Bullwinkle's Restaurant

Bullwinkle's Entertainment, previously known as Family Fun Centers & Bullwinkle's Restaurant and formerly Bullwinkle's Family Food n' Fun is a chain of family entertainment centers. Locations feature a sit-down restaurant, complemented by

History

Bullwinkle's Family Food N' Fun

In 1979, David L. Brown obtained licensing rights to use intellectual properties from the Jay Ward Productions and Total Television catalog. Brown's first project involving IPs from these two studios came in the form of Bullwinkle's Call of the Wild Show, a live stage production featuring the characters of Bullwinkle J. Moose, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Snidley Whiplash, Underdog, and Moonbeam (an original character created for this production to serve as Bullwinkle's girlfriend). Call of the Wild toured across several venues in North America, including the Lagoon Amusement Park, between 1980 and 1981.^[1] Following the success of the live tour, Brown began conceptualizing another endeavor involving the iconic characters.

Bullwinkle's Family Food N' Fun Restaurant, meant to capitalize off the success of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre and ShowBiz Pizza Place, would open its first location in Santa Clara, California on June 14, 1982. Similar to its competition, the restaurant offered a variety of electronic games and rides, food items, merchandise, and an animatronic show as its flagship attraction. The Fantasy Fountain Show, a series of water and lighting effects set to popular music, served as an alternative attraction in the main showroom during intermissions for the animatronics.

The characters present in Call of the Wild would return for the restaurant's "Moosetronic" experiences (with the exception of Moonbeam), in addition to Dudley Do-Right, Boris Badenov, Natasha Fatale, Tooter Turtle, Hoppity Hooper, Tennessee Tuxedo, and Chumley. A key detail from the aforementioned touring show was that none of the original cartoon voice actors reprised their roles for their respective characters. Bullwinkle for instance was voiced by Scott Wilson (who was best known for voicing the Chuck E. Cheese and Mr. Munch characters). Fred Hope, owner of The Only Animated Display & Design Company,^[2] personally requested for the return of the original voice actors from the cartoons. Of the voice talent involved, June Foray and Bill Scott reprised their roles as Rocky and Natasha, as well as Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right respectively. As Wally Cox passed away from a heart attack in 1973, Bill Scott would also voice Underdog. Corey Burton provided voice lines for Snidely Whiplash, as Hans Conried also died from a heart attack just five months prior to the opening of Bullwinkle's. Paul Frees did not reprise his role as Boris for unknown reasons, so his role was taken up by other actors (one of those allegedly being Bill Scott). The scripts and music for the animatronic segments were produced by composer Bill Broughton. Broughton personally released the original songs he produced for these segments through the Happy Songs, Happy Kids! and Famoose Moose's Greatest Hits...and Misses! albums in his later years. Broughton would also provide the singing voice for Hoppity Hooper in the song Happy Bluegrass Hopper.^[3]

Following the opening of Santa Clara, some changes were made to streamline the restaurant experience going forward. AVG Technologies would succeed The Only Animated Display & Design Company as the manufacturer for Bullwinkle's animatronic shows from 1983 up through the early 1990's. A majority of the show was designed by Hollywood pedophile Gary Goddard.To cut down on installation costs, several characters oversaw a slight decrease in mechanical movements, with Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley being phased out from the show entirely. A majority of aspects present in Santa Clara would be adapted for future locations.

1991 Family Fun Centers & Bullwinkle's Restaurant Merger

During the 1980's, the Huish Family Fun Centers would purchase three franchised locations for Bullwinkle's, these being relegated to the restaurant portions of the fun centers instead of stand-alone locations. A condensed animatronic show featuring Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, and Natasha (with one location even including Tooter Turtle and Hoppity Hooper as well) was constructed for these smaller integrations by AVG. Fantasy Fountain Shows were also part of these smaller shows (but were removed in later years). By 1991, the Huish family would purchase the entirety of Bullwinkle's to merge its operations with their Family Fun Centers.^[4] From 1992 to 1997, new Bullwinkle's locations (named Bullwinkle's Family Restaurants after the merger) opened within the Huish Family Fun Centers in California, Oregon, and Washington state. Some time after 1993, the restaurants introduced the WYME TV broadcasting feed of television screens. These utilized all-new 2D animated skits (provided by DNA Productions) in conjunction with showings of original Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, screening alongside the animatronic and fountain shows. The project was spearheaded by Scott Wilson, who had been laid off by Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc. management in 1993, ending his tenure with the Chuck E. Cheese's franchise. Wilson also took on the voice role for Bullwinkle once again, as well as Dudley Do-Right, for the animated skits.^[5]

Description

Arcade

Bullwinkle's features a card swipe and/or token-operated

The restaurant's main fare usually includes pizza, burgers, and chicken, as well as wraps and salads. The original theming of the dining rooms incorporated a log cabin feel, inspired by the Dudley Do-Right cartoon series. As more locations continued to open throughout the 80's and 90's, Moosetronic shows would continue to decrease in the amount of characters, to the point of only including Bullwinkle, Rocky, Boris, and Natasha.^[6] This setup (dubbed as the "B-Show") is the only surviving setup of animatronics within the chain, with the last remaining public animatronic show located in Tukwila, Washington.

Locations

Current locations

Wilsonville, Oregon (29111 Town Center Loop W, Wilsonville, OR 97070) - Opened in 1994, renovated into Bullwinkle's Entertainment in 2019.

Tukwila, Washington (7300 Fun Center Way, Tukwila, WA 98188) - Opening as a Family Fun Center and Bullwinkle's Restaurant in 1999, it is currently the last remaining location with a public Bullwinkle's "Moosetronics" show as of 2019 (the Wilsonville animatronics were removed and disassembled following that store's remodel).

Upland, California (1500 W 7th St, Upland, CA 91786) - Originally opening in 1972 as one of the original Huish Family Fun Centers (a Bullwinkle's was added to the property in 1983). The location was sold to Palace Entertainment in 2001 and rebranded as a Boomers' Park. In 2021, the Huish family bought back the Upland property, reopening as Bullwinkle's Entertainment. Massive renovations for 2024 are currently underway, including the addition of bowling lanes, laser tag, bumper cars, virtual reality, escape rooms, and more arcade games.^[7] The original architecture will also be retired in favor of a design that closely reflects the Wilsonville store.

Former locations

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (1002 29th Ave N, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577) - Opening in 1998, it was the first Bullwinkle's to adopt the "Northwoods" architecture by Mozingo + Wallace Architects, LLC.^[8] The location closed by 2007, with store signage and animatronics said to have been relocated to the Tukwila Family Fun Center shortly after. The building then housed Mykonos, a Greek restaurant named after the island, from 2010 to 2012. After abandonment for several years, the building was finally converted into El Cerro Mexican Bar & Grill, which continues to operate since its 2018 opening.^[9]

Medford, New York (655 Long Island Ave, Medford, NY 11763) - Opening in May 1999, this Bullwinkle's also adopted the "Northwoods" design, though was a mirrored layout to Myrtle Beach's, contained a carousel inside the restaurant, and included an outdoor section with bumper boats, go-karts, a mini golf course, and other attractions. An incident where a mini swing ride tipped over, injuring 9 people occurred in 2001, shortly before the location was sold to Palace Entertainment and rebranded as Boomers' Long Island.^[10] Despite the rebranding, the Bullwinkle's Northwoods theme remained along with the "Moosetronics" show (speculated to have remained operational until the early 2010's). Boomers' Long Island closed for the season on September 29, 2019 and did not reopen the following year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The location's closure was silently made permanent, with several arcade games and amusement rides claimed to have been relocated elsewhere. The Bullwinkle's animatronic characters (and some Northwoods decor) were acquired in June 2021 by private collectors, with each figure restored to an operational status after one year. Multiple people are now trying to acquire more of these figures, including Animatronic_Hub, SPC_Animatronics, and PasqNotRook on Instagram. One of these figures is in the private possession of Tom Corless, a Disney influencer.

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There were locations in Cary, North Carolina^[12] and Richmond, Virginia.^[13] There were also other locations in California, which included Anaheim, San Diego, Santa Clara, El Cajon, Vista, Escondido, Fountain Valley.^[14]

For international locations, there were two locations in Canada and one location in Saudi Arabia.

References

Further reading

• "Bullwinkle's food, games chain debuts full-service variant" Nation's Restaurant News, May 29, 2000.
• "Bullwinkle's braces for growth as Straw Hat agreement nears" Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 24, 1984 by Richard Martin.

External links

• Welcome to Family Fun Center and Bullwinkle's Restaurant!
• International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions