For generations, Chuck E. Cheese has been the backdrop of birthday parties, arcade victories, and childhood bliss. Now the iconic mouse is stepping out from the whirl of ticket dispensers and skee‑ball lanes and into his own animated holiday special with A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas.
Chuck E., alongside his pals Helen Henny, Jasper Jowls, Bella Brinca, Munch, and Pasqually, creates a plan to throw a surprise party to lift Santa’s Christmas spirit. But surprising the man who “sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake” won’t be easy.
Written and executive produced by Zac Moncrief and Jon Colton Barry (Phineas & Ferb, Be Cool Scooby-Doo!) A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas features the voice talents of Nathan Kress (iCarly) as Chuck E. Cheese, with Grey DeLisle (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Nolan North (Uncharted), Kari Wahlgren (Rick & Morty), Fred Tatasciore (Kung Fu Panda 2) and Michael Gough (Doc McStuffins).
We spoke with Nathan Kress about landing the role of Chuck E Cheese, finding his voice for the character, and the collaborative nature of the project.
First, congratulations on the special. I thought it was delightful and funny.
Thank you. I agree in that I’m often tortured by what I have to watch while with my children, and I was definitely untortured by this project. I’m always a sucker for anything that I can happily sit and watch with my kids. I think that was exactly the objective of this: to have something that is going to appeal to kids who are going to Chuck E. Cheese birthdays right now, but also appeal to the parents who were going to Chuck E. Cheese birthdays in their childhood, and who have a lot of nostalgic memories. We’re trying to tap into that for an older audience, too and have jokes for everybody; visual gags that kids love, but also one-liners that kids are definitely not going to understand.
As a parent myself who grew up in the 80s, going to Chuck E. Cheese, and having kids that went as well, I really appreciated that.
Yeah, absolutely. Me too, so it was an honor to be a part of it. To hit it on the nostalgic side for me, and to take a pass at what Chuck E. Cheese looks like from a narrative perspective in his own universe, but then also be able to expand that for my own kids who are just starting to go to birthdays themselves with their friends. I haven’t been to a Chuck E. Cheese since doing this, but it’s going to be really good when I walk in and I’m like, “Ah, my kingdom! I’m the one!” I wonder if it’s going to come to a point where they’re playing the special, or hopefully it’s to the point if it goes to series, and they do more stuff where it’s playing there, and I can just like be hiding behind the arcade machines, just saying things…
(laughing) In the voice?
Yeah, driving kids insane. “Where is he?!”
How did the role come to you?
You know, same as anything else, just a good old-fashioned audition. It came across my desk, and I saw the name Chuck E. Cheese and went, “Whoa.” It’s always intimidating when I see a character or a project that is something that I know carries a lot of weight in its nostalgic impact, and really wanting to honor it and do right by it. When I got the audition, it was actually for two parts, to do Chucky and Jasper. So, I recorded both, and I really liked my version of Jasper. I thought that it was great. And I really thought that my version of Chuck E. was not that great and not particularly special or character-y enough. I think I was overthinking the magnitude of the character that I was like, “Surely not. There’s got to be somebody out there who just has the perfect voice.”
I even emailed my agent. I was like, “I really like my take on Jasper, but take a listen to Chuck E. If you don’t think it’s worth it, don’t even send it. I don’t want to embarrass myself if it’s not a strong choice.” It turns out it’s exactly what they wanted, which I think kind of informed my decisions later on how to do the character. They wanted just a very kind of real, energetic and very up and happy, joyful character. But it wasn’t a cartoon character.
So, what was your thought process like when you were recording? ‘Do I develop a voice for this character, or am I just going to use my own voice, or pitch it up a little bit?’
I did it in my voice at first, based on the concept art and his size, and I was like, “This just doesn’t sound quite right. So, I ended up basically just doing my voice, but like you said, just pitching it up a little bit and just putting a little bit more zhuzh on it. When I go higher, it adds a little bit of rasp sometimes. So that was where I landed, and it turns out they were like, “Yeah, that’s great. Just do it like 10 times faster.”
We worked together in the callback work Zoom session to figure out the pace and the timing, because I had no frame of reference for what they wanted that to sound like. But when they told me that it is written to be very snappy and kind of on top of each other, not overlapping per se, but it just keeps the energy up and is very very tight. So, once I knew that, then we were able to focus in not so much on the voice, but on the timing. Then it just sort of became this amalgamation of my efforts and theirs and what they had in mind.
We landed on something that ended up being high energy and engaging, but also with a lot of heart and a lot of opportunities to have moments of real kind of emotion and sweetness from one character to the other. I think that becomes pretty evident. It’s a very heartfelt Christmas special. It’s not just a cartoon. There’s something a little bit more to it. And that was one of the things that intrigued me the most in reading the script was just seeing the potential for this to be something really, really sweet and a good holiday classic.
You mentioned the script. What was it like working with Jon and Zac on the project?
Oh, dream come true. I walked into that room and, within probably the first two minutes, knew these are exactly the kinds of guys in voiceover that I love working with. They are not set in their ways where they’re like, “No, you’re going to do this. You’re going to say the words this way.” There were times where we were rewriting dialogue together, rewriting lines and collaborating. And, and I’d go, “What about this?” And then they’d say, “Oh, that’s funny. Let’s do that. And then let’s do this,” and we would change things as we were going. It was a very Yin-Yang relationship.
But then at the same time, they were so sure of the tone and what they wanted, that there were also certain lines where they were like, “We hear it this way and there’s going to be a way that we’re going to animate it where you don’t understand it right now.” I’m one of those who do not mind getting a line reading. I try to be so respectful because now that I’m doing stuff behind the camera, I understand the feeling of, “It’s going to be so funny if it’s delivered just like this.” I’m not precious about that for myself. If you want to hear it a certain way, I’m at least going to do my best to make it sound that way, at least for one good take. So, they would have, there was a couple of lines like that where we would do it back and forth, ping pong.
Jon Berry would give me exactly what he wanted, and we would just do it back and forth. I would essentially mimic as best I could, and then he’d go, “That one, that’s the one.” Then we’d lock it in, and it was exactly what he wanted. And those are so fun. I have a lot of freedom, and they’re open to a lot of things, but it’s comforting when the developers and the creative side know exactly what they want. I get such a rush out of delivering that for them. So, it was the perfect blend to me.
Well, congratulations again. Good luck with everything, and have a happy holiday season.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
You can watch our interview with Nathan Kress below.
A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas premieres on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27, on Prime Video and YouTube.