10 Times They Were Worried What Movies Would Do To You
1. Penguin's Batman Returns Death Would Impact Happy Meal Sales
Taking a quick look at the McDonald's website, the current Happy Meal toys of choice are a collection of various Paddington Bear soft teddies. For Paddington, the beloved bear is a wholesome, humourous, hilarious character who has put a smile on the face of generation after generation.
Back in 1992, though, Maccies had a slightly darker inspiration for their Happy Meals when they utilised Tim Burton's Batman Returns as the selling point for their child-targeted box meal. Y'know, the one and the same Batman Returns that saw Selina Kyle thrown from a building to her 'death', Max Schreck electrocuted, a politician's nose bloodily bitten off, and the ooey gooey death of Danny DeVito's Penguin.
Speaking in a Yahoo! interview earlier this year, director Burton pinpointed how McDonald's were particularly worried about the demise of Penguin in terms of how that might derail Happy Meal sales. From Ronald McDonald's perspective, seeing DeVito spewing out black liquid wasn't the most appealing way to encourage kids to come and eat one of your burgers.
As Burton explained:
"I think I upset McDonald's. [They asked] ‘What’s that black stuff coming out of the Penguin’s mouth. We can’t sell Happy Meals with that!’"
While McDonald's did indeed still include Batman toys with their Happy Meals, they tried their best to claim that they were general Batman toys rather than specific Batman Returns toys - despite featuring the Batmobile driven by Michael Keaton's Caped Crusader in that sequel, plus a Michelle Pfeiffer-esque Catwoman.