After decades, Munch's Make Believe Band — the infamous animatronic house band at countless Chuck E. Cheese locations across the country — is finally calling it quits. As The New York Times reports:
By the end of 2024, the animatronic performances — endearing and nostalgia-inducing, if perhaps slightly creepy to their audiences — will be phased out at all but two of the chain's more than 400 locations in the United States: one in Los Angeles and another in Nanuet, N.Y. The departure of the band comes as Chuck E. Cheese undergoes what its chief executive, David McKillips, recently described as its largest and "most aggressive transformation."
Out: Animatronic bands.
In: More screens, digital dance floors and trampoline gyms.
In the video above, you can witness the last-ever performance by Munch's Make Believe Band at the Altoona, Pennsylvania Chuck E. Cheese. It's a sparsely attended show, which makes the demise of this legendary rock act all the more tragic.
Farewell, Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic Band [Jesus Jiménez / The New York Times]
Disclosure: I also write for Wirecutter, which is part of the New York Times Company, which also owns The New York Times. Unfortunately I have no such relationship with Chuck E. Cheese nor Munch's Make Believe Band.
Previously: This Chuck E. Cheese location will be the animatronic band`s last venue
