The Rock-afire Explosion

1981 was a magical time. Everyone in this documentary seems to agree. Brett Whitcomb's 2008 The Rock-afire Explosion documents the rise and fall of the most famous animatronic bands from the Southern United States. You might be familiar with the Youtube videos of this band of rubber-faced anthropomorphized animals performing hilariously non sequitur songs like Bubba Sparkxxx's Miss New Booty.  Turns out, these are not dubbed-over videos, and it is not meant to be ironically funny.

  You will not hear She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain behind the rap music. A roller-rink dj named Chris Thrash bought an out of commission Rock-afire Explosion animatronic band, erected it on his property, and makes videos where he reprograms the band to play modern songs.  Rock-afire Explosion was the main attraction at Showbiz Pizza, a child-oriented pizza restaurant and arcade from the 1980s that would later be bought out by Chuck-E-Cheese.

As it turns out, there is a serious following of Rock-afire Explosion fans. They all remember the band being one other best things they ever saw when they were 7, and have not completely let go... at all. Everyone has their favorite band member, each with their own personality and back story. The kids who REALLY liked this stuff appear to have been immune to the "band's" terrifying appearance. It takes a special kind of child to truly love this show, and grow up to collect their memorabilia, listen to their music, and aspire to own a copy of the actual band. 
You also get a glimpse into the creator of Rock-afire and founder of Creative Engineering, Inc., Aaron Fetcher. It's tragically touching to see how emotionally invested the fans are, or how the Fetcher's business went from 300 employees to just himself as The Rock-afire Explosion ended.  There is a longing for this place in time when the show was a magical thing to see, (or a lucrative business for that matter), and no one was jaded by it.

Watching The Rock-afire Explosion being assembled in Fetcher's factory was a creepy thing to see, but an even creepier moment in the documentary is watching them be disassembled. A corporate video for Showbiz Pizza explains how employees of the resturant should remove parts in a certain order, warning, "destroy these items as they will never be used again." All that is left are the metalic skeletons waiting for Chuck-E-Cheese's skin.