Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere's "Recess" cartoon shorts, which ran on ABC when the Walt Disney Company first bought the network and transformed the entire children's programming department, were exaggerations of how many kids see life on the school playground. Since the series ran long enough, and seemed relatively popular, it should be no surprise that Disney would end it with a movie, whether it's a feature film or a made-for-television movie. While it's intended audience might not be able to relate to a soundtrack of wall-to-wall classic rock, the story itself is much easier for both kids and their parents to relate to.
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
T.J. Detweiller is as happy as anybody else at 3rd Street Elementary School that school is out for summer, because he thinks it's going to mean a couple of months of fun with his friends. Unfortunately, they've all gone to their numerous specialty camps, none of which turn out to be what either of them hope, but that's besides the point. Left at home by himself, he ends up with a great deal of spare time riding his bike around town. Suddenly he finds out that very weird activities are going on in his school, and they include secret service look-alikes and a green glow in the cafeteria windows. When he tries to tell his parents and the cops, they don't believe him(would you?), so he runs to the last person he wants to see... Principal Pete Prickly. And when he reluctantly follows TJ to investigate, he seems to dematerialize. This leaves him with no other choice but to get his older sister to gather his friends from camp and stop whatever evil plot might be going on. And only when the other kids see what looks like a huge laser beam coming out of their school auditorium do they decide to break in and stop whatever IS going on. Upon this break in, TJ is caught, and finds his hated principal alive and well.
During their capture, Principal Prickly reveals that more than three decades earlier, 3rd Street Elementary was an easy-going school with a faculty population of reform-minded hippies, including the currently hard-nosed Ms. Finster and Prickly himself. But one of those hippies, former principal Phillium Benedict turned out to be a complete fake who used standard hippie-slang to score with the female teachers, and his only "reform" was the abolition of recess. Today, he's a disgraced former secretary of education who plans to abolish summer vacation, by abolishing summer completely!! Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that any school district would allow their fleet of buses to be painted psychedelic colors. The only ones that were painted that way were sold off to real hippies. The idea that somebody would use standard 1960's slang merely to pick up women(or score dope), however is very easy to believe. I also don't remember childhood being as happy-go-lucky as either the show or the movie suggests. At least it recognizes that Gus doesn't share the same memories as his friends(a fact which the 2003 straight-to-video "All Growed Down" ignores). And after three allegedly "crazy stories" about weird things going on at 3rd Street School, I'd think the local cops would be suspicious enough to think something must be going on. Flaws like this aside, not to mention a gimmicky CGI beginning and ending, don't detract from the fact that this is a movie that warms the heart a little as it tries to cash in on the success of a then existing cartoon series.
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
T.J. Detweiller is as happy as anybody else at 3rd Street Elementary School that school is out for summer, because he thinks it's going to mean a couple of months of fun with his friends. Unfortunately, they've all gone to their numerous specialty camps, none of which turn out to be what either of them hope, but that's besides the point. Left at home by himself, he ends up with a great deal of spare time riding his bike around town. Suddenly he finds out that very weird activities are going on in his school, and they include secret service look-alikes and a green glow in the cafeteria windows. When he tries to tell his parents and the cops, they don't believe him(would you?), so he runs to the last person he wants to see... Principal Pete Prickly. And when he reluctantly follows TJ to investigate, he seems to dematerialize. This leaves him with no other choice but to get his older sister to gather his friends from camp and stop whatever evil plot might be going on. And only when the other kids see what looks like a huge laser beam coming out of their school auditorium do they decide to break in and stop whatever IS going on. Upon this break in, TJ is caught, and finds his hated principal alive and well.
During their capture, Principal Prickly reveals that more than three decades earlier, 3rd Street Elementary was an easy-going school with a faculty population of reform-minded hippies, including the currently hard-nosed Ms. Finster and Prickly himself. But one of those hippies, former principal Phillium Benedict turned out to be a complete fake who used standard hippie-slang to score with the female teachers, and his only "reform" was the abolition of recess. Today, he's a disgraced former secretary of education who plans to abolish summer vacation, by abolishing summer completely!! Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that any school district would allow their fleet of buses to be painted psychedelic colors. The only ones that were painted that way were sold off to real hippies. The idea that somebody would use standard 1960's slang merely to pick up women(or score dope), however is very easy to believe. I also don't remember childhood being as happy-go-lucky as either the show or the movie suggests. At least it recognizes that Gus doesn't share the same memories as his friends(a fact which the 2003 straight-to-video "All Growed Down" ignores). And after three allegedly "crazy stories" about weird things going on at 3rd Street School, I'd think the local cops would be suspicious enough to think something must be going on. Flaws like this aside, not to mention a gimmicky CGI beginning and ending, don't detract from the fact that this is a movie that warms the heart a little as it tries to cash in on the success of a then existing cartoon series.