When Chuck E. Cheese announced in May of 2024 that they were doing away with all but two of the animatronic bands that defined their brand of pizza-serving arcades since their inception, the company’s chief executive officer, David McKillips, told The New York Times that the change was motivated by the fact that “kids are consuming entertainment differently than they were 10, 20 years ago ... kids, really of all ages, are consuming their entertainment on a screen.”

The response to Mr. Cheese’s announcement was so overwhelming negative that the chain eventually shifted their plans slightly, preserving three more Chuck E. Cheese animatronic bands in North Carolina, Illinois, and Long Island, New York. But the axe still fell on many other robotic rat musicians. And the sentiment

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