Sad

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I can see your point, but if he's made himself happy, and his family is happy, and he has made nearby children happy, and enabled someone to make a movie that makes people happy, and has made (literally) millions of YouTube watchers happy, and even gets to be famous for a bit - even appearing on TV - where is the sadness in that?

Babywetsallnight:
You are a woman. I can tell that by your viewpoint. You shouldn't jump all over my case for recognizing a woman's viewpoint. It's no insult to recognize that someone is a woman. My wife came away with the same feelings as did you. She felt the whole thing was sad, Mr. Thrash's obsession, Mr. Fechter's crash after his success, the abandoned factory, and Mr. Fechter failing to move on. I think the tone of the movie was partly sad but that also the movie failed to create a happy tone. The portions of Mr. Fechter crying, Mr. Thrash talking about his dad's illness, and the long segments showing the abandoned factory in disrepair and Mr. Fechter's nostalgia for a happier time were all explicitly sad. The movie failed to change tone during happier segments like Showbiz' heyday, the new working show, the youtube success, the new songs, and Mr. Thrash's exciting restaurant effort. In particular, the movie failed to feature the awesome music, singing, comedy, and robotic performance of the 1987 era Rock-afire Explosion shows. Had the movie maintained a mostly happy tone your subjective experience may have been different.

You can't understand an impractical fascination that results in what may seem like a time and energy wasting obsession. The thing is: men are fascinated by gadgets and technology. It often requires a huge effort to make something tech and it's often done just to see if you can make it happen because the chance of success and monetary reward is small. Women seem to be more practical minded about it. Is this going to make money? Does this require much effort? Does this have a more or less certainty of success? If not, then don't do it. Men are more like: this is cool, this is fascinating, I'm going to make this work and prove I can do it.

So many of the things that we enjoy in our world would never have happened with a practical mindset: space travel, The Wright brothers and flight, video games, automobiles, almost any invention was scoffed at and its inventors were called crackpots until they succeeded. Many never succeeded. We all enjoy music but how many musicians do we enjoy whose families tried to make them "get a real job?"

The entire Showbiz Pizza Place and Rock-afire explosion probably took an obsession to make it happen. When someone succeeds and makes something difficult happen, that's not sad. Were you sad when we landed on the moon?

In the ending credits it mentions that Mr. Thrash is now working on opening a pizza restaurant to feature his Rock-afire show. If he does that and is successful, and kids all around the area come to enjoy Mr. Thrash's show as much as Mr. Thrash and others enjoyed the show back in the 80s, and if Mr. Thrash's restaurant makes him a lot of money and he gets a nice big house and a fancy SUV vehicle, will that be sad, or will that justify his obsessive effort? And if that happens, realize that Mr. Thrash did it not for money, but rather for his own personal satisfaction-is that sad? My dad always said, "Do what you love and the money will come." Have you ever bought into that statement and does Mr. Thrash's work seem to qualify? In the movie it's mentioned that Mr. Thrash was able to inspire Aaron Fechter into working on the Rock-afire again after 20 years. If they get together and are able to revive the Explosion and get the movie, cartoon, and other dreams that Mr. Fechter once had, it would be a huge success story. How would you feel then? On the other hand, what if Mr. Thrash's restaurant fails and Mr. Fechter's dreams never happen, how will you feel then? I think I know the answer to all of that: you will feel happy if there is success but sad if not. I think most women would share your viewpoints on these issues and do not understand the fascination that men have with gadgets and technology. I think many guys will come away from the movie feeling that Mr. Thrash was victorious. He had a dream, he wanted to do something big, he made it happen, he was successful in his efforts, he proved that he was able to make something difficult and big happen. And I think that's why men tend, overwhelmingly, to be the inventors of the world and that will never change.

I live in Phenix City where Chris Thrash is from. He has opened a restaurant it opened in January of 2009. He showed the movie there tonight to a packed house, and afterwards showed 3 shows. You say it is sad, but what you don't get to see is PART 2. ShowBiz Pizza ZONE is doing great, it is scaled down a bit from Showbiz Pizza Place, but the pizza is much much better and they have great prices. After the movie Chris showed 3 news shows, and it was amazing, to be able to see the Rock a Fire Explosion alive and rocking out after the SAD movie you mentioned. There is a ray of hope at the end of the movie, and now my son is having his 2nd birthday party there and the Rock A Fire Explosion band will be rocking out in the background, so Chris has brought happens to not only people like myself but to a whole other generation of kids in our area.

I think that it is high time that the RAE rose from the ashes again... Chuck E Cheese does not even hold a candle to what the RAE has to offer.. They littlerly STOLE Aaron's creations and turned Showbiz into a place that sorely lacks in fun... obsessive you say??? So what... It is the one thing that brings that southern man some joy... If it makes others happy, then I do not see the harm...

I didn't think it was overly sad, everything has it's time and place and this movie chronicles the Rock-Afire Explosions. I think it is just nice this movie got made so there is a document commemorating the show I remember as a kid.

If this movie was sad for you, or brought you down, don't watch documentaries I guess because many are profoundly depressing in that they are about the real world where happy endings are not the norm.

"Nobody knows anybody, not that well..." - Miller's Crossing

I live in Columbus, GA where he's from, right next door to Phenix City. It's a trip to see a documentary set there.

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"Knightley is a poor man's Portman." -monkeypunks

Actually, the history of Chuck E. Cheese would probably make a really interesting movie. The company history has so many twists and turns and would haves and could haves it's just crazy.