Helen's Odyssey (TV movie)

Helen's Odyssey is an 1988 television movie produced by Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc. and Dynimation, based off the Chuck E. Cheese's and Showbiz concepts. It was distributed by Apple Entertainment, Inc. through their Apple Syndications subdivision.

It aired in Syndication on 204 television channels across North America during the Summer of 1988. A VHS was sold at the prize counters of Showbiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre fun centers and through mail service.

Plot
Helen Henny, thinking that she's not being loved enough, goes on the adventure of a lifetime to find her odyssey.

Voice Cast

 * Chuck E. Cheese and Mr. Munch - Scott Wilson
 * Helen Henny - Nancy Lenihan
 * Jasper T. Jowls and Pasqually - Bob West
 * Harmony Howlette - Natalie Jacobson
 * Foxy Colleen - Irene Papas
 * Wolfman Zapp - Steve Malinowski

Production
The special was created at the request of Showbiz franchise owner Mark Davis who thought that "the Helen character was not popular enough".

Davis acted as an executive producer for the special. To animate it, he had the artists behind the Pizza Time Theatre artwork and a group of college and middle/high school students from Boston and Chicago (Key Stephens, Rusty Duvalier, Tina Kuntz, Jay Clause, Charlie Arnolds, Robert Stainton, Key Jacobs, and Steve Malinowski) to do the animation using 120+ pieces of professional drawing paper, many Mr. Sketch and Sharpie markers, a number of Natraj pencils imported from India, and many, many gel pens with a three-month deadline. The company that was formed was named Dynimation. In-betweening was outsourced to the National Film Board of Canada and CinéGroupe to save production costs.

The voices were performed by the regular voice cast for the PTT characters at the time. Meanwhile, Harmony Howlette was voiced by Boston news anchor Natalie Jacobson imitating a Southern accent and Foxy Colleen was voiced by Greek actress Irene Papas imitating a Scottish accent. Animator Steve Malinowski did Wolfman Zapp's voice.