Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Basics
Released: October 30, 1993
Written By: Jurgen Wolff
Directed By: Stuart Margolin
Genre: Family/Adventure/Fantasy
Length: 96 minutes

Cast
Mary-Kate Olsen . . . Kelly Farmer/Young Aunt Sofia
Ashley Olsen . . . Lynn Farmer/Young Aunt Agatha
Cloris Leachman . . . Aunt Agatha/Aunt Sofia
Phil Fondacaro . . . Oscar
Meshach Taylor . . . Mr. N
Wayne Robson . . . Gravedigger
Eric McCormack . . . Don Farmer
Kelli Fox . . . Christine Farmer
Matthew Walker . . . George

Awards
01. Emmy Awards: Richard Bellis (composer) was nominated for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic underscore)
02. Young Artist Awards: Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen won Best Youth Actress in a TV Miniseries, M.O.W., or special

Synopsis
   When twins Lynn and Kelly Farmer learn that their Aunt Sofia has been trapped in a mirror by her evil, witchy twin sister Agatha , the girls are determined to save Sofia. Since the spell must be broken by twins before midnight on Halloween, Lynn and Kelly start on their journey as soon as possible by sneaking away from their parents while they are trick-or-treating. The adventure doesn't look to be an easy one, because the twins must find Aunt Agatha and steal her moonstone, then take it to Agatha's house and use the moonstone to free Sofia. Their task load is made a little bit lighter when they enlist the help of their friends: a man who works on a street corner washing windows, a midget who worked as a clown at a party they attended, and a gravedigger who is terrified of the dark. But even with the help of friends, they have their work cut out for them--and it may take more than the moonstone to break the spell!

Lynn (Played by Ashley)
   From the beginning Lynn, seemed to hate being twins more than Kelly did. She told her parents that she wanted to get a nose job so she wouldn't look like Kelly, but after thinking about, decided that Kelly should get the nose job so she wouldn't have to change. She volunteered to take the magic wand first when they won it at the party, and she took the moonstone when they split up at the witches' gathering. Lynn had to make the choice between keeping the moonstone to help Aunt Sofia, or saving Kelly from Aunt Agatha. She learned a lot throughout the movie and chose to help Kelly. She admitted at the end that she didn't mind being Kelly's twin.

Kelly (Played by Mary-Kate)
   Kelly didn't like being twins at the beginning, but she didn't seem to mind it so much as Lynn. She seemed to be a follower, only complaining about being twins when Kelly started it. She said that she wanted a nose job so that she and Lynn wouldn't look like twins anymore. She was a little skeptical, and was hesitant to trick her parents and go to save Aunt Sofia. She went with Mr. N. when they split up at the witches' gathering. Kelly was very clever for a little kid. She remembered Aunt Sofia's favorite cookies when she was talking to Aunt Agatha. She admitted that she didn't mind being Lynn's twin at the end, but this wasn't so much of a development for her as it was for Lynn.

Young Aunt Agatha (Played by Ashley)
   Aunt Agatha's evilness didn't really start until she found the moonstone. Until she and Sofia went on a search for it, they were pretty much the same. It was when Agatha saw the moonstone in the mirror in the attic that she began to look possessed and her lying started. She went back on her deal to share the moonstone with Sofia. Since this started once she found the moonstone, though, we can't conclude that Agatha herself was evil. It could just as easily have been Sofia that found the moonstone and used it to torture Agatha. The evil doesn't lie within Agatha, then--it's in the moonstone.

Young Aunt Sofia (Played by Mary-Kate)
   Until Agatha found the moonstone, Sofia and Agatha were equal in every way. From the moment that Agatha got the moonstone, however, Sofia was portrayed as the sweet, kind twin forevermore. She could just as easily have turned evil if she had found the moonstone, but because of the course of events in the movie, we will never know. Sofia had a persistent nature--she was not ready to give up the search for the moonstone just because Agatha decided that it was silly. While she is young, that is pretty much all that we see of her personality.

Moral
01. Money can be very useful, but good friends are much more important. (Mr. N. learned this along the jounrey.)
02. Sometimes the things that you dislike about yourself are exactly what makes you different from everyone else. (Learned by Lynn and Kelly.)

Trivia
01. In the scene where the car on Aunt Agatha's tire pops, Kelly is played by Ashley instead of Mary-Kate, most likely because Ashley could make a better "surprised" face for when the tire popped.
02. Ashley plays both Lynn and Aunt Agatha, the twins who hate being twins the most; Mary-Kate plays the more passive and accepting twins, Kelly and Aunt Sofia.
03. Double, Double, Toil and Trouble was released the day before Halloween in 1993.
04. The spell that Aunt Agatha recites during the witches' gathering is a spell from MacBeth.

Bloopers
01. When Christine makes cinnamon cookies the night before Halloween, one of the girls starts to pick up a cookie right when they come out of the oven. She says, "Ouch!" and puts the cookie back down, and Christine warns the girls that the cookies are hot. Seconds later, the girls pick the cookies up without burning their hands.
02. Lynn and Kelly's hair is up in high pigtails when they are changing out of their Halloween costumes during trick-or-treating. The camera cuts away, and when it comes back, their pigtails are significantly lower.
03. When the pumpkin truck stops, a man on a bike behind the truck falls down. The camera shows him again, and there is magically a pumpkin on his head that wasn't there before.
04. After Agatha is trapped in the mirror, it breaks and is shattered into tiny pieces. Later, when Lynn and Kelly are picking the pieces up, they are very big pieces that were not there when the mirror shattered.