Recess - School's Out (Animated) (DVD)

...it.

Recess is an animated cartoon made by Disney, it has been running since 1997 and is one of Disney's best Saturday morning cartoons. Basically Recess is based around a group of friends, Theres, T.J, Gretchen, Spinelli, Mikey, Vince and Gus. The six friends are always getting up to mischief in there favourite part of the day, Recess. Recess is an important part of the kid's school day. The time of the day when they can leave the ...
...with a story involving the Recess gang. There are also the Sneak Preview trailers of other Disney movies including Snow White, Monsters, Inc., Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street, Cinderella II, Dumbo, Return to Never Land, Hunchback of Notre Dame, ABC's One Saturday Morning, and the Disney Channel's original movies are also advertised.

The DVD-ROM content is actually just a few web links, which is hardly worth the effort to ... more

You may think im going nuts for one im reviewing a DVD which I admit im not great at, and two it's a kids DVD. Well no I haven't gone nuts I have 3 children and this show is the only one that I can actually sit down and watch happily with the kids. I love it. So I thought I would buy them the dvd, even though I had seen the "film" so many times on the Disney channel I had to buy it.

Recess is an animated cartoon made by Disney, it has been running since 1997 and is one of Disney's best Saturday morning cartoons. Basically Recess is based around a group of friends, Theres, T.J, Gretchen, Spinelli, Mikey, Vince and Gus. The six friends are always getting up to mischief in there favourite part of the day, Recess. Recess is an important part of the kid's school day. The time of the day when they can leave the classroom behind and just relax. It really is every school kids best time of the day apart from home time.

♥ CHARACTERS ♥

** T.J Detweiler **(voice of Andrew Lawrence)

T.J is the leader of the group of friends. The red hat wearing kid is also the joker of the pack. Always getting into mischief, breaking out of detention, and standing up to the bullies of the school. T.J has always got a plan and is always the centre of the show. T. J always wears his trademark red hat and green jacket.

** Gretchen Grundler** (voice of Ashley Johnson)

Gretchen is the science whiz kid of the group. The smartest pupil in the school who is never wrong. Gretchen helps the group with the wisdom and knowledge by inventing things to help the gang with their schemes. Gretchen is the long faced Girl who wears glasses and has buckteeth.

**Ashley Spinelli** (voice of Pamela Segall)

Spinelli is the good hearted bully of the gang. A girl after my own heart. Spinelli loves her wrestling and challenges the other kids at school to wrestling and arm wrestling matches, which she always wins. Spinelli never bullies anyone intentionally but likes to stick up for herself and her friends. Spinelli is the Tomboy girl with the orange hat over her pigtails and huge boots.

**Michael 'Mikey' Blumberg** (voice of Jason Davis)

Mikey is the friendly giant of the group. Surprisingly Mikey has the highest voice of the group which an operatic tone. He is musically talented but has one downfall, Food. Mickey is the big boy who always wears brown trousers and a beige t-shirt.

**Vincent 'Vince' LaSalle** ( voice of Rickey D'Shon Collins)

Vince is the Sports kid of the gang. Vince is a great kickball, and baseball player. He likes to be the fastest and best at every sport and hates it if there is someone better than him. Vince is always seen in his baseball jersey.

**Gustav 'Gus' Griswald** (voice of Courtland Mead)

The wimp of the gang. Gus is the new kid who comes from an army family. Gus has been to 16 different schools since kindergarten, but has never had a group of friends like these. Gus is the one that all the other kids pick on, but Gus has his friends there always to protect him. Gus is the skinny short kid with blonde spiky hair and square glasses.

**Other Characters**

There are also numerous other characters in the film, there is Muriel Finster, the horrible 6th grade teacher. Principal Prickley, a grumpy old man who is the 3rd street school principle. Randall, The school snitch who is constantly telling off T.J and the gang. The Ashley's, a group of 4 Ashley's who are very girlie and their favourite line is "scandalous". Miss Grokie, The gangs 4th grade teacher, very unlike Finster, miss Grokie is a loving kind teacher, and Mr Benedict, is the evil scientist who the gang have to stop.

♥ PLOT ♥

At the start of the film we see a secret base being taken over my Mr Benedict. But over at 3rd Street school it is the last day and everyone is excited for the summer vacation to start. Everyone is going away to different summer camps. But like always T.J and the gang have one last plan before they leave. At the end of the day everyone goes off to get ready for their summer vacation except for T.J who hasn't got any plans to go away for the summer. As he says goodbye to his friends T.J is feeling quite lonely with no friends around to play with T.J has to find something to keep himself occupied. When one day after walking past the school he sees a lot of strange goings on. T.J sets out to find out what's going on but he isn't prepared for what he is to find out. T.J is now in a race to get all his friends back from summer camp. Can T.J and the gang save the school and maybe the world from Mr Benedict and his evil scientists?

♥EXTRAS♥

Disney have put a handful of decent extras in this DVD, most of which will appeal to children and some of interest to the parents. First there is an "Animation Camp" feature, which runs for about 10 minutes, and provides insight into how a movie like "Recess" is made, highlighting the various stages like storyboard, voice recording, the animation, and the colour. The DVD has music videos for the two new recordings of the songs that the film uses in the soundtrack. Robert Goulet (who provides the singing voice for Mikey) does a rendition of "Green Tambourine" and pop star Myra performs Dancin' in the Street. "Secrets of Recess" is a brief but good feature, where the creators Paul and Joe let viewers in on 10 interesting facts regarding the show.

There is an interactive playground game that can keep children entertained for ages. And then there is the Digital Comic Book, which is an interactive storybook feature, with a story involving the Recess gang. There are also the Sneak Preview trailers of other Disney movies including Snow White, Monsters, Inc., Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street, Cinderella II, Dumbo, Return to Never Land, Hunchback of Notre Dame, ABC's One Saturday Morning, and the Disney Channel's original movies are also advertised.

The DVD-ROM content is actually just a few web links, which is hardly worth the effort to put the disc in your computer. The DVD displays some nice animated film-themed menus. The main menu is a journey through the 2-D world to the school playground, as an extended version of the TV song theme plays. The other menus also have some minor animation, such as the TV in the classroom, and a kazoo version of the tune "Colonel Bogey's March".

♥SONGS ♥

Dancing in the Street - Martha & the Vandellas,
One - Three Dog Night,
Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf,
Wipe Out - The Surfaris,
Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix,
Colonel Bogey's March,
Nessun Dorma - Robert Goulet,
Theme from S.W.A.T,
Nobody But Me" -The Human Beinz,
Let the Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension,
Green Tambourine - Robert Goulet,
Dancing in the Street - Myra

♥DVD SPECIFICS♥

Release date: 26-11-2001

Certificate: U - Universal

Running time: 82.mins

Animated, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen

Purchase for as little as £4.40 used and new from Amazon.co.uk

♥CONCLUSION♥

This film is great for both kids and adults alike. I think that kids can relate to it in a way, as they know how important their school break times are. I think adults like this because it isn't the usual childish type cartoon that Disney produce (excluding Disney Pixar movies) The animation is standard and not at all like the kind of 3d animation in a lot of the other Disney films. There are a few crude "Saggy Butt" jokes which some parents might not want their children to watch but it is all harmless fun that kids hear everyday. There are a lot of funny moments throughout the film that will make you have a giggle. I love watching this just to put a smile on my face. Like I said at the start it is one of the few films that I enjoy sitting down and watching with my kids.Oh and the soundtrack is pretty good too. I would recommend this film to both adults and kids alike but I would also recommend watching the cartoon series that can be seen on ITV on a Saturday morning or the Disney channel every day. In fact The Disney Channel have been showing back to back episodes of Recess during the school holidays. Which I for one have loved.

Thanks for reading

Lynz xxx
 

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