If there is one thing that the lovable little extraterrestrial, E.T. taught the film industry, it is that a cute alien and product placement are a match made in heaven. With each handful of Reese’s Pieces that E.T. scarfed down, the sales of the candy treats continued to soar. And if an alien from another world liked Reese’s, imagine how much they might like Coca-Cola and McDonalds. And so, the two junk food behemoths joined forces and the result was Mac and Me.

A typical green-blooded alien family has the misfortune of being sucked into a NASA space probe while trying to enjoy a simply family outing in the park. When the probe finally makes its way back to earth, the youngest of the cosmic clan manages to escape from the laboratory it is being held in, but soon finds itself lost in this strange new world. It becomes a stowaway aboard a van driven by single mom, Janet Cruise and her two young sons, Eric and Michael. When Eric, who is bound to a wheelchair, discovers the celestial stowaway, he decides to make friends with the refugee and gives him the name, M.A.C., short for Mysterious Alien Creature, of course.

With the help of his childhood buddies, Eric does his best to reunite the poor little alien with his family. The tricky part is keeping the snooping Government from finding MAC before the boy can accomplish his good deed. And along the way, we learn that Coca-Cola is the only substance that can keep MAC alive (who would have guessed), we also learn that there is no better place for a rousing dance routing than within a (care to venture a guess?) McDonald’s restaurant, complete with a cameo by Ronald McDonald, the big cheese himself.

But amidst all of the product-placement was a sweet story that endeared itself to young fans. And credit is also due to the producers of the film, who chose to cast a wheelchair bound sufferer of spina bifida in the role of Eric (played by Jade Calegory) and also made sure that some of the box-office proceeds went to various children’s charities. All in all, Mac and me might have been simply another formulaic “boy meets stranded alien” film, complete with its share of corporate sponsors, but it was also a charming little film with heart. And young viewers most certainly recognized this fact, all while slurping down gallons of Coca-Cola in the process.