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Animated holiday specials have been enchanting audiences and making treasured family memories for generations. This year, a heartfelt new comedy-adventure in the North Pole (complete with charming original songs) marks the first animation special from the Chuck E. Cheese brand: A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas. The 45-minute film, which arrives on streaming this Thanksgiving, sees Chuck E. and pals (Helen Henny, Jasper Jowls, Bella Brinca, Munch and Pasqually) set out to lift a beleaguered Santa’s spirits with a surprise party — and encounter an old-school elf determined to bring his toy-making brethren back to their warrior ways.
We heard all about the behind-the-ball-pit inspirations that went into adapting the popular theme restaurant brand from exec producers/writers Jon Colton Barry and Zac Moncrief, veterans of animated hits like Phineas and Ferb and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, in a recent email interview. The toon elves also unwrapped a special sneak peek clip for us, which you can watch below!
Animation Magazine: How did you become involved in this first-ever Chuck E. Cheese animated holiday special?
Zac Moncrief: I was on the hunt for my next gig and had a general meeting with Derek Switaj and Sadaf Muncy over at HappyNest. As the meeting was ending, Derek, sorta casually threw out, “Oh, wait a minute — we’ve been talking with Chuck E. Cheese about a possible Christmas special and series. Would you be interested in something like that?” Then he asked if I knew a writer he really wanted to work with, Jon Colton Barry. I was, like, “Ha! Do I know Jon?!” — and got him up to speed on my amazing decades-long creative partnership with Jon, dating back to Phineas and Ferb. I said I’d love to pitch our take on a special to CEC. Jon and I got together that day and, within hours, we had the initial pitch, which they loved. We immediately started working on a premise, writing the full pitch bible, and re-developing the characters and the world.
Jon Colton Barry: Yeah, it was a funny coincidence. I had known Derek for a while and we were also trying to find something fun to work on together. When Zac floated the idea of working with Derek on the first Christmas special with the Chuck E. Cheese characters as a pilot for a potential series, it seemed like a really fun challenge and opportunity, so we jumped at it. Zac and I share a very similar sensibility and just click creatively.
What were your initial inspirations for the story and look of the film?
Jon: Zac and I had made a few Christmas specials together working on, both, Phineas and Ferb and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! We developed an overall approach that has served us well. We avoid straight parodies of other Christmas specials and try to find an original story that can only be told with our specific characters. We really try to give it the feel of the classic Christmas specials that families want to watch every year, like The Grinch or A Charlie Brown Christmas.
In the case of this story, it’s not been an easy few years for a lot of people, and the idea of even Santa Claus struggling to keep his spirits up felt relatable and true. Chuck E. Cheese is all positive energy. He’s about celebrating — parties, fun, games, food, family — so the initial spark was, “What if Chuck E. and his friends have to throw Santa a surprise Christmas party to lift his spirits?”
Zac: As for the look, we really wanted to move away from the 3D character designs and style you see in Chuck E. Cheese fun centers in order to give our special a unique sensibility and identity within the Chuck E. Cheese universe.
Was the project always envisioned as a 2D animated special?
Zac: Yes, for our purposes, classic 2D animation was always the way to go. Without the time and budget, CGI can’t really achieve the kind of acting and nuance we would want.
What was the biggest challenge, or surprise, in working with such well-known characters from a different area of entertainment?
Zac: Having worked on a Scooby-Doo series, we were aware of a fandom’s reaction to changes you make to what’s come before. We understand that people think whatever version of a Scooby-Doo series — or depiction of Chuck E. Cheese characters — that was current during their childhood is, to them, the best, correct or only truly “valid” version.
Jon: That said, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how massive and broad the Chuck E. Cheese fan base is, globally. CEC has been around for nearly 50 years, so the fandom really is all ages, from three to 93 years old, which is the ideal target audience: everybody on the planet. It’s exciting to bring these characters to life in an entirely new way for all of these fans, and we hope they’re all going to love it!
Did you have a favorite character to write for and see brought to life while working on the special?
Jon: That’s hard for me on this one. Honestly, every character in the special became a “favorite” at some point. It’s really hard to hear people like Nathan [Kress], Kari [Wahlgren], Nolan [North], Fred [Tatasciore], Grey [DeLisle], Michael [Gough], and all the amazing voice talent bringing these characters to life, and not have that character be your favorite at that moment.
Zac: 100% true. I also love all of our characters, but my two favorites are Leggymos [the Elf Prince of the North Pole] and Jasper. Leggymos is something I’ve never seen before in a Christmas special and his POV brings me joy every time we have him open his mouth. And Jasper is, basically, like being in a room with Jon — always side-eyeing the world and making me laugh.
Jon: Hey, the world side-eyes me back.
How long did it take to develop and produce A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas?
Zac: Jon and I developed the ‘concept’ in, like, a day, but the actual script took a couple of months and one major eleventh-hour rewrite. Once into actual production (design and boards), we were able to deliver this entire special in just about a year, which is ridiculously fast considering everything had to be created from scratch, so nothing was re-use or established beforehand.
Where was the animation produced and what sort of tech and tools were used?
Zac: We worked with the wonderful people at Pixel Zoo in Australia. This was their first real foray into 2D animation and it was awesome to see everyone putting their hearts and souls into it.
We utilized Storyboard Pro for our boards, Photoshop for character, prop and world-building, Harmony for the animation and Premiere Pro for final editing. We were going for a traditional animation style with a heavy focus on acting and timing.
And how many people were involved in the production?
Jon: Three and a half-ish? I forgot to count.
Zac: Actually, we had a small team here including Jon and myself, but Steve Trenbirth was our co-director with boots on the ground in Australia. He had a full board, animation and design team working under him at Pixel Zoo.
Music is an important part of the Chuck E. Cheese brand as well as the tradition of animated holiday tales — can you talk about the new songs introduced in the special?
Zac: As a Christmas lover, holiday music is playing in my house the second all the Thanksgiving leftovers have been put away, so the chance to create a song that could be on that same playlist was a huge thrill for me. My song involvement has been limited in the past, so this was a real treat.
Jon: Music and songwriting are always an important aspect of every project. I had been one of the main songwriters on Phineas and Ferb, and I also wrote a bunch of songs for our Scooby show, as well as with my father, Jeff Barry, for my LEGO City Adventures series. When I told my father about the Christmas special, he was very excited about working on a new song that fit the unique tone we were going for.
“What Would We Do without Christmas?” came out feeling like a modern, timeless Christmas song with both heart and a sense of humor. My father wrote the classic hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which most people know from the Mariah Carey cover. He also had hits with animated bands like “Sugar Sugar” for the Archies, so he thinks the same way as me and Zac: “family” shouldn’t mean “lower quality entertainment.” It should mean great creative work that kids and adults can both enjoy equally.
We all love the songs — and Ben [Bromfield]’s score is unbelievably good. He went above and beyond, even recording a live orchestra to give the entire special a more feature-feeling, human warmth.
Without giving too much away, can you share which part of the special you’re most proud of?
Zac: We were approved to officially go into production on our final, third draft of the script. Even though we had a green light, there were some things in the script that were still really bothering us. I had a meeting with Melissa and Matt from Chuck E. Cheese and asked them if we could, please, take one more pass at the script — because we landed on an idea we both loved.
Jon: Yeah, the special really came together, very late in game, when we developed Leggymos as the main antagonist. We were playing around with Christmas tropes and the idea of Santa’s elves came up. Nowadays, because of all the Lord of the Rings-type shows and films, not everyone hears the word “elves” and immediately thinks “jolly, pointy-hatted little guys making toys in the North Pole.” We thought, what if all elves used to be these fair-haired LOTR warriors, but they won their ancient war and now keep peace by promoting the good-will and the spirit of Christmas?
Leggymos is the elf prince who had led the elves to victory against the Troll King long ago. Now, Leggymos is worried that the elves have grown too soft and complacent to ever defeat the trolls again if they were to return. He sincerely believes ending Christmas will make the world safer and better. The fun was trying to make Leggymos the hero of his own movie — but, unfortunately, this special is not that movie.
How was this experience different from your past work on popular animated series?
Zac: The whole industry is different from when we originally did Phineas or Scooby. Those shows were written, boarded and directed in-house with the entire team under one roof, which, obviously, is the ideal for the creative process. Animation was able to survive the COVID lockdown better than other areas of entertainment because every aspect of animation can be done remotely. The flexibility is so valuable, but nothing can beat having the entire crew together working in concert.
Jon: Creatively, the goals and approach remain the same, but the practical day-to-day process of doing it remotely requires a higher level of communication and oversight to make sure everyone’s on the same page.
What are your biggest animation inspirations?
Jon: For me, personally, very few of my inspirations for animated projects come from animation itself. Finding ideas outside of animation keeps it fresher and more original-feeling (for me). That said, the Pixar approach to all-age entertainment is always an inspiration, as is the smart, irreverent, funny writing in classic Simpsons and other prime time animated shows.
Zac: My animation inspirations are all over the place. Growing up, I was a huge classic Warner Bros. fan, then I fell into a Disney mindset when Roger Rabbit and Little Mermaid came out. My main source of inspiration, however, are really the classic live-action films I grew up with. Comedies like History of the World Part 1, Airplane and Meaning of Life, and big hearted movies like E.T. Those drive my creative decisions and character choices most of all — especially in the adult animated series I’ve done.
What should brand owners and filmmakers keep in mind when creating IP-expanding projects like A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas?
Jon: We were very lucky with Chuck E. Cheese. They hadn’t ventured very far into more traditional storytelling with their characters and world, but they gave us an incredible amount of creative freedom to surprise the audience with something they might not expect from the brand. That’s the thing to keep in mind — taking risks is the best path to creative success. If you love an idea AND it scares you a little bit — you’re probably onto something.
Zac: It’s one of the big themes in the Christmas special itself: fear kills creativity. In our experience, most creative decisions made out of fear will end up being the wrong decision.
(We have to ask…!) What are your thoughts on the emergence of generative AI in the animation industry?
Zac: AI is coming and we really can’t stop it. I think the main way to approach it is exactly how we did it with all past computer assisted programs. It’s just another tool that requires a creative professional at the helm. Humans bring a special, empathetic approach to storytelling and art that a computer can’t recreate. Most creative art is about shared, human experience. AI hasn’t lived through a divorce, or had its moral beliefs challenged. It never had a bully beat it up or had its heart broken. AI will never have the personal, subjective experiences that drive human creative people to create — or audiences to ever fully relate.
Jon: It’s the moment when you look at a tree and it kinda looks like Owen Wilson, then your mind wanders to Owen Wilson and where he’s been recently, then you drop your phone and you pick it up thinking about how Owen Wilson might pick up a phone, then you’re hit with a great scene idea based on a character comically fumbling with their phone that congealed through all of that chaotic, fluid synapse-firing. The way a creative mind actually works is just not the way AI thinks. Particularly with comedy — all that “truth” in humor stuff really means “shared human truth.” It’s, like, sorry, AI, you kinda had to be there.
Why do you think animated holiday specials are so treasured by audiences … and how does A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas fit into this evergreen genre?
Jon: Well, Christmas is a very kid-friendly time of year when families get together and share experiences. It makes sense that watching Christmas specials has become a part of so many family’s holiday traditions. Timeless stories, positive messages, and they’re entertaining to all ages. Adults, especially, un-Grinch a little bit around Christmas and enjoy stuff that might, otherwise, be a little saccharine for them.
Zac: Yeah, there’s something magical about Christmastime and all the really good specials capture that magic. Growing up, my family cherished all the classic holiday specials. Every year, we’d all be in front of the TV watching Charlie Brown, Rudolph and Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. We knew all the songs and we’d quote all our favorite lines. Those specials are memories connected with times of joy, excitement, love and, of course, what every kid loves: gifts!
Christmas specials are the perfect appetizers before the big day itself. With the Chuck E. Cheese special, capturing that magic was essential, and I hope everyone can feel it when they watch.
A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas premieres Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 27) on Prime Video and the Chuck E. Cheese YouTube channel. Watch the previously released trailer here and check out a new exclusive clip featuring Leggymos below!
