Recess: School's Out

Recess: School's Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chuck Sheetz
Produced by	Joe Ansolabehere Paul Germain Toshio Suzuki Stephen Swofford
Screenplay by	Jonathan Greenberg
Story by	Paul Germain Joe Ansolabehere Jonathan Greenberg
Based on	Recess by Paul Germain & Joe Ansolabehere
Starring	Rickey D'Shon Collins Jason Davis Ashley Johnson Andrew Lawrence Courtland Mead Pamela Segall Dabney Coleman Melissa Joan Hart April Winchell James Woods
Music by	Denis M. Hannigan
Edited by	Tony Mizgalski
Production company	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Television Animation Walt Disney Television Animation Digital Production Sunwoo Animation Sunwoo Digital International
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date	February 10, 2001 (2001-02-10) (premiere) February 16, 2001 (2001-02-16) (wide)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$44.4 million

Soundtrack
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

Recess: School's Out is a 2001 American animated comedy film based on the Disney television series Recess. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Television Animation and Walt Disney Television Animation Digital Production with animation done by Sunwoo Animation and Sunwoo Digital International. The film was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, and released theatrically in the United States on February 16, 2001.

School's out at Third Street School, but T.J. is unhappy, because his friends have all decided to go to various camps to improve their skills. T.J. unhappily rides around town, doing things by himself, when he notices that there's something going on at the school. He sneaks inside and finds them using a tractor beam to levitate a safe. Panicked, he tries to tell his parents and the police, but no one believes him. When he gets Principal Prickly to come to see what's going on, he is dematerialized. T.J. uses his sister Becky's diary to blackmail her into driving to all the camps to pick his friends up.

T.J. and his friends steal a box of documents, but when they find it filled with boring information, they accuse him of inventing a plot to bring them back. They are about to head back to camp when they see the tractor beam come out of the school and shoot out a green laser and agree that something is going on. The next day, T.J. finds Pricky's golf pants in a dumpster, so T.J. and his friends infiltrate the school at night to find Prickly. While there, they are caught spying and flee. T.J. is captured and his put in a storage room where Prickly is tied up. A man named Dr. Phillium Benedict comes in to talk to them.

After Benedict leaves, Prickly relates how, back in the spring of 1968, Benedict became principal of Third Street School and moved to abolish recess to improve test grades. But the plan was met with angry parents protesting to reinstate recess which Benedict refused to do. Prickly went to the superintendent as a means of recourse. The superintendent assured the parents that the plan will never be carried out, but Benedict refused to back down. The superintendent then demoted Benedict and promoted Prickly to principal. Benedict then assumed that Prickly threw him under the bus to take his job. Benedict's girlfriend, Muriel P. Finster, breaks up with him due to his attitude and his hatred of recess, leaving Benedict to swear revenge on Prickly. Later, Prickly says, Benedict went on to become Secretary of Education but was fired by the president when he tried to abolish recess nationwide.