Chuck E Cheese mouse getting a makeover into a rockstar

blankspaces · July 4, 2012, 5:38pm

Times are bad Mr. Cheese! Old looking mouse gotta go to fat! Bad rep for kids!

New nirvana grunge hipster mouse time

Chuck E. Cheese has been given the pink slip.
The company that operates the chain of children’s pizza restaurants is retiring the giant rodent’s outdated image — and the man who voiced its character for nearly two decades. CEC Entertainment Inc. says it plans to launch a national ad campaign Thursday with a revamped image of Chuck E. Cheese as a hip, electric-guitar-playing rock star.
It’s just the latest makeover for the 35-year-old mascot, which once was a New Jersey rat who sometimes carried a cigar.
CEC Entertainment, based in Irving, Texas, is struggling to revive sales at its more than 500 pizza restaurants, which offer games, prizes and a musical variety show. In May, CEC said revenue at its locations open at least a year fell 4.2 percent in the first quarter and lowered its outlook for the year.
According to ShowBizPizza.com, a Chuck E. Cheese fan site, the man who voiced the mascot in restaurants and commercials since 1993 learned of his replacement only after coming across “Chuck’s Hot New Single” online and realizing it was sung by someone else. The fan site late last week published a Facebook post by Duncan Brannan, the mascot’s former voice.
Brannan could not be reached for comment. But in the post, he writes that part of his assignment when he first took on the role was to transform Chuck E. Cheese from “a joke-telling, sometime off-color New Jersey rat” to a lovable, mainstream mouse.
He notes that there were various signs in recent months that suggested he was being pushed out, but that he was assured by the company that he was still the voice of Chuck E.
The Facebook post was republished by The Dallas Observer this week.
CEC Entertainment says that Brannan wasn’t fired but that it simply “chose to utilize new voice talent” for its ad campaign. The company said Brannan, a freelancer, is still in contract with the company to provide entertainment in its restaurants.
The new Chuck E. Cheese that launches this week will be voiced by Jaret Reddick, the lead singer for the pop-punk bank Bowling for Soup. The Chuck E. Cheese Facebook page now shows a silhouette of a cartoon mouse playing a guitar.
The first Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre location opened in 1977 in San Jose, Calif. According to ShowBizPizza.com, the idea for Chuck E. came from a generic mascot costume that was acquired by the founder, Nolan Bushnell, who also co-founded Atari and Pong. Executives originally considered calling the restaurant “Rick Rat’s Pizza” but a PR agency figured a rat would be a bad mascot for a pizza chain.
The name Chuck E. Cheese was selected because it downplayed the mascot’s species and forced people to smile when they said it, according to the site.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/the-scene/food-drink/Chuck-E-Cheese-Transforming-Into-a-Rock-Star--161323755.html#ixzz1zez2gR6R

Kromo · July 4, 2012, 5:58pm

They should rebrand them as “Charles M. Classy’s Gentlemen’s Club for Distinguished Gentlemen” and make them a hostess club where strippers feed you wings and give you lapdances as you play Call of Duty.
Kids would love it.

brandowned · July 4, 2012, 7:28pm

You had me at Gentleman’s Club.

Havatchu · July 4, 2012, 7:32pm

He’s always had a guitar and a hat.

And fuck that mouse, he gives me the willies now that I’m older.

Matriarch · July 4, 2012, 7:55pm

When I was 6 I had my birthday at Chuck E Cheese. A couple weeks earlier I had hit my older cousin between the legs and was told that it wasn’t good to hit guys there. Well at my birthday Mr. Cheese was there and I distinctly remember having a random curious thought about whether rats were the same way. In a flash my tiny fist became clenched and I acted upon my curious impulse with a swift strike to the crotch.

It must have been a good hit as the rat immediately crumpled to the floor. I found this pretty entertaining and shouted to my fellow children “LET’S GET CHUCK E.!” Suddenly the flashing lights of the games were no match for the joy of hitting a vulnerable man in a giant rat costume. He fled to the safety of the back rooms, but I was thirsty for more.

Every time the rat tried to slip out and mingle with the playing kids I would point at him and declare “THERE HE IS!”. That’s all it took for him to retreat again as the mob of children chased him down.

So yes, fuck that rat. But thank you Mr. Cheese, I wouldn’t be the bitch I am today if it wasn’t for you.

M.D · July 4, 2012, 7:57pm

New mouse looks like a scott pilgrim wannabe.

Jazz · July 4, 2012, 8:00pm

New chuck e looks like the kids I beat up in high school

Sent from my pussy using gurlllllltalk

Havatchu · July 4, 2012, 8:03pm

When I was 6 I had my birthday at Chuck E Cheese. A couple weeks earlier I had hit my older cousin between the legs and was told that it wasn’t good to hit guys there. Well at my birthday Mr. Cheese was there and I distinctly remember having a random curious thought about whether rats were the same way. In a flash my tiny fist became clenched and I acted upon my curious impulse with a swift strike to the crotch.

It must have been a good hit as the rat immediately crumpled to the floor. I found this pretty entertaining and shouted to my fellow children “LET’S GET CHUCK E.!” Suddenly the flashing lights of the games were no match for the joy of hitting a vulnerable man in a giant rat costume. He fled to the safety of the back rooms, but I was thirsty for more.

Every time the rat tried to slip out and mingle with the playing kids I would point at him and declare “THERE HE IS!”. That’s all it took for him to retreat again as the mob of children chased him down.

So yes, fuck that rat. But thank you Mr. Cheese, I wouldn’t be the bitch I am today if it wasn’t for you.

This makes me wish I punched more girls in the vagina as a child.

By more I mean any.

Matriarch · July 4, 2012, 8:14pm

You can always punch rats.

That bitch Minnie has it coming.

Million · July 4, 2012, 8:20pm

I haven’t been there since those childhood days… I remember when it was “Showbiz Pizza” with Billy Bob being the main character, and Chuck E. was on the sidelines… do they still keep Billy Bob around?

Sheeeit, the last thing I remember about that place was the pizza. The video games and prizes you could get in exchange for tickets you won with skeeball and other games…that was the real attraction.

haha, I just remembered the “animatronic” band that would perform, and it always making some kids cry over how disturbing that visual was.

Carpet_Lint · July 4, 2012, 8:30pm

Still better than the last update they had where they turned him into a sk8tr boi that was outdated the moment it came out.

http://images.topix.com/gallery/up-4JIPHIO270V029Q5.jpg

Davidstar · July 4, 2012, 8:48pm

i hated anything that had a lame mascot , so i’ve never been to one and i didn’t care to go. i went to mr gattis instead

Shadow_Ace · July 5, 2012, 3:57am

something about a rat with pizza never sat well with me…I was like hold up…

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=I4993041823892125&pid=1.7&w=191&h=155&c=7&rs=1

there’s a big ass rat serving me pizza? no thanks

DanDan · July 5, 2012, 4:10am

Bowling for Soup? lol
Should’ve aimed for Mikael Åkerfeldt :rock:
“Come to Chuck E. Cheeeeeeeeeessaaaaaaaagggggghhhhh!!! Where a kid can be kid”

New Chuckie is still outdated.
Make the dude look like Lil’Wayne. That should ring a bell in your target audience.

Pterodactyl · July 5, 2012, 5:32am

I used to attack chuckie when I was a little kid, have no idea why.

oh wait yes I do.

Fuck him, thats why.

And their pizza and wings are sub-par at best, mediocre even, I wouldn’t take a kid I hated to chuckie cheese, and I hate everyones kids.

Dave & Buster’s is where its at.

AYO · July 5, 2012, 5:48am

I actually have Chuck E. being attacked by me and other children on a VHS around here somewhere.

Glad I wasn’t the only one.

Matriarch · July 5, 2012, 5:53am

Did you guys punch him in the crotch?

deadfrog · July 5, 2012, 6:11am

After almost 20 years of loyal service, he gets shooed out like some kind of unwelcome rodent!

deadfrog · July 5, 2012, 6:15am

Is this because he gave you his willy when you were younger?

Also

lol

Lemres · July 5, 2012, 6:23am

If you’ve went to Chuck E. Cheese, do you remember that nasty ass smell it had? My nose is way too sensitive now to ever go back in that place.