Chuck E. Cheese Getting Dramatic “Hip” Makeover This Week

The Chuck E. Cheese you bring your kids to won’t be the same one you remember growing up with.

The company behind the famous children’s pizza-and-play joint has decided to update their chief mascot’s outdated image and can the guy that has voiced him for the past two decades. CEC Entertainment Inc. is putting together a new ad campaign to launch Thursday with a new, hip, rebellious, rock-star Chuck E. Cheese in place of the figurehead most in the 18-25 demographic grew up with.

But take heart. All things must change, and this isn’t even Chuck’s first makeover. 35 years ago, he was a cigar-smoking rat from Jersey, notes the AP.

CEC’s move is an attempt to revitalize its flagging sales at more than 500 restaurants. According to ShowBizPizza.com, a Chuck E. Cheese fansite, the man who has voiced the mousecot for nearly 20 years, Duncan Brannan, wasn’t even formally notified of his replacement. He found out about the campaign by reading about it online. Ouch.

He said that when he was brought on for Chuck E. Cheese’s first major reincarnation, his job was to transform “a joke-telling, sometime off-color New Jersey rat” to a lovable, kid-friendly mouse. He also said that he was beginning to suspect a makeover for the character that may require his departure, but bureaucrats were quick to assure him that he was still the voice of Chuck E. Cheese.

CEC said they didn’t fire Brannan, they just “chose to utilize new voice talent.”

The new Chuck E. Cheese will be voiced by Jaret Reddick, whom you might recognize as Bowling for Soup’s lead singer. The official Facebook page for Chuck E. Cheese gives us a hint as to the newest incarnation, displaying a silhouette of a mouse playing electric guitar.

Beyond that, we’ll just have to wait until Thursday.

What do you think of the Chuck E. Cheese makeover? Is it about darn time after two decades or are you sad to see the former mascot go?