(from a side panel on the Haunted Halloween Happy Meal®, (c)1998 by McDonald's Corporation. All characters are trademarks of McDonald's Corporation.)
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Ronald® and his McDonaldland® friends in an
ad for the first video, Scared Silly.
(from a side panel on the Haunted Halloween Happy Meal®, (c)1998 by McDonald's Corporation. All characters are trademarks of McDonald's Corporation.) |
Your favorite McDonaldland characters are given the Klasky-Csupo treatment in a new made-for-video series for McDonald's, The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald. Thanks to K-C, Ronald and friends are taken on adventures too big and too unreal for those 30-second, live-action commercials. Each video runs about 40 minutes, and will cost $3.49 with any purchase at participating McDonald's. and of course, each video has a brief plug for McDonald's at the end, as well as K-C's new animated logo: set to music & cartoon sound effects, a mouth and cartoony eyes form the K-C logo while saying "Klasky-Csupo" in a robotic fashion (remember, Csupo is pronounced "chew-poh").
The first video, Scared Silly (first released 10/8/98), features Ronald and his group on a trip through Farflung Forest to a haunted house. To get from live-action to animation, Ronald and his dog, Sundae, go through a tube similar to the ones you see at McDonald's' playgrounds. John Holmquist, director of some Rugrats episodes, also directed this video, with Mark & Bob Mothersbaugh providing the music.
Reaction to this first video has been very favorable, especially due to the fact that McDonald's hasn't been plugged until the end. One person even compared the video to Yellow Submarine (1968), which featured an eclectic mix of Beatles music and unusual animation. I, myself, definitely recommend getting this video, but as long as it's available "with any purchase", get it with a small vanilla cone or a small Diet Coke; a purchase of a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder is not necessary.
There will be at least 2 more videos during 1999: The Legend of Grimace Island (previewed at the end of Scared Silly) & The Visitors From Outer Space.
(Source: Animation World Network, McDonald's, rec.arts.animation newsgroup)
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