The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald

The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald are a series of retail animated direct-to-video tapes produced by the ka-chew! division of Klasky Csupo for the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain and about the McDonald's mascot, Ronald McDonald and the gang in McDonaldland. A total of six forty-minute tapes were produced, released at various times between 1998 and 2003.

History
Although the series is "free-standing," ongoing artistic influences can be inferred from the ways certain characters were drawn for animation. For example, the character Birdie shares certain aspects of grooming and costume with Eliza Thornberry, and the rendition and bearing of the Hamburglar, reminiscent of Darwin and of Chuckie Finster, may have been an influence on the design of Otto Rocket. Elements of early K-C "house style" are also very evident on other supporting characters like Sundae the dog and the Chicken McNuggets. Co-protagonist Tika, however, is a very normal looking human girl of color. Iam Hungry appeared in one part of the episode "Visitors From Outer Space." Also, Mayor McCheese made an appearance in the final two episodes.

A new character named Franklin was also introduced in the first volume in 1998 as the son of Dr. Quizzical (a scientist who was the inventor of Hamburglar's "Quizzical Bear Call", seen earlier in the episode). Tika was also included as a human sidekick to Ronald McDonald in the first and fourth volumes. In the first and sixth volume, Ronald was seen driving a sarcastic anthropomorphic car called the McSplorer.

Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, musicians for Rugrats, provided the music for these videos. John Holmquist, who has directed some Rugrats episodes, directed these videos.

The last video released, The Legend of McDonald-Land Loch, is the common and last of the six videos, because it was distributed into stores and was available on the Klasky Csupo web page that sold the videos, and at (@) McDonald's on VHS and DVD.

By various accounts, the titles turned out to be rather popular, and individual McDonald's locations frequently ran out of tapes, which were sold individually for $3.49, and could be bought with a small vanilla ice cream cone or a small Diet Coke. Klasky-Csupo and Nickelodeon, therefore, agreed to carry them for direct sale at their online gift shop, which closed in the fall of 2005.

Preceding this video release was a 30-minute VHS tape from Nickelodeon titled "The Adventures of Ronald McDonald: McTreasure Island", released on February 7, 1990. The animation was not in the Klasky Csupo style, instead, in the style of the costumed characters and how they were depicted in the company artwork. DIC animated the special, which featured an appearance by Captain Crook.

In 1999, a Happy Meal released at the restaurant featured LEGO vehicles for children to build. The front of each vehicle had an image of one of the Klasky Csupo McDonaldland characters.