- McDonald’s Boo Buckets returned on October 20.
- This year, the designs of the buckets have a Disney Villains motif.
- There are five different designs to collect.
McDonald’s Boo Buckets have returned for another Halloween, but this year the designs are setting up a clash of dueling nostalgia. As in the past, families can get one of five different sinister designs as part of a Happy Meal. The difference? This year, instead of the classic witch and ghost, the buckets feature Disney Villains: Jafar, Scar, Ursula, Maleficent, or Cruella de Vil.
The Disney Villains are a mini-franchise in their own right—an object of fascination for Disney adults. They’re the subject of a series of strategy-oriented board games for those ages 10 and up. Villain offspring have their own TV movie series, The Descendants, to draw in younger fans; Wicked Wonderland, released this year, focuses on the daughter of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. The Walt Disney World theme park is even planning a Villains Land behind Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, complete with its own Maleficent roller coaster. Clearly, Villains have a big following.
But even with all their popularity, the Villains can’t compete with childhood memories, and some McDonald’s fans are criticizing the buckets for not being the same designs they remember.
“I just wanted the boo glowing buckets from back in the day,” one commenter wrote on Instagram. “But noooooo you get villains.”
“I look forward to these every year but honestly this year I’ll pass,” another wrote. “Nothing remotely Halloween about these.”
I got my hands on a Boo Bucket to see for myself. I didn’t have a choice of bucket, so it was left up to chance which Villain I’d be walking away with. I happened to get Maleficent.
The bucket, to me, is sufficiently Halloweeny. It’s a sickly green color that works for Halloween, and there’s a witch featured prominently on it. However, if I’d happened to get one of the others, I don’t know if I’d have come to the same conclusion. A lion bucket? It doesn’t really have the same effect. Cruella, too, just looks like a lady on a black-and-white pail; if I didn’t know it was a Boo Bucket, I never would have figured out it was a Halloween promotion.
It should also be noted that, as in recent years, the buckets don’t come with lids. For that, you have to head to Dunkin’ and get its Munchkin bucket—which holds 50 donut holes, or a heck of a lot of candy.
The McDonald’s Boo Buckets do have a sticker sheet that has a quick activity on the reverse side. Then again, my sticker sheet came with stickers of Aurora, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, which, if anything, makes it feel less like Halloween. I do like the idea that you can decorate the bucket with a sticker of a Boo Bucket. I just wish it were last year’s.
Boo Buckets are available for a limited time while supplies last. Even though some are disappointed with the designs, Disney collectors are sure to sell these out, so Boo Bucket fans should act fast.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
