Double n' Trouble

***Double n' Trouble*** is a 2022 American animated comedy short film produced by Paramount Animation and directed by Bob Camp. Combining hand-drawn animation and computer animation, the short features the characters of the 1940s-1960s *Toony Tales* cartoons. The film features archival recordings of Mel Blanc in his posthumous roles as Reed, Smedley, Raymond and Racky Raccoon.

Production on *Double n' Trouble* began in December 2020 and took eight months to complete. The short was released theatrically with *Sonic the Hedgehog 2* on April 8, 2022.

## Plot

The short film begins in 2.35:1 when the Paramount Animation logo is shown, then switches to a smaller 1.33:1 aspect ratio for the 2D animation sequence. The film shows Reed Dog sleeping inside the house, while Smedley was kicked out. While Smedley was just being outsmarted by Peppy Mouse as he tried to sneak back into the house, Reed spotting Raymond Fox and Joey pulling a hay wagon with the kids (Sally, Nancy, Penny, Lenny, Jenna and Ted) playing music. As Reed and Smedley are about to race each other to the wagon, they later encounters Bully and his gang shows up in his jalopy as his horn bellows in a high pitched voice, "Hey pals, get of the dang road!". Bully tried to run over Reed and Smedley, but they later safe as they hop into the hay wagon after Peppy outsmarted Bully. However, he captured Peppy and rams his car into the wagon, sending Reed and Smedley flying toward the screen. Seeing Reed and Smedley bounce off the fabric, Bully hurls them even harder into the screen until they burst from their two-dimensional cartoon world to the three-dimensional modern movie theater as the film switches back to 2.35:1.

As Rusty closes the hole in the screen, Reed tries to get back into his world, pulling back the curtains to reveal a wider screen, as the film switches to Circle-Vision 360° aspect ratio, while Smedley then walks onto the stage wearing a Nicktoons T-shirt and sunglasses, as well as carrying an iPhone, a box of Milk Duds, a bottle of Coca-Cola and a tub of popcorn. Reed is unsure about the new area, asking Smedley if they've landed in New York. After given the advice from Racky Raccoon, as he try to steal Bully's stuff, Reed have an idea and decides to use Smedley as a mock biplane to fly around the theater and fire at Bully and his gang with Coca-Cola and Milk Duds. When they crash land onto the stage, Reed immediate sees and finds the iPhone Smedley brought (and apparently stole since someone called him and said, "Give me back my phone!") onto the stage, so he calls Dumbwit on his rotary phone and Smedley sprays foam from a fire extinguisher into the smartphone and out from Dumbwit's phone.

Bully's car then lands in a frozen lake and the screen fills with water, giving Smedley the idea to poke a hole in the screen with his claw and let the water leak out, causing Bully, Racky, Peppy and the other cartoon characters to flood out onto the stage. Reed and Smedley's victory is short-lived, however, as Bully and his gang gives chase to the characters in and out of the screen until he snatches Smedley, but he tried to get into a fight before Tough punches him onto a support beam and Rusty nails the screen shut. Reed and the others work together to swing from the beam and try to break through the screen like a wrecking ball, but end up flipping the screen upside-down, causing Bully and his gang to fall from the ground.

Reed, Smedley and the others flip it again and Bully and his gang lands on the ground, his car crashing down on him. Getting an idea, Smedley encourages Reed to flip the screen again, this time having Bully and his gang land on a cactus, which sets off a chain of events. First, Bully and the gang gets electrocuted on some telephone cables, next he falls onto a cliff, which landed on petting zoo, where the goat kicked the gang out of the backyard and rolled down a hill, landed into the ocean, so the shark bit him, and the gang jumped out of the ocean, and Bully has his face get hit by all the steps on a ladder onto a cactus, he took the cactus out of his face, slipped on a banana peel and then lands his face in the mud. Then he lands his butt on a pitchfork, then he falls onto a seesaw, where he and the gang gets hit on the head by numerous tools. Then one of the tools; a sledgehammer rams the pitchfork into Tough butt deeper. Finally, the sledgehammer falls on the opposite side of the seesaw, where Bully and his gang is launched and lands their face back into their jalopy.

Reed, Smedley, Racky, Lenny, Jenna and Ted begin to laugh hysterically at Bully's pain. Suddenly, Ted hand gets stuck behind the screen due to him pounding the screen. Reed tries to pull him out, but only succeeds by spinning the screen horizontally like a flip-book. To Reed's realization, it rewinds the scene. Seeing this as an opportunity, Reed and Smedley begin spinning the screen until Bully is completely dazed and knocked out, while his gang was fall into unconscious.

When Dumbwit press the auto-drive button while being in unconscious, the car drives itself and completely tears the screen down, revealing the seemingly hand-drawn world in CGI for the first time. With Bully and his gang still knocked out, Reed, Smedley and their friends enter their world again and dance for a moment while Tiffany, Rascal and Lacey from *The Adventures of Tiffany* briefly peeks out from the side of the screen. The car horn that was on Bully's car, started to grow legs, so he opened his eyes and then he gets out of Bully's car. He later tells an unconsious gang, saying "Ah, just get your own life, you idiots!" before Reed and his friends bring down a new screen, then Reed waves goodbye to Bully, his gang and the audience. As the iris closes, Bully, who has woken up by now, tries to get back in through the screen, only to get his head (and half his body) stuck. Seconds later, the curtains close to reveal the words "**THE END**", Dumbwit tells the audience, saying "Duh, goodnight folks.", and Bully bellows "Hey!", as the screen cuts to the credits. After the credits, the 1987 Games Animation logo appears, while the 2013 version of the Paramount Pictures logo is in 1960s cartoon-style, the 2021 ViacomCBS byline is replaced with "A PARAMOUNT CARTOON". Raymond was shown climbing to the top of the Paramount Pictures logo mountain, while he saying goodbye to the audience.

## Cast

* Mel Blanc (via archival recordings) as Reed Dog, Smedley Cat, Raymond Fox, Racky Raccoon, Lenny and Ted
* June Foray (via archival recordings) as Sally, Nancy, Penny, Jenna and Jenny
* Edward Brophy (via archival recordings) as Joey
* Billy West as Reed Dog
* Tom Kenny as Smedley Cat

*More coming soon!*

## Release

*Double n' Trouble* premiered June 15, 2021, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France. The short was theatrically accompanied with *Sonic the Hedgehog 2* which was released on April 8, 2022. The film was also available to stream on Paramount+ on the same day it released in theaters. The short is also included on the home media release of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2* on August 9, 2022.

## Transcript

*Main article: Double n' Trouble/Transcript*