and Back to the Future: The Animated Series, each episode starts and ends with a live-action segment. Originally, Grimace was the "Evil Grimace", with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes. In 1963, he and Washington, D.C. franchisee Oscar Goldstein created the initial aspects of the character. After a six-year battle, the courts ruled in the Kroffts favor. The character, like Grimace, started out as a villain, only he was old, had a long nose, gray hair, and was called the Lone Jogger in some 1970s commercials, sporting a shirt that said "Lone Jogger". Despite this, the characters continued to appear in advertising and McDonald's PlayPlaces, decorative seats for children's birthday parties and bibs, though only Ronald McDonald, Birdie, Grimace, the Hamburglar and the Fry Kids appear in them. 12:02, 1 MAR 2023. In an early 1970s jingle, children everywhere were told to keep your eyes on your fries otherwise these horrible little monsters would eat them when you are not looking. Grimace is unique to the main McDonaldland cast in that he is the only member who canonically has a family. The head of the Remco action figure was rendered in a soft plastic similar to that of a squeaky toy, and came with a silver whistle; plastic belt with the M logo; blue overcoat with decorative silver buttons and a hemmed collar; blue pants with elastic waistband and cuffs; and a silver fabric star label. Both fantasylands were comprised of similarly-rendered magical creatures, buildings, and backgroundswhich made sense, since Sid and Marty Krofft had been consulted by Needham, Harper & Steers before they landed the McDonald's account. Ronald McDonald has taken over the mayors responsibilities since being appointed Chief Happiness Officer. 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. ins.dataset.adChannel = cid; Fast food-themed media franchise and fictional world, "Hamburglar" redirects here. He was told that Needham was attempting to get the advertising account of McDonald's hamburger restaurant chain and wanted to base a proposed campaign to McDonald's on the H. R. Pufnstuf characters. They were even replaced at the Ice Capades by McDonald's. The Fry Kids and McNugget Buddies received entire dedicated McDonaldland themed line-ups of Funko Pop! New AI images from personalised baby brand My 1st Years have reimagined some of the world's most recognisable fictional characters as children in the real world. Happy Meal Toys from the '90s 1 Ty Teenie Beanie Babies Courtesy of McDonalds When Beanie Babies hit the shelves in 1993, McDonald's was not far behind with the creation of Ty Teenie Babies Happy Meal toys. var pid = 'ca-pub-1641696673124925'; Yet it's a familiar sight everywhere. window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId, 'stat_source_id', 44); Pufnstuf. Essentially a world built around the fast food chain's long-established mascot, company man and jolly clown Ronald McDonald, were allies like Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac, who helped him ward off thieves like the Hamburglar and Grimace. Late last month, Brian Bates a manager of a McDonald's in Canada revealed the answer to the Golden Arches' biggest mystery, telling CBC News that Grimace "is an enormous taste bud, but a . The early commercials were built on an upbeat, bubblegum-style tune and feature a narrator; many have plots that involve various villains, like the Hamburglar, Evil Grimace, and Captain Crook trying to steal a corresponding food item but are constantly foiled by Ronald. We do not believe that the ordinary reasonable person, let alone a child, viewing these works will even notice that Pufnstuf is wearing a cummerbund while Mayor McCheese is wearing a diplomats sash, the appeals court stated. https://ew.com/tv/ryan-reynolds-secretly-voiced-grimace-mcdonalds-super-bowl-ad/, https://twitter.com/Humanstein/status/1331982616229261312?s=20, https://twitter.com/McDonaldsCorp/status/199497184335511553, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/windsor-mcdonalds-manager-grimace-1.6156688, https://www.straightdope.com/21342058/mcdonald-s-commercials-explained. container.style.maxWidth = container.style.minWidth + 'px'; The fictional world has a variety of inspirations from general high fantasy and low fantasy, to corporate culture and corporate personality, to more specific influences including Christian media and the artwork of Koichi Kimura from McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure.[1][2]. He sported long, thinning gray hair with a full gray beard, and wore a long white lab coat featuring pockets bursting with tools and implements. var pid = 'ca-pub-1641696673124925'; Whenever the characters would enter down a tube or other means of travel, they would become animated. var lo = new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent); Initially called The Lone Jogger, the Hamburgulars personality traits and design changed quite a bit over the course of the three decades during which he existed (like Grimace, he was retired in 2003). Financed by McDonald's, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, it was originally simulcast for a limited time on April 21, 1990 on all four major American television networks (by supporting their Saturday morning characters . This was long before ball pits: The cornerstone of many a PlayLand (today referred to as a "PlayPlace") was a huge blue-painted tower, topped by a pod that approximated a Big Mac sandwich with painted eyes and a hat that functioned as a climb-in jail, and an assortment of individual carousel horses sporting the head of a hamburger, a Filet-O-Fish sandwich, or other colorful craniums reminiscent of shaggy pom-poms with large, soulful eyes. He is a close friend of Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and Birdie. The trial lasted for three weeks, during which time a jury compared television clips, commercials, toys, and merchandising of the two corporations. Scott (a local radio host who also played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington D.C. from 1959 to 1962) performed while using the name Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown in three television commercials. Despite the fact that the work has left their abilities limited, Ronald and his friends set out to stop Pinchworm's scheme and restore themselves to their regular ages. Eventually, his surname was dropped, his personality mellowed, and the character became known simply as The Captainlike the Hamburglar, his sinister countenance was modified to make his appearance seem more kid-friendly. To complement these seven figures, Remco also made a superbly detailed McDonaldland playset, which even came with its own stationery (above). Grimace was a friendly purple monster portrayed as clumsy but well-meaning. Well-loved characters from the Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry, and DC franchises make up the Warner Bros Happy Meal collection which will be available in McDonald's starting today, January 27. If you think that's the kind of thing that doesn't go unnoticed, you're right. Also, you can track what you've seen, want to see, like, or dislike, as well as track individual seasons or episodes of shows. Cross the Filet-O-Fish Lake via the Golden Arches Bridge. Great deals on McDonald's Twilight Sparkle My Little Pony TV Cartoon Character Action Figures. Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is a 1990 American animated television film starring many characters from several animated television series at the time of its release. container.style.width = '100%'; if(ffid == 2){ lo.observe(document.getElementById(slotId + '-asloaded'), { attributes: true }); .box-3-multi-104{border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:5px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:5px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:50px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;}You would have to live in a cave on a deserted island not to know who Ronald McDonald is. You are leaving the McDonald's web site for a site that is controlled by a third party, not affiliated with McDonald's. The content and policies, including privacy policy, on the site you are entering may vary from McDonald's viewpoints and policies. The bold and brave heroes of Warner Bros are the latest characters to join the Golden Arches with the launch of the newest Happy Meal collection! Each toy also included a small protruding lever on its back that, when manipulated, would cause the characters head to bob up-and-down or side-to-side (for all except Grimace). These videos would begin in live-action in what resembled a futuristic McDonaldland. Sounds familiar, right? ins.style.minWidth = container.attributes.ezaw.value + 'px'; 3,000+ Free Cartoon Characters & Cartoon Images - Pixabay Join Upload / 39 SafeSearch Most Relevant Images Orientation Size Color Published date 3,875 Free images of Cartoon Characters Related Images: cartoon character cute funny animal comic cat woman girl happy Browse cartoon characters images and find your perfect picture. [3] Today, the characters still appear on the windows of some McDonald's restaurants. The other characters associated with McDonalds were part of the fictional McDonaldland world, used for various marketing purposes in the past. window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId, 'stat_source_id', 44); 1 Ronald Mcdonald 2 Grimace 3 Hamburglar 4 Birdie the Early Bird ADVERTISEMENT 5 Fry Kids 6 Mayor McCheese 7 Officer Big Mac 8 Professor (Mcdonalds) 9 Captain Crook 10 The Happy Meal Gang 11 The McNugget Buddies 12 Uncle O'Grimacey 13 Cosmc 14 Sundae (Dog) Page 1 of 1 Show My Results Your Results Click the SHOW MY RESULTS button While the McDonald's Corporation twitter account stated "Grimace is the embodiment of a milkshake,"[6] according to Brian Bates, the manager of a McDonald's franchise in Windsor, Canada "He is an enormous taste bud, but a taste bud nonetheless." The fully poseable dolls had multi-piece cloth outfits with stenciled and dyed fabric details, hard and soft plastic outfit accoutrements, and, with the exception of Grimace and Ronald, an interesting character-specific accessory. You can watch all McDonald's Happy Meal commercials in one video. Originally, this character was a truly frightening scoundrel with stringy grey hair and a menacing black mask and cape; McDonalds decided to soften the characters disposition in order to make his personality more palatable for children. container.style.maxWidth = container.style.minWidth + 'px'; 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. The agency generated these characters and their world out of essentially nothing, using the McDonaldland Brand Specification Manual. His most regularly occurring friends are Grimace, the Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, the Fry Kids, the McNugget Buddies, and the Happy Meal Gang. Mayor McCheese was a tall bumbling fellow with a cheeseburger head who wore a top hat and spectacles. In the 1980s, the Professors physical appearance was entirely reconfigured into a much sweeter, more kid-friendly scientist. With the exception of Ronald McDonald, all the other characters were gradually phased out of use. var slotId = 'div-gpt-ad-slappedham_com-box-3-0'; The characters were used as part of advertising and marketing for McDonald's from the 1970s through the 1990s. In addition to being used in advertising, the characters were used as the basis for themed equipment in the "PlayPlaces" attached to some McDonald's outlets, small recreational activity rooms intended for young children. In the end, McDonald's was ordered to pay out more than $1 million, including $6,000 per commercial, $5,000 for each promotional item made, and $500 for "other infringing acts." Expand your options of fun home activities with the largest online selection at eBay.com. Please be sure to review the policies of every site you visit. Later that year, Needham told the Kroffts that the plan had been scrapped. McDonalds was required to cease production of (many of) the characters and stop airing television commercials featuring the denizens of McDonaldland. Grimace, the overweight purple thing and The Hamburglar, the short guy that steals burgers for some reason. Some of which were GMO potatoes and adding ammonia to the hamburger meat to clean it I am assuming. The characters were played by life-sized puppets or people in costumes, and most of the typically inanimate objects (like castles, houses, and plants) had their own personalities and voices. For the ice hockey player, see. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); He appears often in advertisements interacting with children. According to the Krofft's lawsuit, "In early 1970, Marty Krofft was contacted by an executive from Needham, Harper & Steers, Inc., an advertising agency. Once McDonaldland hit screens, they were the trendy new thing in marketing and Pufnstuf started losing all their side gigs. The Hamburglar was a masked trickster who loved hamburgers. He was portrayed by Patti Saunders from 1971-1984, Mauri Bernstein in some 80s commercials, and Terry Castillo from 1984-2003. They did argue, however, that they made enough changes that it wasn't copyright infringement. This weird behavior continued into the 1980s when hamburger equality became more widespread. They weren't done at that, either they even recruited voice talent from Pufnstuf to do the voices for the McDonaldland characters. Ronald McDonald remains front and center, and he reminds us of the kid that lives in all of us., 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. In a 1999 commercial for McDonald's, Grimace has two aunts named Millie and Tillie, whom Ronald mistook for actual ants while on a picnic. Also "new" in the 80s were those creepy Chicken McNuggets, who were happy about everything including their own impending doom. McDonald's went as far as recruiting employees of the Kroffts' who had worked on H.R. container.style.maxHeight = container.style.minHeight + 'px'; Vinyl! Grimace is the purple McDonald's guy who debuted in 1971 and was known as the Evil Grimace. Compare Remcos playset to the corporate image of the real-world fantasyland as built by Needham, Harper & Steers and taken from the McDonaldland Specification Manual. Surely THE fun place to be.. The action figure came with a silver wrench and a removable, two-piece red scarf. Birdie befriends the real Loch Ness Monster, who is named Simon and wants his existence to be kept a secret. container.appendChild(ins); Fast & Free shipping on many items! Maybe the new Hamburglar can steal back some of the customers that McDonald's has been losing. var alS = 2021 % 1000; A minor character until the early 1980s, The Professor wore a light bulb helmet and lab coat. The appeals court in a 1977 decision, reassessed damages in favor of the Kroffts to more than $1,000,000. McDonald's Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. ins.dataset.adClient = pid; Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! Well-loved characters from the Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, and DC franchises make up the Warner Bros Happy Meal collection, which is now available. Leaving McDonald's Web Site. He is known for his slow-witted but optimistic demeanor. The main McDonald's characters include Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird and the Fry Kids. About ClickTheCity | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Press | Career | Contact Us. In Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp., the Kroffts also claimed that the character Mayor McCheese was an infringement on their copyrighted character "H.R. var lo = new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent); The 50 Most Beloved TV Couples of All Time According to Best Life Online, Nostalgic (Early 2000s) Children's TV Shows, Seen It is a new app from the creators of List Challenges. These commercials and merchandise generally portray him as a well-meaning simpleton, whose clumsy antics provide a comic foil to Ronald McDonald. When Hamburglar came back, his story was that he had been living the life of a happy husband and dad in suburban America (although they didn't say how his wife felt about being married to someone who had grown up in a fantasy kingdom stealing sentient hamburgers). On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Pufnstuf today, but it was essentially McDonaldland without the nuggets. Cartoon Characters Tumbler Wrap Png, Funny Bear Cartoon Art Skinny Tumbler Wrap Digital File. 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. Copyright The Manila Times All Rights Reserved. 13) and David Hussey (ep. The other characters still appear: the Happy Meal box character from the original 1979 Happy Meal Gang was redesigned to be a main character for Happy Meals during the 2010s, during the mid 2010s McDonald's made a parody hipster version of the Hamburglar portrayed by Max Greenfield,[8] Grimace had a non-speaking appearance in an advertisement for Monsters vs. Aliens Happy Meal toys, and also made a cameo in the 2022 McDonald's Super Bowl LVI commercial with Kanye West, where Grimace is animated and voiced by Ryan Reynolds. Pufnstuf doing all the design work for the sets, the costumes, and the characters. And that meant some of the small details that might have allowed McDonald's to argue that clearly, they didn't rip them off entirely didn't matter. Grimace, a purple monster that was originally an antagonist that stole beverages and shakes from customers, but has since become a good guy. This site uses third party cookies for analytics and advertising. var container = document.getElementById(slotId); McDonald's hired an ad agency called Needham, Harper & Steers to build McDonaldland from the ground up, and populate it with characters they could sell to kids. figures in 2019 and onward, other characters that appeared in the line-up include Ronald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac. It didn't take long for McDonaldland to come under attack. Their exact geographic layout is unknown, but within these regions are several locales, including; Grimace Island, a Western themed area, several portals to real world McDonald's restaurants, the Moon, and Ronald's home. While the McDonaldland portion has received somewhat less attention since 2003, several of the characters including Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and the Hamburglar are still seen in commercials, Happy Meal toys, and materials supporting the Ronald McDonald House Charities. figures. Jim Cummings Russi Taylor Frank Welker Lorenzo Music Don Messick George C. Scott Jason Marsden Music by Paul Buckmaster Richard Kosinkski Bob Mann Guy Moon Bill Reinchenbach Sam Winans Editor (s) Jay Bixsen Studio (s) Southern Star Productions Distributor Various networks Released April 21, 1990 Running time 32 minutes Language English McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner defended Ronald McDonald, and said that he is "here to stay". When it comes to movie characters, superheroes dominated the list. 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. Mayor McCheese possessed a number of similarities to another personality created by producers Sid and Marty Krofft: H.R. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 2011 McDonald's Ben 10 Blue Echo Alien Toy Figure Cartoon Network Happy Meal Toy at the best online prices at eBay! According to the original commercials, Birdie joins the crew when a giant egg falls from the night sky into McDonaldland. He is a close friend of Ronald McDonald, Grimace, and Birdie. The first commercial aired in January 1971. Hamburglar spoke in gibberish which was often translated by Captain Crook. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the "good guys", and his number of arms was reduced by two. McDonaldland disappeared because of the changing face of McDonald's, and when Mental Floss sent them an inquiry to find out what the official line was on where they were, they got a response from corporate: "Mayor McCheese and his friends are indeed alive and well, enjoying life in McDonaldland. Disturbingly, they were regularly eaten by Ronald and the gang without killing or cooking them first. As time went on, Grimace's family were seen in commercials and the VHS series "The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald". I cant help but think that the general theme of weird characters stealing your food may have instilled an unrealistic sense of urgency in the children of the day to eat their meal as quickly as possible. Pufnstuf went off the air in 1972 (via Sean Munger), but McDonaldland only officially disappeared in 2003. ins.className = 'adsbygoogle ezasloaded'; The icing on the cake, as it were, was Mayor McCheese. The initial idea to expand the McDonaldland universe was outsourced to Needham, Harper & Steers in 197071 at the request of McDonald's for its restaurants. He is known for his slow-witted but optimistic demeanor. Delivery charges may apply to subscribers outside of Metro Manila. Ronald McDonald is the main mascot of McDonalds. ins.style.width = '100%'; 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. When the Kroffts sued, it wasn't just about the theft of intellectual property. Despite a few changes made to his appearance over the years, he has always been endearingly loved by fans all over the world. He was portrayed with two pairs of arms and was a milkshake and pops thief. In 1976, Remco (then a subsidiary of Azrak-Hamway International) produced a line of 6-inch-tall action figures to celebrate the iconic McDonaldland characters. container.appendChild(ins); var lo = new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent); He also wears a red and white striped shirt underneath with yellow gloves in 1963. Hereverbatimwas her reply: Mayor McCheese and his friends are indeed alive and well, enjoying life in McDonaldland. Even though he has always attempted (and failed) to hoard all the hamburgers in McDonaldland for himself, he has always been looked upon as a valued member of the McDonaldland community. You do, however, probably remember Birdie The Early Bird, who arrived on the scene to push McDonald's breakfast menu. His primary object of theft was hamburgers(sometimes cheeseburgers), hence his name. Pufnstuf" (a mayor himself); Pufnstuf's voice actor, Lennie Weinrib, was even involved with the McDonaldland ads, as the voice of Grimace. Gone is the short, chubby, masked cartoon character who spent the '80s and '90s scheming to steal . Remcos set is astonishingly well-rendered. Reduce, reuse and recycle your way to a zero-waste life, SUBSCRIBE (Officer Big Mac had a badge, for example, while Mayor McCheese came with glasses and a sash.) No one else agreed with them. From 1998 until 2003, Rugrats creators Klasky Csupo and McDonald's released an animated direct-to-video series exclusively on VHS titled The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald. Take kids on a bold adventure alongside the well-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros with the . Mac Tonight is a fictional character used in the marketing for McDonald's restaurants during the late 1980s. lo.observe(document.getElementById(slotId + '-asloaded'), { attributes: true }); Mayor McCheese was a tall bumbling fellow with a cheeseburger head who wore a top hat and spectacles. var cid = '6322506908'; Both McCheese and Pufnstuf were rendered as live-action, life-sized puppets with ridiculously large heads, and both had mayoral sashes as heads of their respective governments. Words for the McFavorite Clown Song are printed on the play surface. [6][7] As a result, McDonald's was ordered to stop producing some of the characters, or they must be modified to become legally distinct, and to stop airing commercials featuring those characters until then. Special McDonalds Letterland Stationery included for personal messages. Phone calls were exchanged, and there was a formal letter stating McDonald's was interested. McDonald's has changed a whole bunch over the years. Put Ronald on stilts for real clown fun. Reddit is a place for funny memes, thought-provoking discussions, and adorable animals. They're the stuff of nightmares, and hey, kids have to grow up sometime, right? The re-envisioning of the Pufnstuf world around a fast food chain meant that suddenly, the big-headed dragon wasn't so cool any more. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [5] Grimace has since been featured in additional social media advertising. Hot World Cup fans that will make you cheer. var ins = document.createElement('ins'); Nobody else had the same combination of cheeseburger seats, chunky plastic toys, and a loveable colorful cast of characters: from Ronald McDonald and Grimace to the Hamburgler and Mayor McCheese. It's a huge part of why McDonald's has one of the most recognizable brands in the world. There were some McDonaldland characters that ended up being super popular in the '80s, but weren't a part of the lawsuit. A conflict emerged between agencies regarding whether to continue using the characters or to follow through the desire of ad agency Leo Burnett by elevating the "I'm lovin' it" campaign. var alS = 2002 % 1000; And it's those last characters that were really a problem, because they were sort of a dead giveaway that McDonald's had essentially stolen the entire idea for their fantasy land. Franklin apologizes to the gang for his actions and is allowed to join in their camping trip, becoming their new friend in the process. Take a ride on the colorful wind up train featuring a Locomotive, Passenger Car and a Hamburglar Paddy Wagon, also seven pieces of track and a Stop-N-Go Signal Switch. Captain Crook was a cliched evil sea captain whose primary concern was pinching Fillet 0 Fish burgers. It featured a human boy who got shipwrecked on "Living Island," where he had all kinds of adventures and befriended a dragon named H.R. The were also ordered to stop using certain characters, and to stop airing commercials, running promotions, or selling items that featured those characters. In early 2022, the McDonald's TikTok and Twitter accounts began using Grimace in promoted video posts featuring an animated Grimace ordering food at a McDonald's and beginning his order by saying "Can I get uhhhhhh". It's hard to pinpoint when, exactly, this Grimace-as-Taste Bud thing began. McDonaldland is a McDonald's media franchise and the fictional fantasy world inhabited by Ronald McDonald and his friends. The bold and brave heroes of Warner Bros are the latest characters to join the Golden Arches with the launch of the newest Happy Meal collection! - McDonald's (NYSE:MCD)", "What the heck is Grimace? The character was based on Sid and Marty Kroffts H.R. } Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vintage McDonalds Happy Meal 1994 Happy Meal Box Train Car with Ronald McDonald at the best online prices at eBay! 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 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. To view the Hamburglar gallery, click here. In 1970-71, at the behest of the McDonalds Corporation, the advertising agency Needham, Harper & Steers created a fantastic imaginary world they dubbed McDonaldland, and a cast of characters to populate it: Officer Big Mac, Grimace (a revision of a character who was once a four-armed villain), the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, the [Mad] Professor, Captain Crook and, of course, Ronald McDonald.