Recess: School's Out

2001
G
1h 22m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

12K

YOUR RATING

Rickey D'Shon Collins, Jason Davis, Ashley Johnson, Andrew Lawrence, Courtland Mead, and Pamela Adlon in Recess: School's Out (2001)

TJ and company must save summer vacation from disappearing forever.

Play trailer1:55

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99 Photos

Adventure Animation Comedy Family

T.J. and the gang must save summer vacation from disappearing forever.T.J. and the gang must save summer vacation from disappearing forever.T.J. and the gang must save summer vacation from disappearing forever.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

12K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Tj
(voice)
(as Andy Lawrence)

Rickey D'Shon Collins

Vince
(voice)

Jason Davis

Mikey
(voice)

Ashley Johnson

Gretchen
(voice)

Courtland Mead

Gus
(voice)

Pamela Adlon

Spinelli
(voice)
(as Pamela Segall Adlon)

Dabney Coleman

Principal Prickly
(voice)

Robert Goulet

Mikey's Singing Voice
(voice)

Melissa Joan Hart

Becky
(voice)

Peter MacNicol

Fenwick
(voice)

April Winchell

Ms. Finster
(voice)
…

James Woods

Benedict
(voice)

Diedrich Bader

Guard #2
(voice)

Allyce Beasley

Miss Grotke
(voice)

Gregg Berger

Tech #1
(voice)

Klee Bragger

Digger Sam
(voice)

Clancy Brown

Bald Guy
(voice)

Dan Castellaneta

Guard #1
(voice)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Burt Reynolds was originally cast as Benedict but was replaced with James Woods as the producers thought Reynolds' performance was too over-the-top and sinister.

Goofs
After Prickley gets dematerialized outside the school's main entrance only his shoes remain on the ground, T.J runs home to get Beckey to help him round up his friends and leaves the steaming shoes on the ground. But when T.J arrives at the baseball camp to collect Vince, he appears to have the shoes and shows them to Vince to reveille that he is telling the truth.

Quotes
Principal Prickly: I'll let you in on a little secret, Detweiller. Every adult you've ever known was a kid at sometime in his life. You think we don't remember summer vacation? Riding our bikes down the creek. Catching polliwogs in a jar. Camping out under the stars. Well you're wrong! Sometimes I sit there in my office, looking out at you kids in the playground and I think, "They don't know how good they got it. In a few years, they'll be grownups like me and all those good times will be memories for them, too". So go ahead. Put a whoopie-cushion in my chair. Put fake vomit on my carpet. Make fun of my "big, saggy butt". But don't ever say I don't care about summer vacation, 'cause those memories are the last part of childhood I got left.

Crazy credits
When the Walt Disney pictures logo forms, T.J., Spinelli, Mikey, Gretchen, Gus, and Vince appear behind the castle and blow their kazoos to the tune of "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Sweet November/Recess: School's Out/Down to Earth/Faithless/Yi Yi (2001)

Soundtracks
Dancing in the Street
Written by Marvin Gaye, Ivy Jo Hunter, William Stevenson
Performed by Martha & The Vandellas
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews48

Review

Featured review

8/10

If you like Recess on TV you'll LOVE the movie.

Recess the TV show is about kids having fun, and teachers being teachers (good and bad). There's good character development and personality variation on the small screen and it carries well to the big screen.

The movie puts the kids in the role of spies who need to break INTO school to save their lifestyle. Along the way, there are great 60's flashback scenes and songs, lots of funny spy movie cliches including the mob-scene climax.

The characters are caricatures but it IS a cartoon after all. There's good voice casting (including James Wood, Melissa Joan Hart and a great sounding Robert Goulet). The plot is complicated (and just a little goofy), but my 8 and 10 year old had no trouble following the action.

There are good messages about friendship, respect, integrity, duty, but these aren't done in a preachy way.

The animation quality is variable. There are some great 3d zoom-sweeps, but for part of the movie the characters look like they've been singed. However, the few animation flaws are only an issue for nitpickers (like me).

See it with someone who knows that characters and likes them. It'll be a good rental or a nice afternoon in the theater.