A McDisney Production: It really happened
Picture via Disney/ McDonalds
If you’ve been here at Adventures & Thingamabobs for a while then you know how passionate I am about my McDonald’s AND Disney as you probably saw my post on Instagram today and it made me want to share all the fun facts and dive deeper into this beautiful duo!
You will frequently see me grabbing my BOGO Happy Meal Wednesdays or Free Fries Friday because a mid-week/end of week treat is always a great idea!
I grew up LOVING McDonald’s as I’m sure SO many of you lovebugs did too! We didn’t eat it too often because we only ate halal meat (which now I still do but my belief in what halal means is different), so we really could only get the filet-o-fish meals. We’d mostly grab it on the weekend or on road trips from Miami to St. Augustine, on our way to visit my grandparents. And Disney? Forget it. I was literally there the year I was born and have been back almost every year since! There is no doubt about my love for both places.
Even though I couldn’t always indulge in the delicious nuggets and cheeseburger happy meals I still LOVED collecting all the fun toys! My first and favorite Disney Happy Meal toys were The Rescuers video cameras! Do you remember yours?
It all feels like a dream sometimes! Speaking of dreams, long gone are the days of McDonalds fries at Disney. That’s right! You didn’t know? Or did you?
PICTURE THIS: You’re walking into Magic Kingdom on your way to Frontierland and what’s that? You smell McDonald’s fries? Your nose isn’t playing games with your heart: YOU’RE AT THE FRY CART! You used to be able to get your favorite golden fries right IN the parks. But how did McDonald’s fries end up in the Disney Parks? Let’s take a look!
TLDR JUMP:
Quick History
Okay, you may be wondering: how the heck did McDonald’s and Disney come to be? I’m going to give you the real short and sweet version and you can check out a more detailed version here! OR check out this amazing video Defunctland put together if you’re a more visual/ auditory person!
1918: Raymond Kroc and Walter Elias Disney serve together in WWI
1954: Ray Kroc (the businessman who bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s corporation from the McDonald’s brothers) sees the potential in public interest in this new theme park attraction: Disneyland. He writes to Walt reminding him of their time served in WWI together and expresses his interest in having McDonald’s playing a role in the upcoming opening of Disneyland. This didn’t pan out.
“Dear Walt, I feel somewhat presumptuous addressing you in this way yet I feel sure you would not want me to address you any other way. My name is Ray A. Kroc…. I look over the Company A picture we had taken at Sound Beach, Conn., many times and recall a lot of pleasant memories…I have very recently taken over the national franchise of the McDonald’s system. I would like to inquire if there may be an opportunity for a McDonald’s in your Disneyland Development”
1980’s: Disney’s CEO Michael Eisner is on a mission to transform the parks with the newest ride: Splash Mountain. Disney and McDonald’s partner to advertise the new ride in their Splash-For-Cash campaign.
1989: Delays with the ride caused the partnership to only focus on upcoming movie promotions instead such as The Rescuers and The Little Mermaid.
1990: Disney partners with other companies i.e. Pizza Hut and Burger King for Beauty and the Beast promo
1996: McDonald’s and Disney partner for the promotional game “Disney’s Video Masterpiece Collection Trivia Challenge”
1996: Disney and McDonald’s reach a long-term agreement for McDonald’s to be Disney’s go-to promotional sponsor resulting in Disney paying them $100 million dollars in royalties. This was set up by Disney’s CEO Michael Eisner and resulted in over $1 billion dollars in revenue to McDonalds from Happy Meal toys!
1998: McDonalds promotes new Animal Kingdom Park in Disney World with promotional toys. This led to a sponsorship of Dinoland USA land in Animal Kingdom completely sponsored by McDonalds. This meant McDonalds’s signage was all over! Which led to fry stands all over Disney World and Land.
FUN FACT: In the queue for Dinosaur, there are a number of pipes running along the ceiling. Three of them—red, yellow, and white—are labeled with a series of chemical compounds and Linnaean scientific names. These are some of the remnants of the McDisney partnership you can still find in Animal Kingdom today, even though all other signage of McDonalds has been taken away.
Be sure to look up next time you go ride Dinosaur and find this little piece of McDonalds!
Picture via ITM
2006: 10-year McDonald’s-Disney agreement expires and not renewed
2018- Present: Nearly over a decade later Disney and McDonald’s renew partnership.
“This is the most ambitious promotional effort ever developed between two of the world’s best known family-friendly brands. The agreement we announced today is a true McDisney production”
McDonald’s in the Disney Parks
You read that right! FRESH golden delicious McDonald’s fries in the parks! Honestly the best combo to ever happen in my opinion! As we love to say and hear over and over again, a true McDisney production! Take a look and reminisce! Do you remember any of these locations on either coast?
Locations include (in order of slideshow):
Burger Invasion at Disney California Adventure
West Ward Ho! In Frontierland at Disneyland
Harbour Galley in Critter Country at Disneyland
DinoLand U.S.A. area sponsored by McDonalds for a brief while in Animal Kingdom
Petrifries at Animal Kingdom
Restaurantosaurus in Animal Kingdom originally served McDonald's food until 2008
Fairfax Fries at Disney's Hollywood Studios
One of two McDonald's locations at the Magic Kingdom, Frontierland Fries in Frontierland
The second McDonald's location at the Magic Kingdom, the Village Fry Shoppe in Fantasyland
Refreshment Port at Epcot
There were two McDonald's locations at Walt Disney World, one being at Downtown Disney from 1997 to 2010
The second Walt Disney World location, near the All-Star Resorts, opened in 1998
Photo Credit via DisneyWiki
Happy Meal Toys Photo Album
Do you love collecting Disney Happy Meal toys? Because ME TOO! Anytime they come out I make it a point to collect the whole drop! I even went as far as hitting up over a dozen McDonald’s with my friends one night to collect all the Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway toys and BOY was it SO worth it! Not only do I love collecting the Happy Meal toys but I also love collecting the anniversary pieces such as the glasses! I have the 25th and 100th anniversary set and found them thrifting which is my FAVORITE way to shop for my childhood relics! Do you have any of these? Show me your collection in you insta-story of whichever Disney Happy Meal toys you have!
Check out my collection below (posting soon!) along with these promotional Disney Happy Meal toy posters I dug up from google!
McDonald’s Disney Commercials Throughout the Years
You can click here for an almost complete list of the McDonalds Disney Happy Meal commercials. Here are just a few of my absolute favorites!
What you can collect now!
I already got Vader and Jasmine and I’m ready to collect them all because these are TOO precious! Check out these videos from McDonald’s to see what you can collect and what they do!
