The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is 34 days away, and this year it’ll feature a new, interactive balloon honoring the beloved Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This is the third balloon for protagonist Greg Heffley, who will make his 13th appearance at the world-famous parade.
Author Jeff Kinney gave ABC Audio the exclusive on the new balloon: “We’re going back to the basics … This time we’re really focusing on Cheese Touch.”
The Cheese Touch is a superstition originating in the first book that said touching the moldy piece of cheese laying on the school’s outdoor basketball court would curse kids and turn them into social pariahs.
“This balloon has an element that’s something that Macy’s has never done before,” Kinney explained, noting there will be a car driving ahead of the newly redesigned Greg balloon that’ll look like that infamous moldy piece of cheese.
“We’re going to have green fog coming off the cheese. So it will look like it smells. So that’s going to be really fun,” said Kinney, adding the Greg balloon will spend the entire parade trying to touch that stinky slice. He added, “We really want to push the envelope with this balloon and I think it will be really special.”
Kinney, who also illustrates the Wimpy Kid books, continued, “To be able to sketch something on the back of a napkin and then see it in three dimensions and then see it on the parade route. It’s so exciting … [these books] have been life-changing for me.”
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has sold over 275 million copies since first being published in 2007.
The 96th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade steps off Thursday, November 24, at 9 a.m. ET. It’ll air on NBC and Peacock.
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