The iconic Chuck E. Cheese is getting the animated holiday special treatment. A Chuck E. Cheese Christmas premieres this Thursday Nov. 27 on Prime Video and YouTube. Writers and EPs, Annie winner Zac Moncrief and Emmy winner Jon Colton Barry, join me for a chat about the look, the story, the songs, working with star Nathan Kress (iCarly) and hopes for more adventures in the “CEC” animation space. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy:  Zac, what has always stood out to you when it comes to the Chuck E. Cheese brand and its influence on pop culture and entertainment?

Zac Moncrief: I think it’s pretty clear that Chuck E. Cheese has made its way into pretty much everyone’s heart and minds across the country. All different ages. I remember going to parties when I was younger… to even now my daughters and my nephews. I take them to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate not only for their own birthdays, but just for having fun and just getting crazed out on pizza and soda and drowning around for games. It’s really awesome that this family entertainment is still reaching into all of these new audiences as well as now we’ve got a chance to actually reach them at home as well, which I think is so exciting. So wonderful.

JM: The hand-drawn animation of this is great. It’s so bright and colorful and energetic. And Jon, I love in the special how you show pretty early on that Chuck E. Cheese is very eager to share his ideas, to get these great ideas on what to do for the holidays, and to share them with other people. That enthusiasm really comes through.

Jon Colton Barry: That’s what Chuck E. Cheese is all about, right? When you think about it, it’s family, fun, celebration, food, all of those things. And so that is obviously where we started. The heart of the character in the special is him having all these ideas, all this excitement. But he’s humble and he’s modest, and it takes courage to express your creative ideas to the world. And that’s sort of Chuck E.’s lesson in this — finding the courage to trust his artistic and creative instincts and do what he knows is the right thing to do.

JM: And you guys had to do the same thing. You had to trust your instincts when it comes to making this special. So Zac, how was it coming up with the elements of a great holiday party and what it means to have a great holiday party, especially in this case, a surprise one for Santa?

ZM: Thanks for asking that question. I’m a giant Christmas fanatic and always have been. The specials that we’ve all seen throughout the years from Charlie Brown to the Grinch. So to be a part of making another one ourselves was an amazing, exciting challenge for John and I. But… there’s a character you’re gonna meet in their name Leggymos that John and I literally came up with in the 11th hour. We were ready to hand in the last draft of our script and we were like, “There’s something missing for us here.” And we dove in and found that character and that whole story, which made us go do an entire kind of rethread rewrite of the whole special. Part of what John and I try and do is, “What have we not seen that’s out there before?” Everyone tries to do their version of a Christmas story. Our rules are always, “What are we gonna do that’s different that no one’s seen before?” And I think we really achieved that in this. Not only did we bring heart and character — no one’s really seen these characters up and moving in a narrative before — but we also brought in some really creative spins as well as some heart and comedy.

JCB: Because that’s really the point. You have the characters that you have to work with, so we like to look at them and say, “All right, what is a story that we could tell only with these characters?” You couldn’t do this on “The Simpsons” or “SpongeBob” or any other thing, because we’re dealing with Chuck E. Cheese and those characters — and finding a story that revolves around their world and what they’re all about was the key. And I think we really nailed it. It’s such a great Chuck E Cheese story, and a great Christmas special on top of it.

JM: Jon… that must have been a great experience for you and for everyone.

JCB: The real courage was with Chuck E. Cheese allowing us… These characters have never really been explored in longer storytelling narrative form like this. We followed the ideas that our instincts told us felt right. But it was really up to them to be like, “Yeah, let’s try that. Let’s try something new.” They have been nothing but wonderful and supportive and encouraging and brave about this. Everyone’s really happy with the special. So hopefully the theme of the special to take courage in your creative ideas is a message that resonates in lots of ways.

JM: I love the comedic timing in this. Zac, how was it working with Nathan Kress and coming up with great lines and having great delivery like that?

ZM: Thank you so much for saying that. We felt the same exact way. I can’t go on enough about how lucky we were to have Nathan even audition for us. And I already loved Nathan. My kids grew up with “iCarly”. I had met him at a function I was at one point. I was like, “Man, I’d love to work with him someday.” And all of a sudden he came across our desk as an audition. I went. “Oh my God. That’s Chuck E. You can’t not have that.” Our writing style is a little more sitcomy and a little more adulty in its pacing and it’s approach anyway. This is what Nathan does. He was on a kids’ sitcom basically, but I watched “iCarly” too and loved it as well. I’m very particular in my timing of how I also edit and direct how we handle it visually as well as when we get the recording. I think that all of those just came together. We were so thankful to have Nathan. It’s the biggest Christmas gift of the special as well.

JCB: Nathan was above and beyond all expectations. It is incredibly difficult. I think people really underestimate how hard it is to play that sort of central character where… you can’t push them too far in any point of view. They need to be safe in a certain way, and appealing to everybody. Zac and I worked on “Phineas and Ferb”. Phineas is a character like that: so positive and “Gosh, golly, gee, swell!” It’s hard to write conflict. It’s hard to write good stories driven by those sorts of characters. But Nathan brought a humor and a sense of sincerity, with also the little layer of irony wink to it… it doesn’t become saccharine ever. It’s such a believable character that you invest in emotionally, and you’re really rooting for him. And that’s all Nathan. It’s a remarkable performance and I hope people recognize that, because you don’t expect it for Chuck E. Cheese.

JM: How was it making these new songs that are possibly gonna be earworms for a lot of people over the holiday season?

JCB: We hope so.

ZM: That’s the good thing. As long as we’re having fun along the time and we wanna listen to ’em when we’re all done with them, then we know we’ve done something amazing. Having Jon and his dad [legendary songwriter Jeff Barry] get to work on a song together for something as important as this, it’s such a wonderful story in itself — that they got to work together on something and put their heart into it. And that we get to be a small part of that with them was just incredible.

JCB: When I first talked to my father about it… he is a creative machine, still, and he’s just as good as he ever was. So he was really excited. But what he wanted to know was, “What’s the story? Where, what’s happening in the characters emotionally in this scene?” To him, what was important is, “If we’re gonna put a song and take up real estate in your Christmas special, let’s move the story forward. Let’s explore character more in it. Let’s participate in the same humorous tone and vibe of the rest of the special.” And that was really an interesting lesson for me ’cause I’ve worked with him before, but to see how practical and how invested he was in doing it right and making sure he was supporting the work… not just, “I’m Jeff Barry, I write pop songs. Here you go, Christmas song”. He really was interested in helping tell the story and I think that’s why the song [“What Would We Do Without Christmas?”] really did turn out as well as it did and really lands the special well because everyone’s working, marching to the same beat.

JM: Do you see this as the launching point for wanting to do more? I feel like the opportunity’s there.

ZM: A hundred percent. This is basically a pilot. We had pitched this as a special, and we also pitched a bible that had a whole series of episodes and other specials in it as well. It was like, “Alright, let’s get this first one off the ground.” And what a great way to introduce all these characters, with a Christmas special.

JM: Yeah. That’s how “The Simpsons” started!

JCB: It was a fun challenge to try to create a really classic feeling — traditional but modern Christmas special that felt like a complete Christmas story that’s also introducing all these characters in a world for a possible series. It was pulling double duty, and what we found was Christmas specials have certain rules and ideas in them that people are familiar with. It’s an anchoring for everybody, for us then to bounce off of with the characters and with the comedy. It’s the contrast that allows both to happen at the same time. So you’re meeting all these characters through the tropes of Christmas specials, and everything gets subverted — Hopefully that’s how it’s coming off. But yeah, I am ready to go. We love these characters.

ZM: We’re currently working on a pitch for a Halloween special as well. But shhh, you didn’t hear that from me.