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The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald | |
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Genre | |
Starring |
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Opening theme |
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Composers | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Executive producers | |
Running time | 40 minutes |
Production company | Klasky Csupo |
Original release | |
Release | October 9, 1998 – January 30, 2003 |
The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald is an American animated mini-series of retail direct-to-video episodes, produced by Klasky Csupo in association with the McDonald's Corporation. It centers on McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald and the gang in McDonaldland. [1] A total of six 40-minute episodes were produced and released on VHS, with five of them being available exclusively in participating McDonald's restaurants from October 9, 1998 to January 30, 2003.
Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh (best known as members of the band Devo and composers of the music for Rugrats , another Klasky Csupo series) composed the score of the series while John Holmquist (who has also directed some Rugrats episodes) directed the first episode of the series. The artistic style of the series has a similar appearance to Rugrats, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters , The Wild Thornberrys , and Rocket Power . The background music was recycled from later episodes of Nickelodeon's Rugrats.
In a format similar to The New 3 Stooges , The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! , and Back to the Future: The Animated Series , each episode starts and ends with a live-action segment and uses fast and slow motion.
By various accounts, the episodes turned out to be rather popular, to which individual McDonald's locations frequently ran out of VHS tapes, which were sold individually for $3.49 and could be bought with a small vanilla ice cream cone or Diet Coke. Klasky Csupo also sold them through their online gift shop, which was shut down in fall 2005.
A Happy Meal featuring Lego vehicles to build was released at the restaurant chain in 1999, a year after the series premiered. The front of each vehicle had an image of one of the McDonaldland characters in the Klasky Csupo style, as depicted in the series.
Voice talent on the series includes K-C veterans Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, and Charlie Adler. The role of Ronald McDonald is credited as "Himself."
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
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1 | "Scared Silly" | John Holmquist | Andrew McElfresh & Michael Bloom | October 9, 1998 | |
Ronald and his friends go on a camping trip in the Far-Flung Forest, where Ronald discovers an old house which he assumes is haunted by a ghost called the Far-Flung Phantom. Due to a sudden storm, the campers are forced to stay in the old house, where a Phantom head leads them through a challenging game that will help them to escape, if they cooperate. Along the way, the Fry Kids and McNuggets get caught in traps and are separated from the group and the rest face off against the Phantom head in a challenge of riddles. Tika, Hamburglar, and Birdie fail each riddle and are swept into traps, leaving only Ronald, Grimace, and Sundae to solve the final one, which they do. The holographic head turns out to be a child named Franklin programming the game, with help from Tika and the McNuggets in a lab room. After Ronald gets a "You Win" out of Franklin, Dr. Quizzical returns to catch his son in the act and reveals that Franklin has done something like this before. Franklin apologizes to the gang for his actions and is allowed to join in their camping trip, becoming their new friend in the process. Note: The only appearance of the Fry Kids in the series. This also marked the debut of Klasky Csupo's Splaat logo. | |||||
2 | "The Legend of Grimace Island" | Jim Duffy | Mark Zaslove & Eryk Casemiro | January 22, 1999 | |
Ronald and the gang go out on a journey to Grimace Island (where Grimace's species is originated) after Grimace receives a letter supposedly by the island's residents asking for help. Unbeknownst to everyone, the letter was actually written by pirate captain One-Eyed Sally and her first mate Blather in a scheme by the two to follow the gang to the island in order to seize the Grimaces' legendary treasure for themselves. Note: Franklin is present in this episode. | |||||
3 | "The Visitors from Outer Space" | Jeff Scott | David Regal | April 23, 1999 | |
Hamburglar tricks the gang into believing that aliens have come to Earth so that he can steal McDonaldland's hamburgers without interference from them, which costs him their trust in him when they find out. Later, Hamburglar gets abducted by real aliens after foolishly accepting an offer to go on vacation with them, not realizing until too late that the vacation lasts thousands of Earth years. Despite being angry at him for his lie and prank, Ronald and his friends go on a mission in outer space to rescue Hamburglar. Note: Ronald and Sundae go down the ball pit slide for the last time as this is the last episode to have the original introduction and closing. It's also the last episode where Sundae appears in the live-action segments. Prior to this episode, there was a Rugrats episode with the same title. | |||||
4 | "Birthday World" | Anthony Bell | David Regal Additional Material by: Emily Kapnek & Eryk Casemiro | February 23, 2001 | |
Hamburglar is upset that he forgot Ronald's birthday and does not have a present for him until an evil mad scientist named Professor Thaddeus J. Pinchworm gives him tickets to a fake amusement park called Birthday World. During their visit, Ronald and his friends quickly become disappointed to find that most of the park's rides are broken and/or malfunctioning; they then ride a roller coaster which turns them into toddlers and babies with a ray. The gang then discovers that they were test subjects for Pinchworm's evil scheme to use a bigger version of the ray to de-age the world's population in order to achieve world domination. Despite the fact that the ray's effects have left their abilities limited, Ronald and his friends set out to stop Pinchworm's scheme and restore themselves to their regular ages. Note: A new opening sequence was made for this episode and the next two. As a result, Sundae no longer appears in the live-action segments but is heard once offscreen. This is Tika's last appearance. | |||||
5 | "Have Time, Will Travel" | Anthony Bell | Emily Kapnek Additional Material by: Eryk Casemiro & David Regal | October 19, 2001 | |
While helping Franklin clean up his father's lab, Ronald and his pals stumble across a time machine in which Hamburglar dreams up a crazy scheme to use the time machine to get out of cleaning and they end up getting lost in time. Their time travel adventures take them to prehistoric times, where the time machine is nearly digested by a Tyrannosaurus and they meet their cavemen ancestors, medieval times, where they entertain the spoiled young King Murray with in order to save a captured Birdie, the Wild West, where they discover Hamburglar's ancestor Henry H. Burglar II (whom the residents mistake Hamburglar for) and the disco era of the 1970s, where they briefly encounter Mayor McCheese. Note: The only episode where the McNuggets are absent. This is also Franklin's last appearance. | |||||
6 | "The Monster O' McDonaldland Loch" | Anthony Bell | Barbara Herndon & Jill Gorey Additional Material by: Eryk Casemiro & David Regal | January 30, 2003 | |
The gang travels to a Scottish expedition known as McDonaldland Loch where Sundae's cousin Scotty lives. They also come across a plot by a mad scientist named Stiles and his assistant Pip's attempt to build a replica of the Loch Ness Monster in order to make money from the discovery. Birdie befriends the real Loch Ness Monster, who is named Simon and wants his existence to be kept a secret. Despite not being good at keeping secrets, Birdie agrees to, but this becomes difficult when Stiles and Pip's scheme goes awry, putting everyone in danger. |
McDonaldland is a McDonald's media franchise and the fictional fantasy world inhabited by Ronald McDonald and his friends. Starting with the creation of Ronald McDonald in 1963, it is primarily developed and published by McDonald's. Initial attempts to expand the McDonaldland universe by marketing agency Needham, Harper & Steers were seemingly retconned due to legal issues, but ongoing aspects were expanded in McDonald's projects in collaboration with Data East, Virgin Interactive, Treasure, SEGA, and Klasky Csupo.
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Klasky-Csupo, Inc. is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and her then-husband, Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó in a spare room of their apartment and grew to 550 artists, creative workers and staff in an animation facility in Hollywood.
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Gábor Csupó is a Hungarian animator, writer, director, producer and graphic designer. He is co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which produced the first three years of The Simpsons, as well as episodes of Rugrats, The Wild Thornberries, Duckman, Stressed Eric, Rocket Power, As Told by Ginger, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.
Arlene Phyllis Klasky is an American animator, graphic designer, producer and co-founder of Klasky Csupo with Gábor Csupó. In 1999, she was named one of the "Top 25 Women in Animation" by Animation Magazine. She is most known for her work with Nickelodeon in the 1990s and 2000s. She, along with her ex-husband Gábor Csupó and Paul Germain, co-created the animated series Rocket Power and the series Rugrats as well as the 2021 revival series of the same name.
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Jim Duffy was an American animator whose credits included more than twenty years at Klasky Csupo creating productions for Nickelodeon, as well as earlier stints as an animator for Hanna Barbera, TVC Animation in London, Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, and others. Duffy received two Primetime Emmy Awards for the 2000s animated show, As Told by Ginger, as well as several other nominations for his work on Rugrats. Duffy also won three Daytime Emmy Awards during his tenure at Klasky Csupo, and received additional nominations for his work on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Duffy was also a director, writer, designer and storyboard artist for live action television commercials, PSAs, and corporate productions, including a series of safety videos for the National Coal Board. He divided his professional time between Los Angeles and London. His shortform animated films were screened at film festivals worldwide.
Igor Adolfovich Kovalyov is a Russian animator, director and educator, co-founder of Pilot — the first private animation studio in the Soviet Union. From 1991 to 2005 he worked at Klasky Csupo where he co-created Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and co-directed The Rugrats Movie. He currently serves as a creative producer at Soyuzmultfilm. Kovalyov is also known for his auteur films for which received multiple international awards, including three Grand Prizes at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain. It has been described as a reboot of the original TV series of the same name which ran from 1991 to 2004. The series premiered on May 27, 2021, on Paramount+; it is the second Nickelodeon-based series created for the streaming service. As with previous incarnations of the franchise, the series was produced by Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.
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