The irony about Chuck E. Cheese retiring it's animatronics is that it happened right when Five Nights at Freddy's was at the height of it's popularity. You'd actually think that would encourage them to keep or update the animatronics and in turn bring more business.
I mean it sucks, but i get it. Post 2020 CEC is probably struggling finacially. Animatronics are pricey to mantain, and FNAF has made them a bit more scary to kids. It makes sense, but it sucks. Hopefully they let Individual resturaunt owners keep the stages as they are.
@@zeusdoesstuffi would actually argue that fnaf has made kids like animatronics more! at least it definitely did that to me when it first came out, its why i like animatronics so much in the first place
@@zeusdoesstufffnaf made children crazy over Chuck e cheese and animatronics. The amount of kids going to high school with fnaf Merch or talking about fnaf lore and characters was insane. Idk why they got rid of the animatronics when hardware and software is significantly better and they could produce animatronics for adults and children because fnaf expanded and reached mew audiences
I actually like the rotating stage that hides the animatronic so the mascot can come out, its far more creative and convincing than just curtians, cause I can't tell you how many times me and my friends/other kids would crawl onto Chucky's stage and peak behind his curtian while the mascot was out. Broke the illusion for all of us. But to give credit where its due, the employees made up a good story about how the mascot was actually Chucky's brother or cousin and he comes out to play with the kids so Chucky can sleep between shows
@TheTNTMuffin Mr Munch is fine, I don't hate him. But he has definitely had the least characterization of the gang, and was only created on a whim seemingly since someone in charge at the time wanted a monster character. For the longest time, all he ever did was eat pizza and talk about eating pizza, and I just wish I had gotten to see Crusty in person. His character was such an honest guy who really tried his best and took way too much crap that he didn't deserve from Chuck himself. And it was just funny to have a rat bossing a cat around and paying his paycheck.
@@Sakachi18 I miss all the original personalities tbh- I mean they’re def not the most kid friendly when you think about it but og Chuck is hilarious to me
@probablyjustsnails Same. OG Charles was something special. But yeah, not kid approved nowadays. Though, that probably was the point back then, to give the adults something they would find funny too.
The Balcony Stage actually made it's debut in October 1980 at the Arlington, Texas Pizza Time Theatre (closed in March 2024.). There was a prototype installed at the Kooser Rd location in San Jose, California earlier in 1980 (a Pizza Times article from May 1980 references the new staging and a new showtape (which is currently lost media) as the Showboat.)
Studio C Alpha was the one I grew up with. I remember being disappointed that only Chuck E himself was there and not every character. It's so saddening that these animatronics and arguably even the worst ones, are just being seen as something worthless to the company. It doesn't matter if Northridge California will keep one stage, everyone feels nostalgia and fascination, and looking at Minecraft, Fnaf, and new mario games, nostalgia sells
I am so glad you mentioned the tunnel under the stage. I watched several other videos talking about chuck e cheese and nobody mentioned it. I remember crawling through the tunnel as a kid, it went from the dinning area to the game room. The kids could crawl from one room to another.
As someone who’s been using the Security Breach soundtrack as background noise while streaming, I was given whiplash when the Monty Golf music kicked in.
I worked at a studio C beta location. I left that job in March of this year and since then it’s been remodeled to the cec live stage which makes me so sad. From what I’ve heard while I was working there, corporate wants to make all locations into cec live ones in the next few years. It’s awful to see all these animatronics go
@@TheTNTMuffinthere’s a Chuck E. Cheese near where I live, it’s had the same basic stage setup and same animatronics from when I was a little kid. (I should know, Chuck e still has a pizza stain lol). The animatronics function just fine, and they actually went under repairs on Sunday. I don’t see that one letting go of the animatronics anytime soon
yknow, it's nice to see some FNAF fans actually becoming the fans of CEC and real animatronic pizzerias, and making videos about them (basically telling their history) I became interested in the animatronics, and their stories, especially after I kinda left the FNAF community. since the restaurants are gone, and also the fact that the nearest still open CEC is a half world away, I'll never be able to visit any of them, and I can only see them on videos. my country has nothing like this. so yeah, I enjoy watching these videos, good work, and interesting, how these places evolved and then..slowly stopped featuring the mascots themselves.
8:50 i'll still never get over how the chuck e cheese i went to all the time as a kid had such a rare stage type. makes me wish i wasn't too old to go there and not be creepy about it 😅
I knew about all of the stage types (and the awesome adventure machine which was actually made to tie in with the Chuck E. Cheese movie “Chuck E Cheese in The Galaxy 5000”!) but some of these variations I’ve never heard of before like the Galaxy stage is soooooo cool!!!
I like how The Five Nights at Freddy’s games sorta revived interest in these Animatronic characters related to old Pizza Chains. I’m surprised Chuck’ E Chesse is still around where I live, both in Fairfield Suisun. And Stockton California. We still have these Chuck’ E. Cheese Places. But yeah, it’s crazy how this franchise is still going. Grew up with some of these myself.
I been getting recommended these videos on Chuck E cheese and the animatronics and I thought the reason they must be getting rid of them is because kids must be traumatized from fnaf lol. Interesting a lot of people seem to be saying otherwise. I think preteens and teens would be interested but young kids would surely be scared, wouldn't they?
Grew up with the Three Stage, brings back memories! I'd love to see a video looking back at all the arcade games from Showbiz/Chuck E. Cheese over the years! If there's two things that makes Chuck E. Cheese - well, Chuck E. Cheese, it's the animatronics and the games!😁👌
9:28 WOW This stage and animatronic verison of Chuck E Cheese is my personal favorite, love his design here and the stage looks really cool, so much detail going on
I believe that at some point, the animatronics started losing popularity because they were a lot of the same thing, I do hope that if they attempt to make them again, they will be a lot more advanced and a lot more unique than before
Showbiz Pizza & Rock-a-Fire was the ultimate culmination of animatronics, food, fun, and nightmare fuel that kept us coming back for more! ...my kids got to experience the Chuck-e-cheese watered-down versions over the years, finally succumbing to the removal of ALL robotics and now it's just not somewhere anyone wants to go anymore sadly. Five nights at freddy's definitely captured our fears & love on behest of the reality we got to experience, but it truly saddens me that my kids will never get to experience the REAL thing!....ironically, one of the 'trends' of today is that people are trying to recreate the experience of being a '90's kid'...buying all the old analog gear that is now readily available on a cell phone...i truly get it..
I wish I could go back a live my childhood for one day at Chuck E Cheese. I had so many fond memories and it’s sad to see all the animatronics just gone and replaced with boring dance floors and underwhelming pictures of the characters on the walls.
I just watched Friday Nights at Freddy’s movie and found myself going down the Chuck E. Cheese rabbit hole. I was the Munch’s Make Believe Band generation in the early 90s and I remember thinking the animatronics were creepy and unsettling, yet I couldn’t look away. It was like driving by a car accident…you just gotta look.
After I watched the FNAF a few weeks ago. I was hooked on the different eras of both showbiz pizza vs Chuck e Cheeze and the far past and future lore of FNAF and it was insane😂❤ Great video dude! Imma sub cause you seem informative and chill! :D
Great video ! There were some unique 1 stage and Studio Cs and cabarets you missed but those are very minor . I’m glad you missed 1 stage being the family album because those things were *horrifying*
@@TheTNTMuffin Ok so there was a cabaret act called 4 little shavers which may have been in an ice cream parlor in pizza time theaters . The 4 characters were all named after CEC founder Nolan bushnell. The studio Cs are kinda random such as a Saudi Arabian CEC with an alpha with 2 blue screens and tvs on each side of Chuck . There was a studio c alpha that was on a 3 stage but was actually set up like an alpha and not the studio 3.5 setup it closed in 2019-20 . Some betas have unique things to them such as a ticket blaster background rather than the blue screen etc . These are the only ones I could think of off the top of my head but hopefully I can help inform you !
@@NoodleNuggz oh those are all pretty interesting. I’m surprised I never heard of the 4 little shavers! Also I looked up the family album thing and it is terrifying…
Great video! If I had to give my favorite era It would be the Portrait stage/set up. Idk why but I really like how the animatronics look even with the basic movement, and I really like enjoy the slightly more adult themes.
I had the galaxy stage. I used to go to Chuck E. Cheese every time my uncle visited (he used to live in another state and would rarely come by) when I was at least younger than nine years old. I had so many good memories at that locations and was devastated when I learned it was replaced with just.. A dance floor. I’ll never forget the memory of me and my sister standing in front of Chuck, waiting for the next show to start while my uncle teased, “hey, he looked at me because I know him personally.” Sweet days I can never get back nor will get to recreate.
You mentioned at the beginning that the first stage design ended in 91 although after seeing those here I swear that just revived a deep deep long forgotten memory of seeing what I believe was one of those window anamatronics of Pasquali that I think was high up in the center of the wall. I remember it creeping me put a little bit. Like the idea of this anamatronic just sitting up there in darkness when its not out. I was born in 95 so it would have been sometime after that. Although I do have a much clearer memory of seeing Pasquali on the drums. This was at Altoona PA. I have home movies at CEC, may have to check them out.
I remember them having a speaker with episodes of their show on the screens. Then they'd announce free tickets. I remember the mascot walking around, making the kids do a dumb song and dance, then throwing tickets at them. That was before they only have card.
My favorite part was when he was talking about the awesome adventure machine that had my most favorite Chuck E. Cheese animatronic is thank you for saying it was the coolest stage that they ever made because I appreciated that I know I wasn’t alive back in 1996 but I really love that stage a whole lot so thank you for featuring that in this video
With Chuck E. cheese's getting rid of the animatronics, they're probably going to go out of business. It's expensive to maintain the animatronics, but without them it's just an overpriced restaurant with lackluster food. Unless there's an arcade, then it's an overpriced arcade with mediocre food.
Can’t believe you didn’t talk about the haunted stage. You know, the one where they found the dead kids in the suits…? Think it was called Fazbear something, or maybe I’m thinking of Comet Ping Pong?
its crazy as a chuck e cheese employee seeing the videos with the modern puppets playing next to the animatronics which were taken from my store around 2020
I know fnaf kinda revived this, but I have always been interested in how these things actually work. There must be teams of dudes writing codes to make these animatronics animate on a stage, and if you really think about it, this is the final stage of those basic robotics classes we all had the chance to take in middle school or high school with the little Lego midstorm robots. It’s amazing to think people were out there making robots perform
fnaf music and chuck e. cheese? i love it!! i absolutely live for chuck e. cheese plus it’s history AND fnaf, so this video is literally perfect in my eyes lol
I definitely remember chucky having comedic lines with the parrot where i lived as a kid for the Studio C Alpha. I also remember at some point there was a Studio C Alpha to the right on the 3 stage platform with the munch band, probably in-between transitions. Ive also seen the Studio C Beta with the big screen&camera but my favorite was always the Studio C Alpha where he talked with the parrot and the telephone rang.
@@TheTNTMuffin i saw another video somewhere of someone saying that all the locations have been turned into 2.0’s and that theres only one location left that still has animatronics, but ive never done the research myself so I wouldnt know.
On the 3 stage, i remember the munch band would do their skit, the curtain would close, and then chuckys curtain would open and he would do his skit, and i was always confused as to why chucky never interacted with the other animatronics and now thanks to your video, it all makes sense lol
@@laurenelizabeth4528 people are saying all of them will eventually be turned into 2.0 stages other than the location in Northridge, California. Not 100% sure if it’s true or not, but it might be.
When I was a kid, I visited CEC in the ‘80s and the early ‘90s. Great times. I came back to visit for my nieces and nephews birthdays, and they aren’t as good anymore.
Great Video and well researched. I grew up seeing the pizza time theater show with the animatronics in the frames. It was quite a sight to behold. It was dark and moody . There was a crawlspace under the stage that would strobe when you put a quarter inside. The 1980's were so rad and eerie.
I could make some very obvious jokes about a certain franchise but I won’t and I’ll say this is a interesting but also nice change of pace for your channel
Actually, a location in Northridge, CA still has their 2-Stage after a 2.0 Remodel having half 2.0 and half retro, giving this location a name 'Retro Store'. Nolan Bushnell, founder of ATARI and Chuck E. Cheese was there on the day of the Grand Re-opening. Nolan said he was glad there was one left and that it also not in a museum. The Franchise owner said the stage is there to stay.
scott said that he was afraid someone would try to recreate the lore so he doesn’t want one made sadly. however i agree they would gain a massive profit considering the movie just came out lol
I grew up with the original Chucky Studio C stage, and I never realized how sad it is that only Chucky is actually there. I mean...he interacted with other characters via 2 screens, but still. The disco ball and ticket blaster were fun tho NGL.
I remember having the Studio C Beta stage in my local Chuck E. Cheese but last year they removed it and I was sad they removed it. They replaced it with a dance floor which can only move stickers with your feet and display colors.
@@TheTNTMuffintbh, I don’t mind having them *alongside* animatronic locations, they seem to be a decent hit with the kids especially with the mascot interaction
Oh! Also yes, the Rockwr stage is indeed great, so are the AAM stage and the Studio C Alpha. The Cabaret and Lounge were also really great, wish we kept those.
I was excited to hear that Chuck E. Cheese was finally going to be coming to Australia, but if the are discontinuing the animatronics..... I'm not gonna be excited about it anymore. The only reason I wanted to go was because I thought those were cool
We don’t have any animatronic restaurants in my country so I’m just watching this cause it’s such a weird concept to me, but what’s even weirder is that they’re removing animatronics from the restaurants at a time when stuff like FNAF could cause a resurgence in interest toward animatronics. ESPECIALLY in light of the movie. Honestly I think if they even went ahead into talks with Scott Cawthon/Steelwool/whoever has the rights these days, and opened a real Freddy Fazbear’s pizza, I think they’d make a killing. Hopefully not literally though.
I heard Scott will never approve a real life fnaf location where you can eat pizza and play games because he's afraid of someone recreating the events of the games. It's unfortunate but I understand his reasoning at least.
They say that the kids stopped paying attention to the animatronic years ago, but to be honest, I don’t blame them. I mean look at them. They just slowly got worse and the technicians didn’t really care to fix them. The originals looked better.
Sad that most of the stages are being ripped out with the exception of northridge. The location I used to go to has sadly been gutted of it’s 3-stage that being Fargo ND.
I remember my Chuck E. Cheese growing up had an older Chuck E. To the left that wasn’t hidden when the mascot costume came out and to the right was the band I think but none of the stages in the video looked like how it looked because Chuck E. Was completely separated from the rest I think
I live near a water park with retrofitted animatronics that still has the clapper board! I don't know if it still works right now but it worked a few years back. I remember it moving
Hi, born and raised Springfield il Chuck E. Cheese child here. We definitely have the 3 stage version. Chuck solo on the left Helen, munch, jasper in the middle and Pasquale solo to the right. It has the talking moon and building but does NOT have a lil munch(or at least one that I can see/is functioning!) The one Springfield has is closer to the other 3 stage stage combo you mentioned!😊 I’m incredibly happy that we still have the animatronics and with the fnaf movie I’m sure they are too!!!
I went to chuckee cheese yesterday with my niece was soooooo disappointed I haven’t been there in years and when I stepped foot in it was like my child hood was RIPPED AWAY .. never existed the kids today will never experience what us 90 baby’s did with chuckee cheese PURE FUN ‼️‼️
Crawling under the stage was the best part of my childhood! Complete game room when you came out! No adults! 80s parents really didn’t watch their kids!😂
2:13 my chuck e cheese had these, I was little maze crawl tunnels you could go under the stage and play in, I remember kids kept messing themselves/getting lost and crying in it so when new owners took over in the last years of my chuck e cheese in Normal, IL, they closed them up... also mine huge ball pitt (like a discovery zone before those existed) had like racketball courts with scooters you could use (and hurt yourself crashing into someone) , it was huge, I feel like they added a lot of custom things to mine I never saw at chuck e cheeses from other videos
I find dumb how they're getting rid of the animatronic even after the success of fnaf and how animatronics becoming popular again because of it, they still have the audacity to get rid of them, and this makes me sad as a person who mostly grew up with the Studio C stage
They should add a new animatronic with the new design. The post-refresh CEC doesnt feel like CEC anymore. The animatronics were the place’s defining feature. Now its just a normal arcade.
@@TheTNTMuffinonly if the FNaF Fandom wasn't dog water to chuck-e-cheese none of this would've happened, Despite the real reason the animatronics are gone is "no one looked at them " which is highly false.
Btw the 3 stage prototype had multiple different munch animatronics. The building, the junior, the moon, so he could “move” back and forth between different parts (but looking different each time)
The tunnels were soooo much fun! The tunnels would go off in different directions oh my God it was always so much fun. That was the best part of Chuck E. Cheese for me. It was the tunnels under the stage.
