Review of Recess: School's Out (2001) by Ben L — 22 Mar 2012

Never seen the Recess cartoon series? Well there's no need for you to see this movie. School's Out follows in the footsteps of a number of other movies made based on popular TV series. It builds on the world that already existed, so the movie will only make sense for someone who is familiar with the characters. I was a fan of the cartoon (yes, I enjoy a number of cartoons even as an adult) so the movie makes sense to me. The characters are almost 100% unchanged here, so it remains very faithful to the series.

Perhaps the best aspect of this movie is the fact that they don't feel the need to spend time holding the viewers' hands and introducing all the characters from scratch. They assume that you know something going in, and just build off that assumed knowledge. So the movie races along from beginning to end, barely taking a moment to breathe. Events unfold so fast, but this is probably good because it can hold the attention of the young viewers. But because of those young viewers it frequently delves into a level of silliness that even out-paces the silliness of the TV series (attacking ninjas with soda pop?).

By all rights this movie isn't meant for me. Sure I enjoyed the TV show, but this movie reinforces the idea that this is really for kids. Amazingly, though, it does deliver a message for adults. It talks about how we need to empathize with kids and their desire to have fun and escape responsibility, because we all were kids one day as well. Then there is the famous "seize the day" message that is given. In our over-scheduled lives we can often miss out on some of the fun moments as we try to manufacture fun for ourselves. Don't get me wrong, Recess School's Out isn't some deep philosophical movie, but it does have a little something to say and I believe it says it in a fun way.