Delayed Reaction: Recess: School's Out

Premise: During summer vacation, T.J. uncovers a government plot to get rid of summer vacation.

 

I have a lot of fondness for the Recess series. Those 12-15 minutes stories about the playground created a deep lore and dozens of distinct recurring characters who were just as good for a throwaway line as a prominent spot in the main story. I can still watch old episodes and enjoy them for the memories they bring back if nothing else. By the time this movie came out, I was still watching the reruns, but I'd aged out of it as an appealing theater option. I knew I'd get around to it eventually, but, much like how the show was something I watched because it was on rather than something I sought out, other things kept pushing it down my queue.

 

Here's why the 15-minute formula works so well for Recess. The episode starts normally enough, and no matter how crazy things get, there's a hard reset when the time is up and the next episode starts. School's Out is a Recess story on the other hand that goes on for 82 minutes. That's a lot of time for things to spiral out of control. This movie does feel like it's written by people who are used to getting cut off after 15 minutes. I can imagine the pitch meeting. They explain their idea to the Disney executive. They finish and look to the exec who is still looking like they are mid-pitch, so they add "and then..." with another 15 minutes of story. This gets repeated a handful of times until finally the exec registers it as a conclusion and says "Sure, that sounds fine".

 

This is a great movie to point to if you don't understand the difference between Disney Animation Studios and Disneytoons Studio. These were separate studios of much different quality. Disney Animation Studios is what makes all the big non-Pixar movies you are thinking of. Disneytoons made all straight to video releases or theatrical movies that make you think "It's odd that Disney did that". Disney Animation makes big budget movies with voice casts you can put on a movie poster. Disneytoons was when someone wanted to make a TV show into a movie on an only slightly higher budget. That's have you get that painful-looking 3-D overhead shot that opens School's Out. I suspect that didn't even look good in 2001.

 

This movie is too much. It goes too big and loses the charm of the typically playground-bound stories of the series. It's clear why this worked best as a show (Similar to how Doug's First Movie didn't require a Second). The movie does reach the logical endpoint of where the show would go if it had more time. It's true to all the characters and hints at where they will go after 4th grade. As a supersized series finale, it works well enough.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend