The Big Group Movie

Theatrical Poster

**"The Big Group Movie"**, also known as **"Big Group: The Double-Two Project"**, is a 1999 American animated action-adventure musical comedy film based on the hit Cartoon Time! animated series Big Group, which in turn is based on the Cappies shorts on the Fox variety program The Joe Locksman Show. In the film, which takes place between the fifth and sixth seasons, the Cappies try to send Daniel's newborn sister Lily back to the hospital but get caught up with Double (voiced by Robin Williams, who has created a portal to another dimension where he rules Sandwood Summers, and his alternate version (voiced by Don Cheadle) ends up kidnapping Lily. They team up with alternate versions of themselves, with the help from a resistance team led by Guy Grayson (voiced by George Clooney) and Doctor Genesis' son Howard, to save Lily.

The film. directed by series creator Alan Johnson and series director Dan Povenmire, and written by Johnson, co-creator David Fisherson, Jon Vitti, Mike Reiss, Brad Garland, Steve Rowland, Tim Conner, Dianne Dixon, and Larry Lee, was originally set to be released as a television film named The Double-Two Project acting as the first three episodes of season 6 on Cartoon Time!, being the first three-part episode of the series and the first episode to be animated using digital ink-and-paint. However, due to the success of The Rugrats Movie, as well as successful test screenings, executives at 20th Century Fox decided to give the film a theatrical release, renaming it, The Big Group Movie, to attract audience attention, but not giving the animators enough time to make the film look cinematic, giving shading effects to the Cappies, Lily, Howard, Double, and Double-Two, but no one else. The three episodes that took The Double-Two Project's place was "And Lily Makes Three", "Moron Bed", and "Halloween 5".

The film premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater on November 14, 1999, and was released theatrically on November 19, by 20th Century Fox. The film received negative reviews from critics but was a box office success and has gained a cult-following in recent years. The film made its television premiere on the Fox network on November 21, 2001, and made its premiere on Cartoon Time! on May 17, 2002 before the brand new hour-long special "The Cappy Core Project".

## Trivia

* Before being converted into a theatrical film, The Double-Two Project, much like other Cartoon Time! TV movies (such as Detective's The Choice and Natalie Noir: High School Detective's Big Mystery Adventure), was going to exist as a full 70-minute TV film and as three seperate episodes. This would've marked the series' first triple-length episode before it was converted to theatrical. The series would eventually have its first triple-length episode in season 13 with "Legends of Sandwood Summers" in 2007.
* This is currently the only Big Group film to not be released in July, and the only one to be release during the run of a season.
* This is the first Big Group production to be presented in widescreen. Although when the film was being worked on as a television film, it was originally meant to be presented in the series' usual fullscreen.