‘A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas’ Creators Tease an Original Holiday Special With “Heart” and Humor Inspired By the Classics [Exclusive]

The holiday season is just around the corner, meaning Christmas specials and films, new and old, will soon be dominating the airwaves and taking over streaming services to celebrate the occasion. Alongside classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer this year, a beloved childhood icon is preparing to capture the magic of the season with his first-ever animated holiday special for the whole family to enjoy. A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas will see the pizza mouse and his friends, known for their animatronic and arcade restaurant chain where “a kid can be a kid,” tasked with reigniting Santa’s Christmas spirit before he takes off. We’re excited to share a new sneak peek from the special as part of Collider’s Exclusive Preview week for upcoming winter film and television titles, and we were able to speak to the creators, Jon Colton Barry and Zac Moncrief, about their inspirations, the music, and their approach to tackling a character that’s been a part of so many childhoods.

Our exclusive clip shows exactly the severity of the emergency Chuck and company are dealing with this holiday season. Around the world, the Christmas spirit has reached an all-time low, including at the North Pole with jolly old St. Nick. Chuck isn’t about to just let the love of the holiday die, but, fortunately for him, his friend Jasper Jowls knows just about everyone who could help, including a certain someone named Sandy. She’s much more than just a friend of the hound dog who’s eager to dish about Royally Messed-Up Royals with him — she’s Santa’s loving wife. Unfortunately, she’s able to confirm the grim news that even Santa’s down in the dumps about Christmas, thanks to the growing workload that has put a greater and greater tax on him as the world’s population has grown in number. All the talk about the big guy’s stress levels gives Chuck an idea — hold a holiday party for the ages that will lift his spirits and remind him of the magic of the season.

The whole Chuck E. Cheese gang will take part in the plan to save Christmas, including Helen Henny, Bella Brinca, Munch, and Pasqually, as well as Chuck and Jasper. However, they’ll have their work cut out for them. Everyone knows that Santa “sees when you are sleeping and knows when you’re awake,” meaning it’ll be a challenge to surprise the man with all the toys. Providing the voice of Chuck for the spirited holiday adventure is iCarly‘s Nathan Kress, with a starry group including Grey DeLisle (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Nolan North (Uncharted), Kari Wahlgren (Rick & Morty), Fred Tatasciore (Kung Fu Panda 2), and Michael Gough (Doc McStuffins) joining in the fun. For Barry and Moncrief, the new story and talented team presented an opportunity to deliver their own twist on an entertainment universe that’s been around since 1977, paying homage to Chuck E. Cheese’s long history with their own brand of fun.

“We were thrilled to add our own, unique, fun spin on these beloved characters. The Chuck E. Cheese cast has constantly evolved and changed throughout the years, which is a giant part of its legacy. Chuck E. Cheese evolves along with us. We just wanted to dig a little deeper into who these characters are and what drives them. That’s what makes them relatable. If you create characters that you love, that make you laugh, that are fun and unexpected in ways that resonate with you, then, hopefully, it will feel fresh for ALL audiences.”

‘A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas’ Looked to the Classics for Inspiration

Multiple blueprints for what makes a successful holiday special or movie have already been laid out by the classics that came before. When it came to giving the iconic mouse his first animated seasonal outing with A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas, Barry says that Moncrief’s love of all things Christmas and his experience working on similar specials in the past defined the duo’s approach. “Zac is a HUGE Christmas fanatic and creates Christmas specials that conjure the magical feeling of Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, Rudolph, and all the classics that have heart and are hysterically funny,” he added. “That’s what we hope to capture.” Moncrief is an Annie Award winner who brought years of experience as a writer, director, producer, storyboard artist, songwriter, and more on everything from Family Guy to Johnny Bravo, Fairly OddParents, Be Cool, Scooby-Doo, and beyond.

The Emmy-winning Barry has been a frequent partner of Moncrief, most notably on the Disney Channel favorite Phineas and Ferb. Both have dozens of credits as writers, directors, and animators on the zany summer-set show, including, notably, on the holiday special, “Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!,” which Moncrief helmed and Barry co-wrote and storyboarded. They told us that A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas should feel somewhat familiar to fans of that holiday episode, though their main guiding principle was to avoid retreading holiday stories everybody knows, but with Chuck E. Cheese characters. It had to be something only associated with Chuck and his pals and not simply remembered as another parody.

“There is some DNA from our Phineas and Ferb Christmas special. We established basic ‘rules’ that we’ve, since, used for all our Christmas specials, including CEC. It has to be an original Christmas story, not a just a parody of Grinch and Scrooge tropes, it has to be a story that can only be told using our specific characters, and, ideally, we try to make a special that becomes something families will watch year after year, like we did growing up.”

Moncrief and Barry Had a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Help With Chuck E. Cheese’s Christmas Songs

Chuck E. Cheese and his gang examining a grumpy Santa in A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas

Another key element to some of the greatest holiday specials is the music. To this day, Burl Ives‘s renditions of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Holly Jolly Christmas,” Thurl Ravenscroft‘s “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” and Lindsey Buckingham‘s “Holiday Road” remain regulars in Christmas music rotations years after their respective on-screen appearances. The team behind A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas understood how important it was to get its original songs right, bringing in not only Emmy-nominated Ginny & Georgia composer Ben Bromfield, but also Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend and Barry’s father, Jeff Barry, a known hit-maker who wrote “I’m a Believer” by The Monkees, “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies, and, fittingly, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” originally sung by Darlene Love but covered endlessly by everyone from U2 to Michael Bublé, and even the Queen of Christmas herself, Mariah Carey.

Bromfield, Barry, and the special’s creators penned two original songs to sing along to throughout their Christmas story. Moncrief fully agreed that “What’s a Christmas special without a great song?” and confirmed that Barry was the perfect collaborator for Chuck E. Cheese, both in figuring out exactly what audiences would want to hear and encouraging involvement from everyone in the room to make the tracks something special. “Working with Jeff Barry was an absolute thrill,” the writer shared. “His understanding of what the human ear wants to listen to is supernatural. Working with Jeff is amazing because he thinks in melody and lyrics. We just do our best to keep up. He’s a very open and generous collaborator, despite his expertise and knowledge far outweighing anyone else in the room.”

Barry was also instrumental in helping his son nail down the theme and title for the tracks. Jon Colton Barry affirmed it was a team effort in trying to make two new holiday classics everyone would want to embrace, further crediting Bromfield for thinking outside the box with the arrangements. The final result, he and Moncrief believe, is something unheard of in Christmas music.

“I remember discussing how sad and cold the end of every year would be without the winter holidays. What would we do without Christmas? My father said, ‘That’s your title.’ The rest of the song came quickly and when we brought it to our incredible composer, Ben Bromfield, he brought in amazing arrangement ideas we’d never heard in Christmas songs before. It was a great team.”

A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas will stream on Prime Video and YouTube through the official Chuck E. Cheese channel on Thanksgiving, November 27. Check out our exclusive sneak peek in the player above and stay tuned here at Collider throughout the week for more from our winter preview series.