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Recess: School's Out
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // G // August 7, 2001
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Occasionally, I'll find myself doing work on this website on a Saturday morning - finishing up a movie review or doing some organizing. Background noise is always necessary, but there's nothing else to watch besides Saturday morning cartoons, one of which being "Recess: School's Out". A decently animated show with mildly entertaining writing, the show was likely going to be made into a feature-length outing, but it was doubtful that it would reach anywhere beyond straight-to-video.
Yet, the movie arrived in theaters late in the Winter when there were essentially no other similar movies to compete with it and it had a few mildly successful weeks at the box office. The film, as does the show, revolves around the adventures of T.J Detwiller and school buddies Vince, Gus, Spinelli, Mikey and Gretchen. It's the last day of school and TJ finds that all of his friends have gone off to Summer camp, leaving him alone.
During one of his rides by the school, TJ finds that some weird experiments are going on. A former principal (James Woods) is threatening to do away with Summer so that kids will stay in school and learn more. Of course, this must be stopped and it's up to TJ and his re-grouped friends to stop him and save the day.
The animation seemed slightly better than the Saturday morning episodes, but that still ranks it fairly low on the animation ladder. The vocal talent for the characters is decent, but Woods is the only one who adds a great deal of energy to his role as the villian. In terms of the audience, "Recess" is aimed directly at kids - while adults may be slightly amused and find a couple of good jokes, "Rugrats In Paris" provides more entertainment for the entire family.
While adults may just rent this one for the kids and find something else for themselves to watch, "Recess" will likely do strong business as there's little else that's new for kids in what's probably near the end of their Summer breaks.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although it's hard to find any flaw with Disney's 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer of "Recess: School's Out", this will certainly not be considered reference quality material. The animation looks slightly better than it does on the show, but it's still low-budget animated fare and looks it. Sharpness and detail are fairly good, although some scenes looked a little bit on the softer side.
A few extremely minor artifacts aside, the picture is completely clean and clear, with no print flaws or other irritants. Colors generally looked subdued and basic in comparison to some of the other animated features that have been released recently. Aside from a couple of tiny bumps, the picture looks about as good as this basic animation can look.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio presentation for "Recess" provides the basics for the majority of the movie. Surround use is fairly minimal, as some ambient sounds and music are offered in the rear speakers. Audio quality is enjoyable, if not remarkable. Music sounded clear and warm and dialogue came through crisply and not "thin" or "edgy" sounding.
MENUS:: Nicely done animated menus with score in the background. The menus take the viewer through the places the characters go and have options nicely built into the backgrounds.
EXTRAS::
Animation Camp: This goes over the basics of animation in general detail so that children can better understand the process. The total running time is about 10 minutes and the segements are: story, drawing the characters, voices, storyboard, leica reel, animation, color and putting it together.
Music Videos: "Dancin' in the Street" by Mya and "Green Tambourine" from Robert Goulet.
Also: "Secrets Of Recess" featurette, where the animators discuss the inspirations for the series; interactive trivia game, trailer, digital comic book and sneak peak trailers for: "Snow White" on DVD, Monsters, Inc., Recess: Christmas, Cinderella II, Dumbo, Return to Never Land, Hunchback Of Notre Dame 2, Disney's One Saturday Morning and Disney Channel Original movies.
Final Thoughts: "Recess" is aimed almost completely towards children. Kids will probably want to watch this feature more than once and instead of renting it several times, a purchase would probably be a better idea for most. Disney's DVD provides fine audio/video quality and a few good supplements.
Occasionally, I'll find myself doing work on this website on a Saturday morning - finishing up a movie review or doing some organizing. Background noise is always necessary, but there's nothing else to watch besides Saturday morning cartoons, one of which being "Recess: School's Out". A decently animated show with mildly entertaining writing, the show was likely going to be made into a feature-length outing, but it was doubtful that it would reach anywhere beyond straight-to-video.
Yet, the movie arrived in theaters late in the Winter when there were essentially no other similar movies to compete with it and it had a few mildly successful weeks at the box office. The film, as does the show, revolves around the adventures of T.J Detwiller and school buddies Vince, Gus, Spinelli, Mikey and Gretchen. It's the last day of school and TJ finds that all of his friends have gone off to Summer camp, leaving him alone.
During one of his rides by the school, TJ finds that some weird experiments are going on. A former principal (James Woods) is threatening to do away with Summer so that kids will stay in school and learn more. Of course, this must be stopped and it's up to TJ and his re-grouped friends to stop him and save the day.
The animation seemed slightly better than the Saturday morning episodes, but that still ranks it fairly low on the animation ladder. The vocal talent for the characters is decent, but Woods is the only one who adds a great deal of energy to his role as the villian. In terms of the audience, "Recess" is aimed directly at kids - while adults may be slightly amused and find a couple of good jokes, "Rugrats In Paris" provides more entertainment for the entire family.
While adults may just rent this one for the kids and find something else for themselves to watch, "Recess" will likely do strong business as there's little else that's new for kids in what's probably near the end of their Summer breaks.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although it's hard to find any flaw with Disney's 1.66:1 anamorphic transfer of "Recess: School's Out", this will certainly not be considered reference quality material. The animation looks slightly better than it does on the show, but it's still low-budget animated fare and looks it. Sharpness and detail are fairly good, although some scenes looked a little bit on the softer side.
A few extremely minor artifacts aside, the picture is completely clean and clear, with no print flaws or other irritants. Colors generally looked subdued and basic in comparison to some of the other animated features that have been released recently. Aside from a couple of tiny bumps, the picture looks about as good as this basic animation can look.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio presentation for "Recess" provides the basics for the majority of the movie. Surround use is fairly minimal, as some ambient sounds and music are offered in the rear speakers. Audio quality is enjoyable, if not remarkable. Music sounded clear and warm and dialogue came through crisply and not "thin" or "edgy" sounding.
MENUS:: Nicely done animated menus with score in the background. The menus take the viewer through the places the characters go and have options nicely built into the backgrounds.
EXTRAS::
Animation Camp: This goes over the basics of animation in general detail so that children can better understand the process. The total running time is about 10 minutes and the segements are: story, drawing the characters, voices, storyboard, leica reel, animation, color and putting it together.
Music Videos: "Dancin' in the Street" by Mya and "Green Tambourine" from Robert Goulet.
Also: "Secrets Of Recess" featurette, where the animators discuss the inspirations for the series; interactive trivia game, trailer, digital comic book and sneak peak trailers for: "Snow White" on DVD, Monsters, Inc., Recess: Christmas, Cinderella II, Dumbo, Return to Never Land, Hunchback Of Notre Dame 2, Disney's One Saturday Morning and Disney Channel Original movies.
Final Thoughts: "Recess" is aimed almost completely towards children. Kids will probably want to watch this feature more than once and instead of renting it several times, a purchase would probably be a better idea for most. Disney's DVD provides fine audio/video quality and a few good supplements.
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