It’s beautifully hypnotic: the quiet whirrs of every arm raised and the mechanical fluttering of an eyelid. They match the beat of an original, self-esteem–boosting song performed by five towering animatronics on stage at a Chuck E. Cheese in Willowdale. Their movements aren’t perfectly smooth, but there’s a beguiling charm in the mechanical quirks. This was the same location I frequented more than three decades ago, when I was hellbent on winning enough arcade tickets to trade in for a plush of the band’s bassist, Jasper T. Jowls.
I never truly noticed the animatronics until recently, when I learned this is one of just five Chuck E. Cheeses in the world — and the only one outside the U.S. — where the full stage show still exists. Maybe I was subconsciously paying respect to the inspiration behind the horror franchise “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” or just seeking an analogue refuge from all the AI slop online. Either way, I wasn’t alone on this pilgrimage one Friday morning.
Approaching the stage were Cameron Grimmon and Tkiyrah Haines, two friends from Adelaide, Australia, on the last day of their Toronto vacation.
“It’s genuinely surprising; I’d never thought I’d see them in real life,” says Grimmon, 23. He and Haines, 18, had watched YouTube documentaries and browsed fan sites about this relic of ‘80s and early ‘90s children’s entertainment, so they decided to make a stop. Even though Chuck E. Cheese opened its first Australian location in Perth this past September, it doesn’t have the stage show. “It’s interesting to see how they work. The components, the machinery, the human ingenuity,” he says. “You’ll never see this on TV.”
Founded in the late 1970s by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Chuck E. Cheese became an ’80s pop-culture cornerstone thanks to its singing animatronic band. The concept even inspired “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the horror video game and movie franchise about killer animatronics in a kiddie pizzeria — a sequel to the 2023 film is due in December.
Even when not “performing,” the Willowdale animatronics move slightly on stage, blinking or shifting posture. Their motions aren’t as fluid as the newest Disney rides, but there’s still charm and complexity. Longtime store manager Sam Catinella, with the company for 38 years, says people often come just for the show. “We get a lot of Chuck E. fans, especially the moms and dads who will show their kids the show they grew up watching,” he says. “It’s always been here.” The Willowdale store is among the oldest, having opened in October 1983.
“It’s nostalgia-driven, and when you experience something like that, in a world full of stress, people crave something that gave a positive experience from their past, and we’re glad to provide that in a multigenerational business since we started in 1977,” says Matt Daniels, director of entertainment at Chuck E. Cheese’s Irving, Texas headquarters. “They are an important part of our legacy, and I’m glad we’re keeping them for people who love that.”
Daniels remembers visiting ShowBiz Pizza Place, a former rival in the ’80s, and being captivated by its animatronic band — so much so that he got a job at Chuck E. Cheese at 16. Now in his 40s, he describes his role as “overseeing Chuck E. and his friends and bringing them to life,” through YouTube videos, in-store sketches, or the animatronic shows themselves.
Since the animatronics have more of an artifact status nowadays, Daniels says the goal is to grow the Chuck E. Cheese brand by turning its characters into icons of their own rather than a product mascot — less Chester Cheetah, more Mickey Mouse. One of the first major tests will come in November, when a 45-minute Christmas special starring Chuck E. Cheese and his bandmates will hit YouTube and Prime Video.
For now, you can still see the full band in action. Joining Chuck E. on stage are Helen Henny, a singing chicken; Mr. Munch, an alien keyboardist; Jasper T. Jowls, a Southern-drawled dog on bass; and Pasqually P. Pieplate, a human chef turned drummer. Each has its own backstory and personality — lore mostly known to hardcore fans. Haines, the 18-year-old visitor, pulls up images on her phone of lesser-known characters like Madame Oink and Crusty the Cat.
Despite not being alive during the animatronics’ heyday, younger generations are fascinated too. In the Chuck E. Cheese subreddit, with 13,000 members, two of the eight moderators said they are 16. Posts cover all aspects of the company: preserving animatronics, recovering lost media and artifacts, and debating the company’s direction, like adding more screen-based entertainment.
“Animatronics aren’t common outside Disney parks, and the Chuck E. Cheese ones, while simple, can perform any song, so each time you go in, you see a different show. You cannot say that about your favourite ride at Disneyland,” writes Nancy, a 19-year-old moderator from Fremont, Calif.
“Another huge factor is that people crave the colour and personality of the ’90s and 2000s. Almost every chain now is a grey box with no personality. Chuck E. Cheese used to have a range of outdated locations, so each one was like walking into a time machine.” She wants to see more animatronics preserved rather than more screen-based entertainment, arguing kids get enough screen time elsewhere.
But the reason for the dwindling stage shows is the decades-old machinery, says Daniels. “As they age, parts can be harder to come by, and we can’t do it at 100 per cent across the board,” he says, adding that stores have a live costumed Chuck that kids can hug and touch, unlike the stage show.
When I visited a Mississauga location earlier this year, Chuck was missing eyelids (he looked electrocuted), and most of the band barely moved. The stage show was removed in June after a remodel. Parts from that show were salvaged for the Willowdale location.
As I shared plates of pizza and wings with the Aussie tourists Grimmon and Haines, we continued to stare at the stage, waiting for the animatronics to come back to life between musical breaks. “I thought with each passing year it’ll be harder and harder to see them,” says Grimmon. “Sooner or later they might run out of parts and can’t keep going forever. This is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
