How McDonald's cooked up a taste of the past

This summer, fast-food giant McDonald's reintroduced fans to the whimsical world of McDonaldland, a colourful fantasy realm first appearing on screens 1971, where Ronald McDonald resides alongside beloved characters such as Grimace, the Hamburglar, Birdie, and Mayor McCheese.

Created by Wieden + Kennedy New York, the campaign centres around a hero film directed by Nick Roney through ProdCo with animation by Black Kite Studios, which reimagines this playful universe through a painstakingly detailed mix of craft and new technology.

McDonaldland has always been a world many creatives want to dip into - rich storytelling in a magical land. 

The film resurrects the brand's legendary characters through an intricate combination of physical sets, props, and cutting-edge VFX. Black Kite’s team even built a fully CG Birdie, complete with cloth simulation and a human body rig referencing a full-scale vintage costume, while Grimace and the Hamburglar's designs were sourced directly from the McDonald’s archives. 

The campaign, which also included themed meals, retro-inspired packaging, collectibles, and merchandise, is a reminder of the enduring appeal of brand characters and their staying power in the cultural imagination, even 55 years since their creation. We caught up with Adam Crocker, ECD Black Kite Studios; Nick Roney, ProdCo Director; and Jennie Ellsworth, Art Director at Wieden + Kennedy to find out how they brought McDonaldland back to life. 

What was the brief from McDonald’s for this campaign? 

Jennie Ellsworth, Art Director at Wieden + Kennedy: We had a wide open brief for a summer window. This means we could basically do anything under the sun. We started trying out a lot of different ideas but knew we wanted to do a shake for the summer.

Anyone can look at McDonaldland IP from the past and feel the handmade quality in everything. The work we did for this campaign stayed true to that artistry.

When did the idea of nostalgia come into play?

JE: McDonaldland has always been a world many creatives want to dip into - rich storytelling in a magical land. We saw lots of fans saying “I want to go there” so it really made sense to make it a travel campaign.

Above: BTS shots of the CGI McDonaldland landscape. 

Why do you think dipping into the nostalgia of 1970s McDonalds is so appealing?  

JE: Unbridled storytelling and creativity. Oh, also the burgers have eyes and sing. There are endless ads from peak McDonaldland where they just go on adventures. One time they run out of cheese and Ronald McDonald is slingshot to the moon to get more.

Central to Nick’s vision for the film was to maintain a high level of nostalgia and tangibility to the imagery.

Do you think the nostalgic design still appeals to younger audiences who didn't grow up with McDonaldland? 

JE: Yes, because it’s timeless. Anyone can look at McDonaldland IP from the past and feel the handmade quality in everything. The work we did for this campaign stayed true to that artistry.

Above: Various 3D characters and elements that feature in McDonaldland. 

Can you walk us through how you created the animation?

Adam Crocker, ECD Black Kite Studios: The team at Black Kite worked closely with Prod Co’s Nick Roney from the very earliest stages of production. Central to Nick’s vision for the film was to maintain a high level of nostalgia and tangibility to the imagery. It was decided early on that key to achieving this was to build physical scale sets and key props designed as a base layer for VFX. 

The team were then called upon to augment, animate, extend, and on occasion combine with scale plates of actors in costume alongside additional key pieces of production design. What these plates gave us was an established look and sense of texture as a counterpoint and reference that otherwise would have been extremely challenging to establish in a full CG development of the world Nick envisioned. 

The final scene is an incredibly authentic, intricately detailed, and seamless shot that has all the character and texture of the filmed elements.

The physical sets and miniature models would act as a guiding North Star throughout, providing us with a framework of visual ‘rules’ and a visual philosophy for the film that allowed us to creatively build upon in an authentic and cohesive manner, resulting in the final result you see on screen.

Above: CGI building of the McDonaldland volcano. 

Were there any challenges in creating a nostalgic, vintage aesthetic using modern animation techniques?  

AC: Many of the moving character elements needed to be shot as scale VFX plates to combine with miniature scale elements in what you see on screen; however, in the opening, both the aeroplane and flying Birdie needed to be created in CG. In the case of Birdie, to achieve the authenticity we knew was essential, the team at Black Kite intricately built a CG replica of Birdie featuring full cloth simulation and human body rigging, taking direct reference from the full-scale vintage costume that features later in the film. The team meticulously recreated and mimicked the subtle movements in the real costume’s fabric and studied the actors’ (sometimes awkward) movements to create the result you see in the opening scene. 

The major inspiration was the McDonald’s back catalogue of characters and commercials, especially the original ad, which has a psychedelic, acid trip style.

The final scene is an incredibly authentic, intricately detailed, and seamless shot that has all the character and texture of the filmed elements.

Above: Behind the scenes shot showing how footage using full-scale sets was blended with CGI to create characters that felt realistic. 

What were your visual inspirations for this campaign?

Nick Roney, Director, ProdCo: The major inspiration was the McDonald’s back catalogue of characters and commercials, especially the original ad, which has a psychedelic, acid trip style. For the colour grade we looked at Holy Mountain which has a similar trippy colour palette but done in a grounded way. There’s a bit of Dr. Seuss too in how we designed the oblong, amorphous horizons. 

Everyday I was blown away by the attention to detail from the producer Tomáš Smrček to the miniature maker Martin Pec as they built a world from scratch.

What did you take from McDonald’s archives, and what was newly designed?

NR: Just the Hamburglar and the Grimace outfits came from the archives otherwise all of the characters and elements in the final film are a redesign. Some of the updates were faithful to the 70s campaigns but we tried to tweak with as many new details as possible. It's hard to single any of them out but these cowboy boots [pictured below] that Henry Boráros, the production designer, came up with for the Fry Friends were memorable. 

Above: The original 1970s McDonaldland advert.

What were the highlights of the project for you?

NR: The best part was collaborating with the Czech crew who were the most dedicated, hardworking group of craftspeople. Everyday I was blown away by the attention to detail from the producer Tomáš Smrček to the miniature maker Martin Pec as they built a world from scratch – even going so far as to place thousands of individual blades of grass. Hopefully, the audience can feel how handcrafted the film is when watching it.