Tooned

Tooned
The Season 2 title card.
Starring	Alexander Armstrong Jenson Button Kevin Magnussen Formerly Sergio Pérez Formerly Lewis Hamilton
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	3-4 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Sky Sports F1
Original airing	July 8, 2012 – present

Tooned was an animated cartoon by McLaren starring Jenson Button, Sergio Pérez and comedian Alexander Armstrong. It was aired on Sky Sports F1 before the start of each Formula 1 race. The first season, which starred former McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton aired from the 2012 British Grand Prix onwards. The second season aired from the 2013 British Grand Prix onwards. All episodes can be watched on McLaren's YouTube channel and the Sky Sports F1 website any time after the premiere. The episodes are a little more than 3 minutes long. On 16 May 2014 it was announced on McLaren's YouTube Channel that a season 3 was in progress. It was announced when Jenson Button was shown a picture of his 2014 team mate Kevin Magnussen's character on Tooned and also added that 'the production of Season 3 was going well'.

Development

Tooned was developed from the extensive media research carried out by John Allert, the McLaren Group Brand Director which was analysed by Ron Dennis.^[1] The show is written, directed and animated by Chris Waitt and Henry Trotter and visual effects house Framestore.

Characters

Main characters

Season One (2012)

• Lewis Hamilton as Lewis, one of McLaren's star racing drivers. He loves racing, finds engineering and testing boring, and rarely listens to Professor M. He appears in episodes 1-7, picture appearance in episode 8, 9-10, makes his final appearance in episode 12.
• Jenson Button as Jenson, McLaren's other star driver. Like Lewis, he loves racing and is bored by testing, and is amused by Lewis's antics. He appears in episode 1-10 and 12.2.
• Alexander Armstrong as Professor M, McLaren's head of engineering. He has little patience for Lewis and Jenson, and is completely oblivious to the way they find his testing programmes boring. Armstrong described M as a blend of Steve Jobs and Q but not anyone specific.^[2] He appears in every episode of the series.

Season Two (2013)

• Jenson Button as Jenson, now McLaren's star driver following the departure of Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes.
• Sergio Pérez as Sergio. He joined the team and the cast of Tooned from 2013. Lewis' departure to Mercedes and replacement by Pérez was written into the final episode of the first season. He left the team and the cast at the end of the 2013 season.^[3]
• Alexander Armstrong as Professor M, McLaren's head of engineering.
• Brian Cox as The Mechanic with No Name, a little old Scotsman who tells the people at the McLaren Technology Centre 'The Real Story of McLaren' which Professor M disapproves of. He is due to appear in every episode of series 2.

Mobil 1 Series (2013)

• Jenson Button as Jenson, now McLaren's star driver following the departure of Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes.
• Sergio Pérez as Checo, McLaren's new recruit.
• Alexander Armstrong as Professor M, McLaren's head of engineering.
• Tony Stewart as Smoke, from NASCAR. He co-owns the Mobil 1-sponsored teams of Stewart-Haas Racing and drove the #14 car before a season-ending injury in real life.^[4]

Mobil 1 Series 2 - Oil (2014)

• Jenson Button as Jenson, McLaren's star driver.
• Kevin Magnussen as Kevin, McLaren's up and coming rookie.
• Alexander Armstrong as Professor M, McLaren's head of engineering.
• Tony Stewart as Smoke, co-owner of Mobil 1-sponsored Stewart-Haas Racing.

Other characters

• The Mechanics appear in almost every episode. They are always kept occupied by Professor M, but never speak. The head mechanic is Charlie McRae. They appear in episodes 1-11.
• The Tour Guide appears in the first four episodes of the first season, showing tour groups around the McLaren team headquarters. She often shows off memorabilia from some of the team's famous drivers.
• Baron von Richtmacher was Professor M's rival when M was racing. While von Richtmacher was the faster driver, M's intelligence and appreciation for engineering saw him win. He appears in episode 5.
• The Mayoress of Woking is the mayor of Woking, the town in which McLaren is based. She appears as a little old lady, and Professor M wrongfully assumes that she knows nothing of engineering. She appears in Episode 6. However if the Tooned DVD is bought, an episode hidden in the extra features portrays exactly the same episode on with the Mayoress replaced by the Queen of the UK.
• MP4 RTD-1 (also known as the McLaren Project 4 Robot Test Driver) is a robot developed by Professor M to be the perfect test driver. RTD-1 appears in episode 7.
• Nyck de Vries as Nyck, a member of the McLaren driver development programme. He is young and eager to drive a Formula One car, but is often forced to sit through M's lessons, which he finds boring. Nyck appears in episodes 8 and 11.
• Mika Häkkinen as Mika, the 1998 and 1999 Formula One World Drivers' Champion. Mika insists that he is retired from racing, but it does not take much persuasion from Lewis and Jenson to convince him to start racing again. He appears in episode 10,7-8.
• Ron Dennis as Ron Dennis, the Executive Chairman of the McLaren group. He is styled as a faceless James Bond villain, with a talking parrot, Cosworth. He appears in episode 12.

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired		DVD release date
			Season premiere	Season finale	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	1	12	July 8, 2012 (2012-07-08)	November 25, 2012 (2012-11-25)	TBA	December 10, 2012 (2012-12-10)	TBA
	2	8	June 30, 2013 (2013-06-30)	November 24, 2013 (2013-11-24)	December 9, 2013 (2013-12-09)	TBA	TBA

Episodes

Season 1 (2012)

The first season comprises the following 12 episodes.

No. by series	No. by season	Title	Original air date
1	1	"Wheel Nuts"	July 8, 2012 (2012-07-08)
Lewis and Jenson arrive at the McLaren team headquarters to begin the development of the team's 2013 car.
2	2	"Slicks"	July 22, 2012 (2012-07-22)
Lewis and Jenson get distracted testing the brand new safety features Professor M has been developing. After a fire extinguisher blows up in Jenson's face and Lewis is ejected from the building into a nearby lake, the team must make them presentable for an upcoming film premiere.
3	3	"Track to the Future"	July 29, 2012 (2012-07-29)
Professor M shows off the future of Formula One. When Lewis takes the prototype car out for a test drive, M and Jenson have to find a way to bring him back to the base.
4	4	"Beyond the Limit"	September 2, 2012 (2012-09-02)
Bored by another day of testing, Lewis and Jenson discover that their cars can travel at speed in reverse, much to Professor M's annoyance.
5	5	"Lift Story"	September 9, 2012 (2012-09-09)
When their lift breaks down (on purpose by M to show drivers the importance of engineering), Professor M tells Lewis and Jenson tales from his time as a racer while they try to fix the lift and get to a race on time.
6	6	"Gone with the Wind"	September 23, 2012 (2012-09-23)
Lewis and Jenson are unhappy with their latest assignment — demonstrating McLaren's new wind tunnel for the Mayoress of Woking. When the Mayoress proves to be surprisingly knowledgeable about racing, Lewis and Jenson decide to play a prank on Professor M as payback.
7	7	"The Rising Son"	October 7, 2012 (2012-10-07)
In Japan, Professor M shows off his latest creation: RTD-1, an android test driver capable of learning as he develops. M wants Lewis and Jenson to work alongside RTD-1, but Lewis and Jenson teach him how to race.
8	8	"Lecture Circuit"	October 14, 2012 (2012-10-14)
While Lewis and Jenson are off doing charity work, Professor M takes McLaren's Young Driver Programme candidate Nyck De Vries for a four-hour lecture on engineering. When Nyck grows bored, he decides to sneak one of McLaren's racing cars out for a test drive.
9	9	"Strictly Bollywood"	October 28, 2012 (2012-10-28)
With the team scheduled to provide the post-race entertainment for the Indian Grand Prix, Professor M shows off a Bollywood-inspired dance routine for the team to learn. Only to find out that they were providing the post race entertainment for another race.
10	10	"Photo Finnish"	November 4, 2012 (2012-11-04)
While doing promotional work, Lewis and Jenson convince former McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen to return to racing.
11	11	"Side Tracked"	November 18, 2012 (2012-11-18)
Nyck De Vries returns to the team for another lesson, this time applying his knowledge to the circuit. When Nyck gets bored, he once again causes more mischief.
12	12	"A Glitch Too Far: Part 1"	November 25, 2012 (2012-11-25)
Lewis and Jenson become trapped in the McLaren simulator and Professor M rushes to save them before it's too late. When the dust finally settles, Jenson escapes the simulator, only to find that somebody else has taken Lewis's place. Final Appearance: Lewis Hamilton as Lewis

Season 2 (2013)

The second season comprised eight episodes, bringing the total number of episodes to twenty. Based on McLaren's 50th Anniversary, Season 2 was written by Chris Waitt, Henry Trotter, Ed Dyson and Tim Bain.^[5]

No. by series	No. by season	Title	Original air date
13	1	"A Night To Remember"	June 30, 2013 (2013-06-30)
At the McLaren Technology Centre, McLaren are celebrating their 50th anniversary, with Professor M presenting the event. Then, an elderly Scottish man comes up to tell his story. Debut: Sergio Pérez as Sergio; Brian Cox as The Mechanic with No Name
14	2	"The Bruce McLaren Story"	July 29, 2013 (2013-07-29)
The old man tells the story of how Bruce McLaren started up McLaren, where there was just a shed with only three employees: Bruce, The Old Man and his kiwi, named Russell.
15	3	"The Emerson Fittipaldi Story"	August 23, 2013 (2013-08-23)
The old man is trying to tell the story of Emerson Fittipaldi but Professor M cuts him out and he speaks instead. He says that Emerson was nicknamed "The Mouse" but the old man tells him that he was no mouse and they called him something different. Debut: Emerson Fittipaldi as Himself
16	4	"The James Hunt Story"	September 9, 2013 (2013-09-09)
Professor M introduces James Hunt, McLaren's first British world champion, and disapproves of his playboy lifestyle as a bad image for Britain. However, the old man elaborates that James was a national hero and that there was more to his off-track activities than met the eye. Debut: Tommy Hunt as James Hunt
17	5	"The Alain Prost Story"	October 6, 2013 (2013-10-06)
Professor M introduces 4 times world champion Alain Prost as a close friend of his, where they would rebound off each other on a number of occasions. However, the old man mentions a series of races during the 1984 Formula One season that ultimately set the difference between the two Professors. Debut: Alain Prost as Himself
18	6	"The Ayrton Senna Story"	October 28, 2013 (2013-10-28)
The old man proceeds to tell the story of legendary Brazilian driver, Ayrton Senna, but also mentions that when you talk of Senna, you will always talk of his arch-nemesis. Debut: Bruno Senna as Ayrton Senna
19	7	"The Mika Häkkinen Story"	November 3, 2013 (2013-11-03)
Professor M introduces the "Flying Finn" Mika Häkkinen, and comment that he had a big impact on his racing career. The Old Man disagrees, lamenting that there was something special about Mika.
20	8	"The Grand Finale"	November 24, 2013 (2013-11-24)
After going through some of McLaren's legendary drivers, Professor M and the Old Man determine of what real success is. Final Appearance: Sergio Pérez as Sergio

Mobil 1 series

A special series of Tooned was produced in partnership with Mobil 1. It stars Jenson, Checo, Professor M and a new character, Smoke (three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers' (2002, 2005, 2011) and 2011 owners' champion Tony Stewart). In this series, Professor M is hired in by Mobil 1 to explain the history of oil and lubricants and Jenson, Checo, and Smoke are used as demonstrators. The episodes are available on YouTube, and six episodes have been developed.

Promotion

The Tooned logo was added to the back of the McLaren MP4-27 and McLaren MP4-28's rear wings from the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix to the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix. A DVD of series 1 was released on 10 December 2012.

Errors

In episode 3 Track to the Future, in the entrance lobby after Professor M, Lewis and Jenson pass through, there is a recurring joke of a tour guide showing visitors items in the trophy cabinets. In the long-shots, the white-suited American businessman is not present, but suddenly appears in the close-up shot at the end when the tour guide delivers the punch-line.

When Lewis scans Professor M through the futuristic helmet display, his own race statistics are displayed, not those of Professor M.

After sliding around on the oil and coming together setting off the helmet air bags, Jenson is to the right and Lewis to the left. When Professor M approaches them and the camera views them all from the other direction, Jenson is then to Professor M's left and Lewis to his right.

In episode 10 Photo Finnish, Lewis Hamilton's championship winning car in 2008 have Pirelli tyres instead of Bridgestone; however, cars from previous years often carry current sponsors of the team and bear the tyres of the current season taking place.

The blue and red karts exchange colours, briefly in episode 10 Photo Finnish.

In episode 4 of season 2, when James Hunt is in his tuxedo, for a split second when he says Hench Mechanics, it becomes his McLaren suit.

References

• Davies, Steve (28 September 2012). "EXCLUSIVE: Checo Pérez joins Jenson Button for a new series of ‘Tooned’..". Skiddmark. 
• Davies, Steve (31 August 2012). "Has McLaren’s ‘Tooned’ animation series crashed out on the opening lap?". Skiddmark.