In most cases, this would have been a can’t-lose scenario but then, most movies aren’t as spectacularly bad as Mac and Me.
Louis had heard somewhere that Ronald McDonald was among the most recognized children’s characters in the world, second only to Santa Claus (and ahead of Mickey Mouse.) He approached McDonald’s for the right to use their mascot and trademarks but was only able to earn the Golden Arches’ approval with the promise that part of the movie’s proceeds would go to the Ronald McDonald House charities.
You can imagine my shock, then, to learn that Mac and Me wasn’t a piece of McDonald’s corporate propaganda, but a licensed product. Re-watching it now, there’s plenty of stuff that would lead you to believe so: the huge Mickey D’s dance number, the multiple references to the fast food joint and their signature Big Mac, a main character wearing her McDonalds uniform throughout the film, and the fact that the titular alien is named “Mac.” Even the trailer was hosted by none other than Ronald McDonald himself! Over the years I’d mistakenly assumed that Mac and Me had actually been produced in-house by McDonald’s. (Well, that and the large, soulless eyes of its nightmare-inducing alien puppets.) knock-off since childhood, the only scene which came to mind clearly was its notorious McDonald’s-set dance number. As an adult who hadn’t seen this famously awful E.T. Ostensibly I grew up on Mac and Me I recall renting the Orion VHS tape from the bottom rack of the sci-fi section – where family-friendly movies were displayed – on multiple occasions, but 25+ years have a way of doing a number on your memory.
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