There is now one Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band left in California

A staple of millennial childhoods is headed for the trash heap of history as Bay Area-born entertainment giant Chuck E. Cheese is dumping all but one of its animatronic bands.

According to a press release from the company, Chuck E. Cheese is in the process of renovating its kids’ birthday party empire. As such, “Northridge will become the nation’s only Chuck E. Cheese fun center to feature an original animatronic band, and the totally modern upgrade and experience for guests,” the company said. The Northridge Chuck E. Cheese, located at 8425 Reseda Blvd., will boast a “permanent residency” with “Mr. Munch on keyboards, Jasper T. Jowls on guitar, Helen Henny on vocals, and Pasqually on drums.” You can watch the nightmarish “press conference” the characters had in the YouTube video below; don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The pizza-loving rat named Charles Entertainment Cheese was the brainchild of Atari creator Nolan Bushnell. Before creating one of the most iconic games of all time, Bushnell was determined to become a Imagineer, the name Disney gives to its theme park designers and architects. When he failed to be hired by Disney, he moved to the Bay Area and started Atari. But his dream of animatronics and children’s entertainment didn’t die, and in 1977 he opened Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose.

“Kids may go to Disneyland every other year or once in five years, but there aren’t really any cartoon times with Mickey Mouse,” Bushnell said in 1980. “I know there are an awful lot of kids who … identify with Chuck E. Cheese because they can go to a Pizza Time Theatre every few weeks.”

The concept was a hit, and Chuck E. Cheese expanded throughout California and then the U.S. The pandemic was disasterous for a high-touch kids’ entertainment venue, and the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2020. Remarkably, though, the company survived after a restructuring.

The company says it will be updating “its look and feel” in 400 play centers nationwide. In the Bay Area, there are about a dozen Chuck E. Cheese locations, including in Concord, Pinole, Hayward, San Bruno, Dublin, Redwood City, Newark, Fairfield, Brentwood and Cupertino.

“Chuck E. Cheese is and was an essential part of growing up,” Bushnell said in a statement. “… It’s great that the original animatronic band will remain in residency at the Northridge location while the other locations offer experiences and create memories with the new vision.”