Disney's The Rescuers Down Under At McDonald's Germany: Bernard und Bianca im Känguruland

 

The 1977 Disney animated feature The Rescuers was a huge hit in Germany.  When it was time for McDonald's in Germany to promote the 1990 sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, they had an exclusive promotion: small, plush dolls of Jake, Bernard, Bianca, and Wilbur.

This set of plush was available in December 1991, according to the book McDonald's Happy Meal Toys Around the World by Terry and Joyce Losonsky.  These plush were sold in addition to a separate set of Happy Meal figurines that were available in the rest of Europe.

The Rescuers Down Under was a box office flop in the United States in November 1990, where it was buried by the release of Home Alone.  Of course, now Disney owns Home Alone, as part of its purchase of 20th Century Fox.

In Germany, though, The Rescuers characters were indeed still popular.

In the late 1980s, McDonald's had quite a few promotions selling small plush items, especially around the holidays.  In the United States, this included Ornaments of characters from Cinderella, Oliver and Company, and The Little Mermaid (sold as a promotion for Gift Certificates).

McDonald's did two different Happy Meal toy promotions for The Rescuers Down Under.  In the United States, there were four different Happy Meal toy camera viewers (Bernard/Bianca, Jake, Wilbur, and Cody), in addition to a PVC toy of Bernard for children under three years old.  In Europe (including Germany), there was a set of four bendable figures (Bernard, Bianca, Frank the Lizard, and Wilbur).

I'm not sure if these plush German McDonald's Rescuers Down Under toys were sold loose (I have never seen any in a package).

In the United States, the 1990 release of The Rescuers Down Under was the last Disney Animated film to be promoted by McDonald's for a while.  Burger King promoted Disney films in America starting in 1991 with Beauty and the Beast.  McDonald's continued to promote Disney films in Europe.  McDonald's promoted Disney films in the United States once again with the 1997 release of Hercules.