''Tooned'' is an

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

starring

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super G ...

, Fernando Alonso and comedian

Alexander Armstrong Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is ...

, and formerly

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mic ...

Kevin Magnussen Kevin Jan Magnussen (born 5 October 1992) is a Danish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Haas F1 Team. He is the son of four-time Le Mans winner and former Formula One driver Jan Magnussen. Kevin Magnussen came up through Mc ...

and Sergio Pérez. It was aired on

Sky Sports F1 Sky Sports F1 is a television channel created exclusively for Sky's UK and Ireland coverage of Formula One, with Sky having a package of rights from the 2012 season to the 2029 season. From 2012 to 2029, Sky Sports F1 has the exclusive rights ...

before the start of each

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

race. The first season, which starred former

driver

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 YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

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

was shown a picture of his 2014 team mate

's character on ''Tooned'' and also added that 'the production of Season 3 was going well'. It was announced by McLaren on 19 October 2016 that ''Tooned'' would be making a return, featuring Fernando Alonso,

Stoffel Vandoorne Stoffel Vandoorne (born 26 March 1992) is a Belgian professional racing driver who is currently racing for Dragon Racing in Formula E. He had previously competed in Formula One for McLaren from 2016 to 2018. He is currently a test driver of M ...

, and possibly Button.

Development

''Tooned'' was created by John Allert, the McLaren Group brand and marketing director. The show was written, directed and produced by

Chris Waitt Christopher Martyn Preston Waitt (born 8 February 1971) is an English independent filmmaker, musician and writer from the seaside town of Worthing, England. Films and television After an unsuccessful career as a rock musician, Waitt began to writ ...

, Simon Whalley and Henry Trotter at visual effects house

Framestore Framestore is a British animation, visual effects company and creative studio based on Chancery Lane in London. Formed in 1986, it acquired (and subsequently merged with) the Computer Film Company in 1997. It works on feature films and telev ...

Characters

Main characters

;Season One (2012) *

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, where it is said that he disappeared and was replaced by Sergio Pérez. *

as Jenson, McLaren's other star driver. Like Lewis, he loves racing and is bored by testing, and is amused by Lewis' antics. He appears in episode 1–10 and 12. *

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 Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

and Q but not anyone specific. He appears in every episode of the series. ;Season Two (2013) - in addition to above: *

as Jenson, now McLaren's star driver following the departure of

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. * 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 appears in every episode of series 2. ;Renewed Season Three (2016) ;Mobil 1 Series (2013) *

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed Smoke, is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, current NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and current co-owner of the Superstar Racing Experience. He is a ...

as Smoke, from

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

. He co-owns the

Mobil 1 Mobil 1 is a brand of synthetic motor oil and other automotive lubrication products. Originally developed by the Mobil oil company, it is now globally marketed and sold by ExxonMobil. Mobil 1 engine oil was introduced in 1974. The brand range no ...

-sponsored teams of

Stewart-Haas Racing Stewart-Haas Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. The team is co-owned by three-time NASCAR Cup Series champio ...

and drove the No. 14 car before a season-ending injury in real life. ;Mobil 1 Series 2 – Oil (2014) *

as Kevin, McLaren's up and coming rookie.

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 Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

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, along with MP4-RPM1 (a robot avatar of Professor M sent along because the real M expected Lewis and Jenson's antics to have something go wrong). *

Nyck de Vries Hendrik Johannes Nicasius "Nyck" de Vries (; born 6 February 1995) is a Dutch racing driver who is currently serving as the reserve driver for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. He is confirmed to be driving full-time in Formula 1 at Scuderia A ...

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 Mika Pauli Häkkinen (; born 28 September 1968), nicknamed "The Flying Finn", is a Finnish former racing driver. He won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1998 and 1999, both times driving for McLaren. Häkkinen is one of three Fo ...

as Mika, the 1998 and 1999

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. It is revealed in Season 2 that he is an Intergalactic Super Hero from planet

Sisu SiSU (SiSU information structuring universe or Structured information, serialized units), is a Unix command line-oriented framework for document structuring, publishing and search. Usage Using markup applied to a document, or a collection of do ...

; at the end of the season 2 episode fellow Finnish McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen is assumed to be the same. *

Ron Dennis Ronald Dennis Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 1 June 1947) is a British people, British businessman and Official British Business Ambassador for the United Kingdom. He is best known for his former role as owner, CEO, chairman and founder ...

as Ron Dennis, the Executive Chairman of the McLaren group. He is styled as a faceless James Bond villain, with a talking

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoid ...

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

. He appears in episode 12.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2012)

The first season comprises the following 12 episodes.

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 Timothy Bain (born 1978) is an Australian writer. He is known for writing comedy, children's and animated series for television and as the creator and co-executive producer of ABC Kids' action-comedy series Kangaroo Beach. Bain has also writte ...

Season 3 (2013)

Season 4 (2014)

Season 5 (2016)

Mobil 1 series

A special series of ''Tooned'' was produced in partnership with

. It stars Jenson, Checo, Professor M and a new character, Smoke (former

drivers' and owners' champion

. 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

, 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 The 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Eni Magyar Nagydíj 2012) was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Hungaroring circuit near Mogyoród, Hungary on 29 July 2012. It was the eleventh round of the 2012 Formula One se ...

to the

2013 Bahrain Grand Prix The 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 21 April 2013 at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain. Mercedes' Nico Rosberg started the race f ...

. A DVD of series 1 was released on 10 December 2012.

References

* *{{cite web, last=Davies, first=Steve, url=http://skiddmark.com/2012/08/has-mclarens-tooned-animation-series-crashed-out-on-the-opening-lap/, title=Has McLaren’s ‘Tooned’ animation series crashed out on the opening lap?, publisher=Skiddmark, date=31 August 2012 2010s British animated television series 2012 British television series debuts British children's animated comedy television series British children's animated sports television series British computer-animated television series McLaren Group Formula One mass media Animated television series about auto racing Television shows scored by Natalie Holt