry. Order a pizza from any establishment, and the slices will most likely be uneven. Most pizza joints prioritize timeliness when it comes to serving customers, so it simply isn't worth the effort to make sure the pizzas are evenly cut.
  • Spelling Chuck E. as "Chucky" or "Chuckie" has quickly become this, given how often it occurs.
  • Helen Henny is not a duck. She's a chicken.
  • Don't say that Chuck E. Cheese's bought ShowBiz Pizza Place in the 1980s. What actually happened is the other way around, as Chuck E. Cheese's had declared bankruptcy in 1984, leading to the merger with ShowBiz.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Take a look at the comments section of any Discovery Zone-related video or article; you'll find many '90s kids claiming its superiority over Chuck E. Cheese.
  • A Vocal Minority of ShowBiz fans hate Chuck E. Cheese's for Concept Unification. Even Aaron Fechter, creator of the Rock-afire Explosion, still has a grudge against Chuck E. Cheese's for trying to take the Rock-afire Explosion from him so they could stop paying royalties and licensing fees. This extends to the modern day, in which any references to the Rock-afire Explosion in 40th anniversary material was either excised, or was put up but taken down when Fechter raised a stink.
  • A case of this has arisen with the Five Nights at Freddy's fandom; the massive popularity of the aforementioned games (especially with young kids) led to Chuck E.-themed videos and blogs getting swarmed with FNAF fans who frequently spammed Freddy-themed posts, causing fans of the former to get sick of it. Unfortunately, this led to some CEC fans harassing FNAF fans who made Freddy-themed posts on CEC-themed videos. This has also gone in the other direction, with the "Five Nights of Fun" promo clearly taking inspiration from the FNAF film, in ways that verge on overstepping legal boundaries.
  • Naturally, with the rise of Dave & Buster's, this started to become the case for a lot of fans, with some citing D&B as the "more mature Chuck E Cheese".
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Despite the ire surrounding Concept Unification, there are folks out there who love both the Chuck E. cast and the Rock-afire Explosion characters.
  • This is also the case with (of all fandoms) the Radioactive Chicken Heads fandom. It helps that most CEC fans took "Pest Control" (a song about trying to kill "Chucky Cheese") in good humor.
  • Many Chuck E. Cheese fans also love Teddy Ruxpin and Furby, as they involve animatronics.
  • Some Chuck E. Cheese fans also enjoy Barney & Friends. It helps that both franchises share actors (most notably Bob West), as they were both produced in Texas.
  • There's a notable amount of overlap between the Chuck E. Cheese fandom with Veggietales of all franchises. Why exactly? It's because several Silly Songs with Larry segments were used during the showtapes. Several notable creators in the VeggieTales fandom have also created their own stage replicas on software like Blender.
• Funny Moments: This commercial comparing Chuck E Cheese to a boring restaurant.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • A common complaint amongst adults is that the pizza is served only as a formality, and that both the children and business are more interested in the attractions anyway.
  • Most of the Periphery Demographic is only in it for the animatronic shows and the mascot costumes.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Chuck E. Cheese saying "poggers".^Explanation In 2020, Chuck E. Cheese released Twitch streams in which a puppet of Chuck E. played various games. One of these streams became infamous and hilarious due to Chuck E. randomly saying "poggers" while playing Fall Guys for no reason. This is especially notable because this is the only time he spoke during the streams.
  • "I'm Chuck E. I'm Chuck E. I'm Chuck E."^Explanation An infamous segment of this grounded video where Chuck E. Cheese "sings" a song... that is just him repeatedly saying "I'm Chuck E." in a deadpan voice while stock acid jazz music plays, without any attempt to harmonize the two elements.
  • Charles Entertainment Cheese^Explanation Chuck E.'s full name is Charles Entertainment Cheese. This ridiculous and hilarious name has been often memed, with people sometimes only referring to Chuck E. by his full name.
  • The Five Nights of Fun event for Halloween 2023 has gotten a particular internet notoriety, primarily regarding how for a long while in its recent times the company was shunning anyone who even mentioned the games, only to now have an event that was clearly a Shout-Out to them.
• More Popular Replacement: Mr. Munch to Crusty the Cat, whom he replaced early enough in the franchise's history that hardly anyone noticed until the Periphery Demographic came around.
• Older Than They Think: The concept of a Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant without animatronics was tested in some locations back in the mid-2000's, though these stores would be given Studio C stages later on. It wouldn't be until roughly a decade later that the concept would really take off.
• One True Pairing:
  • As noted above, Chuck/Helen has become this; the sheer amount of Ship Tease between them has become a running joke among fans.
  • To a lesser extent, the Crossover Ship of Chuck/Mitzi. Common fan headcanons related to the ship include Rockstar Chuck E. (or in some cases, Avenger Chuck E.) being the son of the original '70s-'94 Chuck E. and Mitzi.
• Periphery Demographic: Chuck E. Cheese's has developed a small but highly devoted fanbase mostly consisting of teens, young adults and people who grew up with the chain. Fan conventions like Cheesevention, Chuck E. Con, and Crittercon have been created.
• Popular with Furries: Both Chuck E. Cheese's and The Rock-afire Explosion count as semi-important gateways into the fandom, and both have massive followings in the furry fandom.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Between 2010 and 2012, several Chuck E. Cheese's games were released on the Wii and Nintendo DS, such as Chuck E. Cheese's Party Games and Chuck E. Cheese's Sports Games. All were criticized as pointless shovelware with poor graphics, music, and gameplay.
• Questionable Casting: Jaret Reddick, frontman of a band known first and foremost for their raunchier material, being cast as Chuck E. Cheese led to accusations of Stunt Casting, especially since he replaced a voice actor (Duncan Brannan) who had voiced the mouse for nearly 20 years.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • In the 1986 "Chuck E. Cheese's History of Rock & Roll" showtape (the first show produced in Texas instead of California, with all the characters recast as a result), Chuck E. and Munch were voiced by Lonny Wilder and an unidentified actor, respectively. Both castings were unpopular among franchisees, leading Scott Wilson to resume both roles until 1993.
  • Matt Daniel (the current Director of Entertainment) is considered inferior to predecessors Jeremy Blaido and Robert Gotcher by longtime fans for spearheading many unpopular changes such as the Rockstar era, replacing beloved side characters with inferior new characters, voice actor changes, changing the shows' format, and poor writing.
  • Rockstar Chuck E. is seen as this to many fans who grew up with the Avenger-era Chuck.
  • Chris Hill (the voice of Munch since 2014) is also seen as one to the previous voice actors (especially his predecessor, John Bowen), due to the character's smoother voice having become more iconic, and Hill's attempt at replicating the Pizza Time Theatre-era voice falling flat.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • From 1986 to 1998, Jasper and Pasqually (as well as Munch in August 1995) were voiced by Bob West, who is perhaps best known as the original voice of Barney the Dinosaur from 1988 to 2000.
  • Chuck E.'s most well-known voice actor was Duncan Brannan, who would go on to voice Babidi, as well as briefly providing the singing voice of Barney after West's retirement in 2000 (Brannan also served as an understudy actor in the late 1990s).
  • During the mid-1990s when Disney produced the shows, Helen Henny's voice was done by both Stephanie Nadolny (who would later be known for voicing child Goku and child Gohan) and Cathy Turner (a former short track speed skater and Olympic gold medalist).
  • Pasqually was originally voiced by Joe Spano, who is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Henry Goldblume on Hill Street Blues and FBI Special Agent Tobias C. Fornell on NCIS.
  • Jasper's original voice actor was a pre-fame Scott Paulin, later well known for Teen Wolf and The Right Stuff.
  • A pre-Jonas Brothers Nick Jonas appeared in two commercials in the early 2000s, one of which is on YouTube.
  • Showtapes in the early 1990s featured live-action scenes preceding the animatronic segments co-hosted by a young Jeremy Blaido, who would go on to voice Jasper from 1999 onward.
• Sacred Cow: Avenger Chuck E. (the cool skater one with a purple and green color scheme) is easily the most popular and well-remembered Chuck E., due to lasting the longest (1997-2012). Naturally, people did not take it well when the Rockstar Era came about.
• The Scrappy: Bella is seen as this by fans, mainly due to not having much of a personality and being poorly-developed, as well as a shallow attempt to add diversity; her gardening aspect was also criticized as racist, given that gardening is a common stereotype for Hispanic people. Not helping is that Pasqually's role has dwindled in favor of Bella.
• Self-Fanservice: Either by making the characters look more like standard anthros or having humanized designs be good-looking people.
• So Okay, It's Average: Those who don't dislike the pizza generally consider it as this. The latter is particularly more common after The New '10s retool, which prioritized improved food quality: various food reviews have commented on how much better the pizza is than public perception makes it out to be.
• Tear Jerker: Rockstar Chuck E's official backstory, which is surprisingly sad. According to this official E-Book, Chuck E. was called Charles Entertainment Cheese, but no one knows the meaning behind the name because he was an orphan. Because he was an orphan, he didn't know when his birthday was, and so he never got to celebrate. Ouch.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Not surprisingly, the fan reaction to the current look of Chuck E. Cheese when it was first unveiled in 2012. There is, however, another group, that are glad that Chuck E. Cheese, after years of having the same old Totally Radical image after the 90s died, updated his look to be more contemporary. Not helping is the replacement of Duncan Brannan (who had voiced Chuck E. since 1993) with Jaret Reddick.
  • Then in 2013, the same thing happened to Helen Henny (in addition to Caroline Taylor replacing longtime voice actress Annagrey Wiechman in 2016), Mr. Munch, Jasper and Pasqually.
  • The removal of cover songs in 2014 didn't sit well with fans, either.
  • The announcement in summer 2017 that the animatronics would be removed from all locations was, to put it lightly, not very well received. An Author's Saving Throw was later given, when it was announced that the Northridge location would be keeping its 1-Stage permanently, and that franchise owners can choose to keep their animatronics if they want to.
  • The curtains always being open starting in late 2005 was a pretty controversial change. Some are fine with it, while others think it ruins the immersion. The point of the curtains was to give off the illusion that the band stepped off the stage, hence why the walk-arounds didn't show up during performances. It's made even worse during the Birthday Star shows, where the Chuck animatronic just awkwardly stands there motionless while the walk-around Chuck dances right in front of it. It's rather jarring, to say the least.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Poor, poor Crusty. Built up as Chuck E.'s unlucky straight man, he was cut after the second showtape in favor of Mr. Munch. Many fans wonder how Crusty could've evolved had he stayed. It also doesn't help that he was completely ignored during the company's 40th anniversary celebration.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Several of the early showtapes have very racy material that wouldn't fly if they were made today.
  • Dolli Dimples, a character that makes many sexual innuendos and regularly seduces the audience, simply put, would not fly in the modern day. To be fair, Dolli was geared more towards the parents (she was located in a separate room with a bar), but the problem is that the kids would likely be attracted to her anyway simply because she's another animatronic. This is mostly why she was later replaced with Artie and B.B. around the early 80's, who are significantly more child-friendly.
• Viewer Name Confusion: Sometimes, people think Chuck's name is Chucky or Chuckie instead of Chuck E.
• Viewer Species Confusion: It's not uncommon to see people (mostly outside the fandom) to confuse Helen Henny (a chicken) for a duck or bird. This is at least a bit forgiving considering her design (especially her original portrait animatronic design◊, which more resembled a goose than a chicken) is rather ambiguous as to who she is.
• Vindicated by History: The earlier Studio C stages. They used to be panned for having only Chuck, but after the 16 movement bots and especially the removal of the animatronics, people have been softer to the stage over the years. The fact that the stage became increasingly common in the 2000s helps. It's also generally agreed upon that the amount of movements possible in the Chuck animatronic, as well as its expressiveness, makes up for it being the only main animatronic on the stage.

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