Dr. Benedict (left) and Fenwick (center) in "Recess: School's Out."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, we give this film a: Stars: Voices of Dabney Coleman, Robert Goulet and James Woods Director: Chuck Sheetz Rated: G Length: 84 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Marshall Fine
Gannett News Service

(February 16, 2001) -- Given how cheap most of the animation in Recess: School's Out looks, the good news is that it's a surprisingly entertaining film.

An extended version of the Saturday morning cartoon, Disney's Recess, this film has the one-dimensional simplicity of TV cartoons for children. Yet, it will entertain youngsters with its kids-vs.-grown-ups sensibility and its wild slapstick. And adults may find themselves chuckling in spite of themselves.

Recess is the brainchild of a pair of animators who cut their teeth on Rugrats and The Simpsons: Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere. They've used the feature-length format to create a broadly sketched adventure story, involving the characters from the weekly show: "Hanging out with your friends, eating ice cream, spying on bad guys -- it's the ultimate kid experience," as one of the kids in the film notes.

The central characters are a group of fourth-graders, led by the energetic T.J. Detweiler, a freckle-faced, all-American type who wears his baseball cap backwards and masterminds their fun. The rest of his posse is like Our Gang for the 21st century: a tomboy who loves pro wrestling, a brainy girl with a nasal voice. You get the picture.

As the film opens, it's the last day before summer vacation at Third Street School, where T.J. and his friends go. But as he tries to make plans with his pals, T.J. is dismayed to discover that his crew is headed to summer camp, leaving him home alone with no one to play with.

Wandering aimlessly around town after they leave, T.J. uncovers strange doings at the closed school. Green rays emanate from the windows; closer investigation uncovers scientists testing some sort of tractor beam. When the adults don't believe him, T.J. rounds up his pals from camp to get to the bottom of the mystery.

They uncover a plot by former Education Secretary Phil Benedict (voiced by James Woods with snide glee), who has been discredited because of his theory that test scores can be raised by eliminating recess. He has concocted a wild scheme to use his tractor beam on the moon to eliminate the biggest recess of all: summer vacation.

The script, by Jonathan Greenberg, has a story that is plausible enough for any audience whose age can be measured in single digits. As goofy and inane as some of the humor is, it looks positively brilliant when you compare it with much of the filler currently clogging multiplex screens.