The Rock-afire Explosion movie screening in LA

[shertz]

I am going to be DJing at the screening of the documentary 'The Rock-afire Explosion' movie on Nov 5 @ the Cinefamily located at the Silent Movie Theater 611 N. Fairfax Ave in LA. I am also bringing a hand full of my arcade games from my collection to be played after the movie! Cinefamily will also be screening Thrash's Rock-afire music videos -- plus we'll be recreating Showbiz Pizza for one night only on our back patio, complete with a gallery of vintage arcade machines!

About the Rock-afire Explosion doc: In the early '80s, kids all over the country dragged their parents to Showbiz Pizza (created by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell) for the rides, games, and the animatronic rock band The Rock-afire Explosion. Created by 23-year-old prodigy Aaron Fechter, The Rock-afire Explosion amazed children and adults alike before being mysteriously pulled from showrooms and replaced by the now popular Chuck-E-Cheese in the early nineties. Still profoundly affected by his experience at Showbiz Pizza, small-town disc-jockey Chris Thrash sought out Fechter nearly twenty years later and purchased a full Rock-afire band of his own. After some clever modding on Thrash's part, the band was once again performing for millions, this time on YouTube, to the likes of Lil Wayne and MGMT! The Rock-afire Explosion reveals how Thrash revived this fallen robotic gem, alongside the heart-wrenching rise and fall of Fechter's former 300-employee, $20 million-per-year venture.

Click on the link below to buy tickets and for information.

http://www.cinefamily.org/calendar/thursday.html#rock

Hope to see you there!!!

[norkusa]

Heard about this movie a while ago. I really wish I could go to the screening. My brother and I both worked at Showbiz/CEC in the early 90's, and it's still a special place for us. We go back there with his kids now a 3-4 times a year but the whole 'Studio C' setup they have now is totally lame & depressing. Doesn't compare to the great Rocka-Fire Explosion.

At least the pizza hasn't changed though.:bawling:

[shertz]

Sending out the last reminder about the screening of 'The Rock-afire Explosion' movie this Thursday at the Cinefamily in LA. I will also be there DJing before and after the movie. I will be bringing a few of my arcade games too that will be set up in the patio with pizza to eat. Fun starts at 7:30pm.

http://www.cinefamily.org/calendar/thursday.html#rock

In the early '80s, kids all over the country dragged their parents to Showbiz Pizza (created by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell) for the rides, games, and the animatronic rock band The Rock-afire Explosion. Created by 23-year-old prodigy Aaron Fechter, The Rock-afire Explosion amazed children and adults alike before being mysteriously pulled from showrooms and replaced by the now popular Chuck-E-Cheese in the early nineties. Still profoundly affected by his experience at Showbiz Pizza, small-town disc-jockey Chris Thrash sought out Fechter nearly twenty years later and purchased a full Rock-afire band of his own. After some clever modding on Thrash's part, the band was once again performing for millions, this time on YouTube, to the likes of Lil Wayne and MGMT! The Rock-afire Explosion reveals how Thrash revived this fallen robotic gem, alongside the heart-wrenching rise and fall of Fechter's former 300-employee, $20 million-per-year venture. After the film, we'll be screening Thrash's Rock-afire music videos -- plus we'll be recreating Showbiz Pizza for one night only on our back patio, complete with a gallery of vintage arcade consoles! As well, DJ Sysop (from KSPC's "The Retro Video Game Music Show") will be spinning both before and after the film! For more info on The Rock-Afire Explosion, visit the offical website!

See you there!!

[InsaneDavid]

Late to post here but the screening of the documentary at CAX 2009 was excellent. Great film, I hope that many here were able to attend the LA showing.

Thinking about it makes me want a Mountain Dew...

[Flack]

If you're not able to make it to one of the screenings, the Rock-afire documentary is also available on DVD from their website. I bought one of the first copies and when I got it the DVD skipped and sputtered halfway through the film. The creators are now replacing all of the DVDs with new ones, free of cost, and I just got my new one in the mail. Excellent film and excellent documentary.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, The Rock-afire Explosion Explosion is a fantastic film, and I'd recommend it to anyone that is at all interested in animatronics (and if you're not, why the heck aren't you? :) ). I was following the film for around a year waiting for it to come out on DVD, and I was fortunate that my first print copy worked without a hitch.

[treismac]

This was a great documentary. Rhetorically speaking, it was the sweetest of pathos, and I ate up every minute of it. I plan on watching it again soon, and then burning down the Chuck E. Cheese that took over my old Showbiz. :bawling:


Also...


In the early '80s, kids all over the country dragged their parents to Showbiz Pizza (created by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell)...

No. The father of Atari created Chuck E. Cheese, not Showbiz.

[Icarus Moonsight]

Ah, so that was the name. I just called them The Animatronic Goon Band.

I still have a Showbiz token here somewhere...

[goatdan]

This was a great documentary. Rhetorically speaking, it was the sweetest of pathos, and I ate up every minute of it. I plan on watching it again soon, and then burning down the Chuck E. Cheese that took over my old Showbiz. :bawling:

Actually...

Bit of an interesting history lesson here. Showbiz actually took over Chuck E Cheese. That happened in 1984, but Showbiz kept running both chains as separate entities until 1991ish. At that time, basically the "powers that be" looked at the branding and realized that the face of Showbiz Pizza Place did not exist, but the brand of Chuck E Cheese was extremely strong, so they decided to start converting all of their stores into Chuck E Cheese stores.

So, don't blame the rat, blame Showbiz themselves.

I worked at one for about six years. When I started, *everything* that we got shipped to us had the Showbiz Pizza name and logo on it, as that was what the company was operating under at the time. In the late 90s, they converted everything to CEC Entertainment or something like that, and the "young mouse" logo (which the stores still use) started going on everything. I have no clue when he changed from a rat (which was what he was originally) into a mouse.

I can also say that the stage show definitely lost something through the years. The CEC that I worked at was a CEC for years and years, and when it started it had so much detail around the restaurant that added to the show -- dozens of flags on the wall that waved in time to parts of the songs, cartoons that played on a giant screen that dropped from the ceiling, and moving animal heads on the walls that I don't remember if they interacted with the show at all, but they blinked and stuff. It was AMAZING. When I worked there, it was just the five characters at the front of the room. There was a curtain, and you could spin the animatronic Chuck E offstage when you brought the walk-around CEC out into the room.

I've been there a couple times recently, and the stage got remodeled. The stage no longer even has a curtain, and the characters just stand there when they are not singing. Also, when walk around CEC comes out, they can't take the other one offstage. It's way more disappointing as a show.

And Studio C, the "new version" of the show, I like even less. The animatronic is far better than the old five, but it lacks that wow factor that the others have. In 1985 when I went there, you *believed* that Chuck E Cheese was really there, playing for you because that is how they presented it. It was a big deal. Today, the show is so secondary to pumping tokens into the machines.

Still a fun experience, just not what it once was. And if you have memories of 1984ish CEC like I do, holy heck was that a different place than it is today! Totally fun!

[Icarus Moonsight]

What is odd, the Chuck E Cheese my sister and I would go to in Blaine MN had the Rockafire thing unmolested well after the brand/name change. We're talking up through the mid-90's here...

A documentary I watched the other day after first catching this thread said all the Showbiz Rockafire shows were swapped out for crappy replacements... Well, I guess we were lucky kids that someone bucked trend.

[goatdan]

What is odd, the Chuck E Cheese my sister and I would go to in Blaine MN had the Rockafire thing unmolested well after the brand/name change. We're talking up through the mid-90's here...

A documentary I watched the other day after first catching this thread said all the Showbiz Rockafire shows were swapped out for crappy replacements... Well, I guess we were lucky kids that someone bucked trend.

I *believe* that you may have had a franchise that just chose to not upgrade or change it. When I started at my store, it was a franchise and had been a franchise since it started (one of the first). After a few years, CEC Corporate made a BIG play to take back a bunch of the franchises, as their agreements let the owners do more than what corporate wanted them to be able to do. When we switched, there was a LOT of differences that happened rather quickly. For the most part too, not for the better -- and I mean nothing to do with the stage.

That sounds to me like you went to a franchise which simply refused to upgrade their stage. From what I saw at our store, there would have been no way to force them to do so.