Recess: School's Out

Recess: School's Out

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Chuck Sheetz
Produced by
Screenplay by Jonathan Greenberg
Story by
Based on Recess 
by Paul Germain & Joe Ansolabehere
Starring
Music by Denis M. Hannigan
Edited by Tony Mizgalski
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates
  • February 10, 2001 (2001-02-10) (premiere)
  • February 16, 2001 (2001-02-16) (wide)
Running time
 82 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $23 million[1]
Box office $44.4 million[1]

Recess: School's Out is a 2001 American animated comedy film based on the Disney television series Recess.[2] It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Television Animation with animation done by Sunwoo Animation and Sunwoo Digital International. The movie was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, and released theatrically in the United States on February 16, 2001. Disney released three direct-to-video films related to Recess Trilogy DVD success spawned three direct-to-video film titles.

Plot

After pulling off one last big prank at Third Street Elementary School, T.J. Detweiler and his friends are excited about being done with the rest of the school year and starting summer vacation. But T.J.'s happiness is short-lived, as he discovers that all five of his best friends (as well as most of their fellow schoolmates) are going away for most of the summer at various summer camps around the state to plan for their futures. T.J. immediately becomes bored and lonely without his friends to hang out with. Eventually, he reluctantly agrees to hang out with the school snitch Randall. On his way there, he notices something going on at the school. T.J. sneaks inside and finds scientists using a tractor beam to levitate an office safe. Panicked, he tries to tell his parents and the police, but every time they do not listen. When he summons Principal Prickly to come see what is going on, the principal is electrocuted and dematerialized while attempting to unlock and open the door. T.J. rounds up his friends to assist him in finding out what is happening in the school.

T.J. and his friends steal a box of documents, but find them all filled with weather maps. T.J's friends accuse him of making up an idea only to bring them back. T.J. tells them he really did see Prickly disappear, but Gus points out that Prickly had just got into a car and driven off. The five are about to return to their camps when they see an enormous tractor beam emerge from the roof and shoot a green laser. The next day, T.J. finds Prickly's golf pants in a dumpster and also sees the bald man he saw guarding the school pull off a mask of Principal Prickly's face, showing that he was pretending to be Prickly.

The gang finds a note in the pocket of Prickly's golf pants saying "HELP ME!" on it; this makes T.J. and his friends decide to break into the school to save him. Randall eavesdrops on this and informs the assistant teacher, Miss Finster, who then plans to catch the gang trying to break into the school. While there, they are discovered by the henchmen (as well as a cadre of ninjas) and are forced to flee, an act witnessed by a shocked Randall and Finster. T.J., on the other hand, is captured himself and thrown into the dungeon where he discovers the real Prickly. The bald man's boss actually turned out to be a former friend of Principal Prickly by the name of Dr. Phillum Benedict, who enters the room to interrogate Prickly and T.J.

After Benedict leaves, Prickly reveals to T.J. that he and Benedict were once best friends and that Miss Finster used to be Benedict's girlfriend. Prickly then explains his story, back in the spring of 1968, Benedict became the principal of Third Street School. During a private conversation with Prickly, Benedict showed him that he had intended a move to abolish recess as a way to "make test grades go up". Prickly went to the superintendent to sort things out, who promptly demoted Benedict and promoted Prickly in his place. Benedict angrily accused Prickly of stealing his job, which along with his hatred of recess, caused Finster to break up with him. An infuriated Benedict promptly ended his friendship with Prickly, quit teaching, and swore revenge. Later on, Prickly says Benedict went into politics and became Secretary of Education, only to be fired by the President when he tried to abolish recess nationwide.

Using the air ducts, T.J. and Prickly head to Prickly's office, where T.J. finds his confiscated walkie-talkie and tells his friends Benedict wants to destroy summer vacation after seeing graffiti on the wall. However, T.J. and Prickly are caught by the bald guy again before T.J. could explain further. T.J.'s friends then try to get the police into the case, but just like T.J. and Miss Finster, they end up being laughed at. Even Finster tried to voice her objections over what's happening in the school, only for the police to suggest that she call Jackie Chan. T.J.'s friends go through the box of documents again. Spinelli finds a date book that says lunar perigee (which happens to be 12:22 the next afternoon) on it; Gretchen deduces that Benedict is trying to move the moon's orbit via tractor beam when it's closest to the Earth, which as a result will create a new ice age.

T.J.'s friends get Becky to drive to the camps again, where they pick up all the children. Gus draws up the plans to attack the school. T.J. and Prickly are locked in a cage as T.J. panics. Prickly tells T.J. off by reminding him that he also was a child once and that the memories of his summer vacations are the only thing he has left of his childhood. Prickly and T.J. proceed to escape the cage. After reuniting with T.J. and Prickly, who dumped corn chowder all over the bald man, the kids storm the auditorium, only for another set of guards to restrain them as Benedict prepares to pull the lever. However, Finster arrives to the rescue, bringing the teachers and staff as an army to help get rid of Benedict for good. A battle ensues between Benedict's men and the students and staff. Prickly punches Benedict in the face to prevent him from triggering the beam, but as Benedict slumps, he triggers the beam and Prickly cannot quite deactivate it. Vince manages to throw a baseball into the machine and destroys the device in the process, much to everyone's delight. Following the aftermath of the battle in the school, T.J., his friends, all the other students of the school, the teachers and staff of the school, Becky, and everyone from each of the summer camps are declared heroes while Benedict and his henchmen are arrested by the police for theft of government property, breaking and entering, and attempted terrorism.

T.J.'s friends inform him they intend to spend the rest of their summer with him, citing that they do not have much time left to be just kids. T.J. then rushes into Prickly's office to thank him, only to be thanked by Prickly himself for reminding him why he went into teaching in the first place: to help kids. The film ends with T.J. and his friends rushing off to the lake while Prickly looks on, smiling.

Cast

Trivia

Music

Recess: School's Out (Original Movie Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released January 13, 2001
Genre Soundtrack
Label Walt Disney
Soundtrack
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic
  1. "Dancing in the Street - Martha and the Vandellas - 2:38
  2. "Born to Be Wild" – Steppenwolf - 3:27
  3. "One" – Three Dog Night - 3:01
  4. "Incense and Peppermints" – Strawberry Alarm Clock - 2:46
  5. "Wipe Out" – The Surfaris - 2:37
  6. "Nobody But Me" – The Human Beinz - 2:14
  7. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" – The 5th Dimension - 2:29
  8. "Green Tambourine" – Robert Goulet - 2:36
  9. "Recess Suite" – Denis M. Hannigan - 5:07
  10. "Dancing in the Street" – Myra - 3:57

Note: "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix was also used in the film, though it is not included on the soundtrack.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 61% of 69 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though basically a TV cartoon stretched out to movie-length, Recess has enough successful jokes and smart writing to make it a worthwhile view."[3]

Box office

The film earned $36,706,141 in North America and another $7,754,709 from other territories. The worldwide gross was $44,460,850, against a $23 million budget.[1]

Home media

Recess: School's Out was released on VHS and DVD on August 7, 2001.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Recess School's Out (2001)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2015-01-26.
  2. ↑ "Scale Down the Bad Guy in Kids' Animated Films". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  3. 1 2 "Recess: School's Out (2001)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2015-10-03.

External links

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