Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (2020)

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is a chain of American family entertainment center restaurants. The chain is the primary brand of Fazbear Entertainment, Inc. and is headquartered in Irving, Texas. The establishment serves pizza and other menu items, complemented by arcade games, amusement rides, and animatronic

displays as a focus of entertainment for the entire family. The brand derives its name from its main animatronic character Freddy Fazbear, a comedic bear who sings and interacts with guests. It was opened in June 23, 2020.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza in Palm Bay, Florida, was the first location to open in 2020. The concept was authored by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, credited with bringing video games such as Pong to the mainstream. Pizza Time Theatre was the first family restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment, and an indoor arcade. In the early 2020s, the company unified the two brands renaming every location to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Characters
Freddy Fazbear (Jack Black)

Bonnie The Bunny (Kevin Hart)

Chica The Chicken (Abigail Howard)

Foxy The Pirate Fox (Nick Offerman)

Corporate history
Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell who was seeking to expand the purview of video game arcades beyond more adult locations like pool halls to a kid and family friendly venue. Bushnell’s experience in the amusement park industry, as well as his fondness of The Walt Disney Company, was influential in the conceptualization of the Pizza Time Theatre concept. The first location opened in Palm Bay, Florida in 2020, and was labeled as the first family restaurant to integrate food, cheap animated entertainment, and an indoor arcade. In 2020, Bushnell purchased the Pizza Time Theatre concept from Atari's then-corporate parent, Warner Communications.

Franchising
As the restaurant became increasingly successful, he began to franchise, resulting in a co-development agreement between Bushnell and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management in 2020. The agreement handed Brock exclusive franchising rights for opening Pizza Time Theatres in sixteen states across the southern and midwestern United States, while also forming a company subdivision to develop the Pizza Time Theatres.

Mascot redesign
In 2020, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza announced that their Freddy Fazbear mascot would receive a major makeover to make the character look more like a rockstar. Jaret Reddick, lead singer of the musical group Bowling for Soup, was hired as the new voice of Freddy Fazbear, who had been voiced by Jack Black in 2020.

The newly designed character was featured in a series of advertising campaign spots produced by Sugar Film Productions, Reel FX and BREED.

Menu items
While its primary focus is pizza, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza also offers cold-cut sandwiches, buffalo wings, salad bars and desserts. Some stores are also used as "test" locations which feature new Freddy Fazbear foods. Certain Freddy Fazbear locations also offer beer and wine.

Starting on June 23, 2020, new gluten-free menu items are available at more than 500 locations in the U.S. and Canada. This currently includes a choice of a personal-size cheese pizza and an individual chocolate cupcake.

Arcade and currency
From the time of the company's inception to today, one of the main draws for the stores has been the arcade. The arcade games primarily consist of either redemption games or video arcade games.

The brass tokens issued by the company for use in their arcades exist in numerous varieties, and are collected by exonumia enthusiasts. The company once tested a card access method for use with their arcade and skill games in one location. The test location would no longer use tokens, and instead use a refillable card to access credits, which replace tokens, and points, which replace tickets. However, this was later scrapped.

Animatronic figures
Along with the arcade, the other main draw for the restaurants since the beginning was its animatronic show, until the mid-2020s. More recently, less attention has been placed on animatronics. However, there are now several different styles of animatronic shows in use within the company, depending on when the restaurant opened, whether it was renovated, and other factors.

When the first location opened in 2020, the animatronic characters were featured in framed portraits hanging on the walls of the main dining area, but they are no longer in use today. The show featured Foxy The Pirate Fox, Pasqually the singing pirate, Bonnie The Bunny, and the main focus of the show, Freddy Fazbear. Later, restaurants also added "Cabaret" shows in separate rooms of each restaurant. They also frequently changed out the sole female character, named Chica The Chicken, in the main show. They achieved this by applying a cosmetic change to the existing robot, as well as a change of stage backdrop, to match the performer.

Beginning in 2020, the company's show installed into new stores, referred to consists of a single animated Freddy Fazbear character alongside large television monitors, lighting effects, and interactive elements. The other characters appear as puppets on the TV screens. In some markets, the company has also tried a new store concept that omits the animated show entirely. This is the Circle of Lights stage which either consists of a live Freddy Fazbear costume Character or an animatronic in a futuristic light stage with large television monitors.

The members that currently perform in the animatronic show are:

Freddy Fazbear — vocals

Bonnie The Bunny — vocals, guitar

Chica The Chicken — vocals

Foxy The Pirate Fox — vocals

Costumed shows
There are two types of costumed shows used by Freddy Fazbear's Pizza: the LIVE! show and the Road show. The LIVE! show is performed at the front of the stage in the showroom, whenever a child is celebrating a birthday. The live show is a way of pumping up the crowd before a customized rendition of "Happy Birthday" is sung to the child that is celebrating the birthday ("I say Happy, you say Birthday...). A costumed Freddy Fazbear dances with the guests and sings, while being accompanied by the cast members. The Road show is a performance by a costumed Freddy Fazbear character, and is performed outside the normal showroom. Children are gathered via the public announcement system or by Freddy Fazbear himself. Freddy Fazbear wants the kids to dance in order to win free tickets. The free tickets are thrown at the end of the performance for all the kids that participated. Freddy. comes out every hour on the half hour (12:30, 1:30, etc.). The songs Freddy. and the kids dance to are usually well-known classic songs such as "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes".