The Tooners

The Tooners is a 2006 American live-action/animated fantasy comedy film directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Geo G., Steve Oedekerk, Tab Murphy, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. It stars Will Arnett, Jennifer Garner, Paul Giamatti, Seann William Scott, and Jane Lynch, with the voices of Renée Zellweger, Kenan Thompson, Mila Kunis, Zooey Deschanel, and Hank Azaria. The film tells the story of a group of animated cartoon characters who accidentally get teleported to the live-action world of New York City and must find a way to get back home with the help of their creator, a cartoonist, before trouble happens.

Geo originally conceived the concept of The Tooners in 2000 and the project began development the following year. After several script rewrites and different directors, Mitchell eventually came on board as director in 2004, with filming beginning in August 2005 in New York City. The film is a homage to, and a self-parody of Saturday morning cartoons (including Geo G.'s own Gabriel Garza and Zina Supermoon), making numerous references to Geo's past works through the combination of live-action filmmaking, traditional animation, and computer-generated imagery. Animation services were provided by Rough Draft Studios with Blur Studio handling the CGI special effects.

Produced by Glass Ball Productions, O Entertainment and Mandeville Films, The Tooners was released by Universal Pictures on November 22, 2006 in the United States. The film grossed $259 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics who praised the humor, animation, visual effects, and performances of Arnett, Zellweger and Giamatti but criticized the lack of originality, writing, tone, and use of product placements. However, through home video releases and television syndication, it later gathered a cult following in recent years. A sequel, titled The Tooners 2, was released on October 8, 2010, with an animated television spin-off, Yo Vera!, currently in development for a 2023 release.

Plot
To be added

Live action

 * Will Arnett as David Robinson, a cartoonist and creator of Vera Vista and Her Pals.
 * Jennifer Garner as Michelle Robinson, David's wife.
 * Paul Giamatti as Henry Nelson, David's boss.
 * Seann William Scott as Darren Scott, one of David's partners.
 * Jane Lynch as Elizabeth Murphy, one of David's partners.

Voice cast

 * Renée Zellweger as Vera Vista, a kind, optimistic "wannabe princess" who is the star of Vera Vista and Her Pals.
 * Kenan Thompson as Bonk Bear, an anthropomorphic clumsy bear who is one of Vera's friends.
 * Mila Kunis as Lucy Cutie, a cute girl who is one of Vera's friends.
 * Zooey Deschanel as Wiz Lizard, an anthropomorphic flying magical lizard who is one of Vera's friends.
 * Hank Azaria as Professor Wizzletum, a mad scientist who plans to get rid of Vera and her friends so that he won't be bothered by nonsense anymore.
 * Eric Idle as Mr. Vista, Vera's father.
 * Taraji P. Henson as Mrs. Vista, Vera's mother.
 * Patrick Warburton as Leonard, a handsome man who is Vera's love interest.
 * Steve Oedekerk as Gus, a yellow bat-like creature who is Wizzletum's assistant.
 * Geo G. as Mr. Moose
 * Jim Cummings as Mr. Beast
 * Rino Romano as Lloyd
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Buddy
 * Sandy Fox as Vivian
 * Corey Burton, Paul Rugg and Fred Tatasciore as Mutants

Loop Group

 * Denis Akiyama
 * Peter Arpesella
 * Rachel Crane
 * Jean Gilpin
 * Nicholas Guest
 * Marabina Jaimes
 * Richard Jannone
 * Matthew Labyorteaux
 * Dina Morrone
 * Jonathan Nichols
 * Michelle Ruff
 * Shane Sweet
 * Hans Tester
 * Marcelo Tubert
 * Lisa Wilhoit
 * Lynnanne Zager
 * Ruth Zalduondo

Development
The idea for The Tooners was conceived in 2000, when Geo G. expressed interest in making a live-action/animated hybrid film in a similar vein to Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) as he was a long-time fan of that film, and development on the project began in 2001. During the first season of Zina Supermoon, co-creator Steve Oedekerk approached Geo when he began writing a treatment of the film and decided to help him work on the script. Initially, the film was conceived as a raunchy R-rated film inspired by the adult-risque comedy sex films in the 1980s and 1990s. The first draft of the script had the animated protagonist Vera Vista being turned on by her creator in live action and the two began to have sex together. When Geo and Oedekerk pitched the script to Universal Pictures, the executives were unclear of how well the film would turn out, but Michael Wildshill, the head of Universal's animation division, refused to green-light the project as he was appalled at the content on the script when he was reading it, unless he would suggest the duo write a toned-down version of the script. This in turn resulted the screenplay being rewritten several times.

In October 2001, Variety reported that David Hoberman would co-produce the project with Geo and his Glass Ball Productions company, which was being directed by Betty Thomas while Jim Herzfeld and Jay Kogan were hired to rewrite the script. Filming was originally scheduled to begin in mid-2003 with a planned 2004 release date, but in 2002, Thomas withdrew from the project due to "creative differences" with the producers. In July 2003, Raja Gosnell came on board to direct the project, while Who Framed Roger Rabbit screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were hired by Universal to rewrite the script once again. However, Gosnell left the film the following year to direct his next film Yours, Mine & Ours (2005) instead.

Mike Mitchell became the film's final director in August 2004 and Tab Murphy had joined the project to write a new version of the script with Geo, Oedekerk, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. At the time, Universal considered making Vera Vista and the other cartoon humans live action when they arrive in New York while the cartoon animals would be computer-generated (CGI), but Geo, Oedekerk, and Mitchell wanted them to remain traditionally animated. Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi did uncredited rewrites on the film.

Filming
On a budget of $103 million, principal photography began in New York City on August 9, 2005. Some shots were filmed on the backlot of Universal Studios with the sets being constructed for the film. Many scenes were also filmed at Steiner Studios in New York City. Production wrapped on December 14, 2005.

Animation and visual effects
The animated sequences were provided by Rough Draft Studios in Glendale, California and South Korea, which also provided the animation for Glass Ball's previous productions including the studio's previous two films Zina and the Vivid Crew (2004) and The TeenV Movie (2005). Glass Ball began the animation production in December 2004 even before filming was started. As the rest of the animation team were working on The TeenV Movie, only six animators were allocated to the project. The rest of the animation team began work on The Tooners after production on The TeenV Movie had finished; eventually more than 70 animators worked on the film.

While most of the animation for the film is traditionally animated, some parts for the live action shots (or visual effects otherwise) were animated in CGI by Blur Studio, a visual effects company that would subsequently provide animation for Glass Ball's computer animated features under a new deal beginning with Zoe Tarr: The Drinking Detective‎ in 2007. In addition to Blur, the visual effects sequences were also handled by Industrial Light & Magic and Rhythm and Hues Studios.

Music
John Debney, a longtime collaborator of one of the film's producers Steve Oedekerk, composed the score for the film. The soundtrack was released on November 21, 2006 by Interscope Records.

Theatrical
The Tooners was originally scheduled for theatrical release on October 27, 2006, but in May 2005, Universal Pictures moved the release date up to December 20, 2006, taking over the original slot for the studio's animated adaptation of The Snow Queen prior to its cancellation in March 2007. By February 2006, the release date was pushed forward to November 22, 2006 to avoid competition with 20th Century Fox's Night at the Museum. The film had its worldwide premiere at Universal Studios Hollywood on November 7, 2006, before its wide theatrical release on November 22.

At one point, the producers initially wanted The Tooners to be released under the Universal Feature Animation label, but animation head Michael Wildshill, who attended the film's test screening in 2005, declined this, commenting "I don't even want to be involved in this mess. It looks terrible, and I can tell that the movie is going to flop miserably. We prefer making movies in-house on our own anyway so this is not the big-budget project we wanted for our studio." As a result, The Tooners was the first Glass Ball Productions film produced for Universal without the supervision of Wildshill. Despite this, Wildshill, having been impressive enough of the film's animated scenes as well as its success at the box office, would later convince Geo G. to produce a new film at the Universal Feature Animation division after the release of The Tooners; the new film eventually became Nepola's Odyssey in 2011.

Marketing
The first poster for The Tooners was revealed online on December 20, 2005. Two months later, Universal launched the first official trailer, which was later shown in front of Curious George in theaters. A second trailer debuted with the release of Puppet Pals and Me & Mobo on June 30, 2006.

Universal teamed up with more than 80 marketing partners in the United States and Canada to promote the film, including McDonald's Happy Meals and Kraft Foods. A video game based on the film was released on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance.

Scholastic released a novelization of the story in conjunction with the film. The novel was written by American fantasy and science fiction author Suzanne Weyn.

Home media
The Tooners was released on DVD and HD DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on February 13, 2007, followed by a Blu-ray release on July 22, 2008. The bonus features on both releases include the filmmakers' commentary and five deleted scenes. It was later re-released on Blu-ray on June 5, 2012 as part of the Universal 100th Anniversary lineup.

Box office
During its opening weekend, The Tooners grossed $22.9 million at the box office, ranking second behind Happy Feet. The film closed on May 23, 2007, grossing $128.1 million in the United States and Canada and $131.4 million in other territories with a worldwide total of $259.5 million against its $103 million. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2006, and grossed £2.23 million ($3.1 million) and opened in #2, behind Eragon.

Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Tooners has an approval rating of 43% based on 143 reviews and an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "While The Tooners lives up to its sweet moments with homage to classic Saturday morning cartoons, it somewhat ends up becoming dull with a bunch of clichés." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 46 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel
A sequel, The Tooners 2, was released in October 2010.

Television spin-off
On October 20, 2021, it was announced that an animated spin-off television series depicting the in-universe The Tooners series of Vera Vista and Her Pals is in development at Gingo, set to premiere in early 2023. The spin-off, titled Yo Vera!, is developed by Steve Oedekerk and Mike Mitchell with Michael Wildshill, Geo G. and David Hoberman serving as executive producers. It will be produced by Gingo Animation, Glass Ball Productions, O Entertainment, and Mandeville Films.

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.