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Recess: School's Out Movie

Reviewed: 11/10/2013

But Not For Thee!

Welcome to our final Fall Assortment rant of 2013! This one is a doozy as Michael Eisner and company felt that Recess was such a success that it deserved a full on theater movie. So Recess: School's Out was born and it was released in February 16th, 2001 and later on DVD in August 7th, 2001 (the version we are going to rant on). This is probably the second DTVA movie to come out in theaters and it was much more successful business wise; earning $44.46 million dollars; using only a $10 million budget. Sure; it was no blockbuster by any means; but that's still at least double what Ducktales: The Movie did in spite of the bad advertising overseas. The movie itself was given a considerable amount of praise from critics and fans of the show. However; that was 12 years ago when the show was still a hot topic. The plot of this episode is very simple: T.J. plays pranks; goes to summer camp; and must save the world from winter forevermore by a mad principal who wants year round school who creates a weather machine. There is one really huge fatal flaw to this plot as I'll explain later. This might be the first episode where I might hit the 300 KB mark on a rant; which has never happened before. How does this movie fare? Let's rant on shall we...?!

The movie was written by Paul Germain, Joe Ansolabehere and Jonathan Greenberg (who wrote the screenplay). The direction is done by Chuck Sheetz . Paul Germain according to USIMDB: Born June 6, 1959 in Los Angeles, California, Paul Germain grew up in Los Angeles and San Diego. He attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where the hippie movement still lingered, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated with a B.A. in economics in 1980. Germain attended graduate film school at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1980-1983, but left the program to work for James L. Brooks at Gracie Films. There, he rose from the rank of production assistant on Terms of Endearment (1983) to become associate producer of the film Say Anything... (1989). In 1986 Brooks asked Germain to help a young artist named Matt Groening develop animated bumpers for Brooks' new series, "The Tracey Ullman Show" (1987). Germain helped Groening, along with Ullman-show associate producer Jeffrey Townsend, develop and cast these one-minute animated interstitials, which marked the debut of "The Simpsons" (1989). For the "Simpsons" shorts, Germain directed the voice actors, brought in Klasky-Csupo Studio to create the animation, and produced the original two-minute cartoons. He became an associate producer on the Ullman show in 1988, and when "The Simpsons" went to series in 1989, Germain co-produced the first three episodes, before moving to Klasky-Csupo to head up development. At Klasky Csupo, Germain created the animated series, "Rugrats" (1991) with Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky in 1989-1990, when his first child, Tommy, was a one-year-old. Not only did Germain create the characters and write and produce the pilot, he also cast and directed the voice actors, oversaw all scripts and storyboards, and served as head creative producer and show runner during the series' first 65 half-hour episodes.

"Rugrats" still airs on Nickelodeon and remains one of the most popular kids' shows of all time. After "Rugrats", Germain became partners with Joe Ansolabehere, who had been head story editor. The team moved to Disney in 1996, where they created "Recess" (1997), which quickly became the ABC network's most popular Saturday-morning show. Paul and Joe executive produced 65 half hours of "Recess," which now runs on the Disney Channel and other Disney television outlets around the world. Due to the success of the series, Disney asked the team to produce a feature film with their characters. Recess: School's Out (2001) was released in 2001 and was a solid hit. Throughout his career, Germain has focused on character-driven family entertainment with strong integration of all elements of production into storytelling. To this end he pioneered the "radio-play" technique of voice direction in animation, which he developed with his first voice-directing work on "The Simpsons." As opposed to the standard TV animation practice of obtaining single line readings from one actor at a time in isolation, Germain's innovation was to bring the actors together to perform and record, and then to edit the voice tracks into something like a radio show before animation began. This requires flexibility and skill from the animators in timing the animation to the preexisting voices, but creates a more natural sense of interaction and character relationships. As of Spring 2009, Germain is attached to direct the feature film "Racing Home," a live-action family project scheduled for production in August. He began his career with Terms of Endearment as support personnel in 1983. Recess is his DTVA debut and he also was executive producer of Lloyd In Space plus a writer for Lilo & Stitch the series (take one guess what that episode was). Pound Puppies 2010 edition is his most recent credit. He has 9 producer, 13 writing, 9 other, four director and one casting director credits to his resume

Joe started as an assistant cameraman in Terrifying Tales in 1989. He then went to writing in Rugrats and was in such shows as Duckman, Beethoven The Series, Hey Arnold!, Sid The Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Pound Puppies 2013 edition. Recess is his DTVA debut and was on Lloyd in Space and wrote Lax for Lilo & Stitch The Series. Peter Rabbit 2012 edition is his most recent credit. He has 14 writing credits, five producer and five other credits to his resume. Jonathan started on Rugrats in 1992 and then went on to Beethoven the series, Jumanji the series, Hey Arnold!, Rayman The Animated Series, Daria, Big & Small, Arthur, Peep & The Big Wide World and Dinosaur Train. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. The Octonauts is his most recent credit. That's it basically. Chuck Sheetz started in 1980 with Wild Times In The Wildwood in 1980. He then returned in Rocko's Modern Life in 1993 and did such productions as The Simpsons (his most recent credit), Aaaahh! Real Monsters, Duckman, Camp Lazlo, a number of Scooby Doo OAV's and television series, Welcome to Eltingville, The Critic, King Of The Hill, and was The Devil in Devil In The Drain in 2009. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. That's about it. The animation is done by Sunwoo Animation. I think this is the first DTVA production which has all the credits for everyone who did the overseas animation for the movie instead of either very few or in many case, none.

Opening Moment #1: Walt Disney Logo Opening which features the ONE GIMMICK BAND popping out of nowhere playing kazoos; just to piss off the old farts who hate this show and think it's a disgrace to Walt Disney. Which is hilarious considering that people said the exact same thing about TaleSpin in 1990 which never got a theater release for Plunder and Lightning; in spite of my argument that it should of. Then we get the black background with Walt Disney Presents in white letters and a neon green border below.

We begin this one with a shot of the moon; then a pan shot with a snake and a lizard slithering and walking around in that order. Then we pan over to a satellite followed by a southern pan/zoom out shot of what is clearly an army base with a barbed wire fence. So we zoom into the hanger and then go inside to a control room as a black haired male man wearing all almond colored clothes is at the control panel and typing as a black man wearing the same uniform comes in with two coffee cups filled with coffee. We discover that the guy at the computer is Frank; and the guy gives Frank a coffee and wants to know the progress of some device. Frank claims that he is trying to get the photon generator working; but no luck. The black techie tells him to step it up because the Colonel wants the photon generator completed by next month to impress the top brass; and Frank proclaims that he knows. The other techie sits down opposite of Frank and begins typing. Then we head outside to the red Authorized Personnel sign and a green jump bust through the gate; which seems to have a sign of some sort on the back of the jeep (which is briefly seen; like literally one second); it's similar to those "Do Not Litter" signs. We cut back to the computer guys who hear crashing and alarm sounds. Techie #2 yells at Frank to erase the access code and Frank types in 3/4's of the access code to erase; but the doors are shot down completely with it bursting into flames. In comes the human version of the Bagheera clones from TaleSpin. I'm serious about saying that. Then a bald guy in a suit arrives and he looks mean and has a stun gun which he uses on which shoots green lasers and stuns the two techies who sell as if they were dizzy and drop dead onto the floor. At least they didn't add breathing noises here as a brown haired man wearing glasses, a red bow tie and a gray suit arrives and pushes white buttons on the conveniently placed control panel near the door and that turns off the alarms. He then gives the all clear signal and I discover that this guy is Fenwick; although his master coming in calls him Fernlick for some strange reason.

Fenwick is voiced by Peter MacNicol and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): MacNicol was cast in the off-Broadway play, Crimes of the Heart. The production eventually moved to Broadway, and he won the Theatre World Award. It was also during this production that a casting agent noticed him and called him in to read for his eventual role in Sophie's Choice. In 1981 he landed the starring role in his first film, Dragonslayer, opposite Sir Ralph Richardson. In 1987, he starred in the Trinity Repertory Company's original production of the stage adaptation of All the King's Men, which first appeared at the Dallas Theater Center. This adaptation was developed with the consultation of the author himself.[citation needed] Among his other stage credits is the Broadway production of Black Comedy/White Lies. He has further extensive classical repertory theater background, including the New York Shakespeare Festival in which he played title roles in Richard II and Romeo and Juliet, and appeared in Twelfth Night, Rum and Coke and Found a Peanut. On film, he played the naive Southern writer who fell in love with Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice; the museum curator Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II and camp director Gary Granger alongside future NUMB3RS costar David Krumholtz in Addams Family Values. Other film credits include HouseSitter and American Blue Note. In 1994 MacNicol had a prominent role as Alan Birch for the first season and less than half of the second season of Chicago Hope before departing to take on a role on the TV series Ally McBeal which was also created by David E. Kelley the same person who created Chicago Hope. However, he did return for one final guest appearance in episode five of the show's fifth season.

MacNicol is known by television viewers for his Ally McBeal performance as eccentric attorney John Cage, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2001. He also starred in the drama NUMB3RS as physicist Dr. Larry Fleinhardt, and had a role as Tom Lennox in the sixth season of the hit Fox show 24. MacNicol reprised his role as Lennox in the film 24: Redemption. He also played a hotel receptionist in one episode of Cheers titled "Look Before You Sleep". MacNicol has lent his voice to several comic book supervillains: Dr. Kirk Langstrom/Man-Bat in The Batman, David Clinton/Chronos in Justice League Unlimited, Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus in The Spectacular Spider-Man, X The Eliminator in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and the Mad Hatter in the video game Batman: Arkham City. He also voiced Firefly in G.I. Joe: Renegades. In addition, this year, MacNicol has written a script entitled Salvation on Sand Mountain and is attached to the project as an executive producer and director.[citation needed] MacNicol has joined the cast of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Stark, a pediatric surgeon.[4] He began his career as Galen in Dragonslayer in 1981. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command as Major is his DTVA debut. Batman Arkham Origins as Mad Hatter, Scooby Doo! Stage Fright as Dewey Ottoman and Necessary Roughness as Albert Gunner are his most recent credits. He has 65 acting credits. 13 Self credits, three director credits (Boston Public, Ally McBeal and Ally) and two producer credits (Numb3rs) to his resume.

So this black suit; black shoe male with a cane arrives and shines his shoes on one of the knocked out man as Fenwick assures us that they are not dead; and the man (who we never see his face once in this sequence) is relieved because he hates violence, despite the fact that his men used almost lethal force on two hapless techies. The man is clearly white and is wearing a purple tie with purple cloth stuffed in one of the black suit's pockets. Fenwick goes to the computer and starts typing as the man places a map on the control panel and proclaims that they are going to establish their new base in the last place anyone would look; and it shows a map containing Third Street School. Oh; if this isn't so obvious eh? So the map segueways to a sky shot of Third Street School and then slowly pan down and turn around as I discover that the whole map shot is in CGI. We get the Recess Logo (with the red stamped School's Out part below the logo) and the Walt Disney Pictures presents logo. So we do a map sweep shot and then zoom into the school as various kids are playing and running in opposite directions from the side as the hard camera zooms into a group of kids being around Hustler Kid (Michael Shulman) who is having a last day school sale. He calls it celebratory contraband which includes shaving cream, T.P., goofy string and maps of the teacher's houses. All in his pocket. Yeah; apparently, the last day of school in Third Street School involves playing pranks on the teachers. I'm guessing Miss Finster gets most of her hazard pay from this day. One of the kids is interested and a red haired kid in a scout uniform wants to take one; and I believe he is Phil who is voiced by Justin Jon Ross or Klee Bragger. It's probably Klee because Justin doesn't appear in the credits of this movie. Justin has only 24 credits to his resume; began in 1992 with the television movie Sintara as Frankie at 5; and Tommy in Reasonable Doubts. Recess was his DTVA debut and he also appeared in Lloyd in Space. Zigs as Doug is his most recent credit in 2001. He was also a toddler in Life With Louie and Sebastian Quinn in It Had To Be You. He sounds like Alan Roberts sometimes here.

So we cut to the Diggers as Megan wants them to join in the fun. I believe that she is voiced by Danielle Judovits. I'm not going to bother doing tributes for "ADR"'s here because that would just inflate the rant even more than it already is. The ADR loop consists of: Wendy Hoffman, Ashley Michael Bell, John Bruno, Steve Buillin, Ben Diskin, Erin Donovan, Murphy Dunne, Ashley Edner, Jessica Gee, Jackie Gonneau, Charity James, Richard Jannone, Jack Johnson, Danielle Judovits, Erica Mer, Sarah Rayne, Aaron Spann, Doug Stone, W.K. Stratton, Glen-Bob Sweet, and Shane Sweet. Danielle is believed to be in Pokemon voicing Leafeon; but take that with a grain of salt. The Diggers no sell because they are patching up holes for the year because they won't be able to dig them up again in the fall. Okay; that sounds rational, sort of. Captain Sticky pops from the tomb and proclaims that he got buried. HA! So we head to the new play set which looks so clean and unused since I last saw it as we see King Bob on top of his lofty throne as all the kids walk over and listen to him proclaim his final act as king before going to Grade 7; so I assume that King Bob passed Grade 6 with flying colors. So King Bob takes off his goofy crown and gives it to Freddy and appoints him as King Freddy The Second. So there was a Freddy before this who was king? He tells Freddy to boss the kids around with fairness. So Jermone proclaims that it's time to long live the king; and his face and mouth don't even move when he sezs it. I don't know if that is a DVD glitch or Sunwoo mistake; but it was annoy. Freddy is voiced by Warren Sroka; I don't think he even speaks here. So the crowd pops as Captain Brad (leader of the Safety Rangers) is looking at his army of kids in matching uniforms playing Hail To The Chief on kazoos. HAHA! This is funny because "Hail To The Chief" is usually played for American presidents; and Freddy is a king which America hates with a passion.

Captain Bradley (along with Erwin Lawson in earlier rants I did on Recess) is voiced by Erik Von Detten and according to IMDB: Possessing leading man good looks and undeniable charm, Erik von Detten has proven himself to be an actor of unquestionable talent. Having amassed an impressive resume of feature film and television credits running the gamut from comedy to drama, the young actor's career is certainly a notable one. Von Detten's numerous television credits include series regular roles on ABC's half-hour comedy, "Complete Savages" (2004) (Produced by Mel Gibson), ABC's "Dinotopia" (2002/I), ABC's "Odd Man Out" (1999) and The Disney Channel's "So Weird" (1999). He has guest-starred on many popular television series, including ABC's "8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter" (2002) in which he played the roommate to David Spade's character; an Emmy Award-winning episode of NBC's "ER" (1994) where he played a kid trapped in a storm drain; and NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999), in the role of a preppie murderer. He also appeared as a guest contestant on ABC's "The Mole: Episode #3.1" (2003/I). His diverse telefilm credits include the lead role in the hit rollerblading movie, Brink! (1998) (TV), which was one of the first Disney Channel Original Movies; Replacing Dad (1999) (TV) with Mary McDonnell; a starring role opposite Robert Hays in The Family Channel's Christmas Every Day (1996) (TV); CBS' A Stranger to Love (1996) (TV) with Beau Bridges; the lead character of Danny in Disney's remake of Escape to Witch Mountain (1995) (TV) for ABC; CBS' A Season of Hope (1995) (TV) opposite JoBeth Williams; NBC's "In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped" with Dabney Coleman and Timothy Busfield; and the CBS drama Bitter Blood (1994) (TV), in which he played the young son to Keith Carradine's character.

Von Detten's feature credits include leading roles in Disney's The Princess Diaries (2001) where he played the object of Anne Hathaway's affections; and Universal's Leave It to Beaver (1997) in which he played Wally Cleaver opposite Christopher McDonald and Janine Turner. He has also lent his voice to Disney's and Pixar's highly successful Toy Story (1995) in which he played Sid, the next-door neighbor toy torturer. Additionally, he has voiced characters for Disney's animated feature Tarzan (1999) and the television series "The Legend of Tarzan" (2001), the animated television series "Recess" (1997) and the feature versions Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street (2001) (V) and Recess: School's Out (2001). Von Detten was born and raised in Southern California in a family of three sisters, which was a far different experience from that of his "Complete Savages" (2004) character. At the age of nine, Erik accompanied his sister to an agent meeting and was signed on the spot. Soon after, he landed his first professional role, that of a series regular on NBC's "Days of Our Lives" (1965), which he considers his training ground. After a two-year stint on the show, von Detten continued to amass an impressive list of film and television credits throughout his teenage years. Aside from acting, von Detten's interests include classical piano, landscape photography and self-portraiture, and spending time on his classic 1969 sailboat which he bought at the age of twelve and has fully restored. During his free time, von Detten also enjoys hiking, surfing, tennis and rollerblading on the Venice Boardwalk with his Dalmation, Miles. He is also a Big Brother through the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program. He started his career with All I Want For Christmas as a Choir boy in 1991. Recess is his DTVA debut and appeared as Flynt in Legend of Tarzan, and an additional voice in Brandy & Mr. Whiskers. Toy Story 3 as Cid is his most recent credit. He has 54 acting credits and six self credits to his resume.

So while Captain Bradley is blowing off one of the kazoo players for being horrible; we cut to the Ashely's commenting on how awesome this is; or scandalous this will likely be. It's hard to tell. The one in the blue dress is Ashely Quinlan (Quints); and she is voiced by Rachel Crane who started as an ADR artist in Now And Then; and then played Katie in Two Bits & Pepper in 1995. Outside of Disney she hasn't done all that much outside of Pound Puppies 2010 as Ann/ Frannie and Muff Muff and a couple of appearances in 7th Heaven. 101 Dalmatians is her DTVA debut as Ivy and was also on Fillmore as Terri/Tina/Bernice along with Lloyd In Space. Hotel Transylvania is her most recent credit. She has 20 acting credits, and 5 ADR credits (Extract, Knocked Up, Venom and The Lizzie McGuire movie) to her resume. So they want to expose royalty as we see an ice cream truck being loaded up as Miss Finster is supervising this operation. Randell runs in because he's the snitch. Miss Finster points out that they are animals living by pure instinct. I think the irony is clearly lost on Miss Finster at this point. Randell has a notepad (the paper one that we used in Ancient Egypt) as he talks about infractions a mile long as the Diggers hit a water main (which makes no sense since they were patching up the hole; not digging it); and someone is eating paste. However; Miss Finster doesn't care which shocks Randell. Miss Finster claims that she has bigger ways of screwing the kids big time. See; the reason that there is a truck loading with boxes of ice cream is that all year she has been hoarding it all and keeping it away from the kids so she can load it up and sell it back to the district for that MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH. Randell claims that he has dirt on everyone except for the ONE GIMMICK BAND; in fact he hasn't seen them anywhere. Wait; isn't that kind of an infraction onto itself? Not showing up at the school? Miss Finster doesn't care as she has one of the men pull down the door of the back of the truck and she leaves with Randell proclaiming that she has beaten the ONE GIMMICK BAND this time.

Then we pan up and see that the roof is open and there is a pulley system as Spinelli (at 7:20 in the movie) is hoisted up with a purple box and eating a chocolate ice cream on a stick. We see Mikey and Gus manning the pulley system on the roof with a pipe; a flag pole and a bicycle. Spinelli proclaims that there is enough for everyone. So we see Mikey with a makeshift catapult loading up the ice treat and Vince goes to the top of the roof and yells to the students on the ground; that they are getting ice cream as Mikey uses the catapult and the ice cream goes into the sky and rains down treats onto the students. The students grab the treats on the way down and pop instantly for it. Then the doors open up real fast and Miss Finster is shocked, appalled and pissed off, in that order. She chases after the kids; calling them little monsters and calls them in big trouble. Then the PA system turns on and we hear Principal Prickley's voice; albeit a little higher than normal. He tells them that he will not stand for them taking the ice cream and having it on the ground; so he orders them to...take them and eat them at once. Miss Finster is shocked to hear that as the kids shrug their shoulders and take the treats and eat them. Prickley also tells them to ignore Miss Finster no matter what. Oh sure; why not? Miss Finster is the most unlikable teacher in the history of teacher characters who are not supposed to be heels. Anyway; Prickley proclaims that he has a big, fat saggy butt and the kids laugh at it because we need a fart joke. Finster cannot believe this is happening; and looks more stunned than angry. So we pan over and see from the P.A. speaker that the whole thing has been hacked to a computer that Gretchen is using to sweeten T.J.'s voice so he sounds like Principal Prickley as T.J. is speaking into the microphone and proclaiming that he's sorry for all the mean things he did to the students over the last year; and a shadow comes up and T.J. stops right there to see Principal Prickley with the Gruffi pose on. I was thinking that it would be Miss Finster getting to him first since the scene implied that she saw the hack job done to the P.A. system; but whatever.

So we head to the principal's office (after T.J. does that smile that indicates that he is screwed) as Prickley is blowing off T.J. for tormenting him and playing pranks on him. See; T.J. got him arrested for claiming to the FBI that he was a Chinese spy. The FBI took THAT seriously? Really guys? T.J. claims that he did it to stop him from giving a speech on personal hygeine. That makes no sense because he gave one in All Grown Down; and we saw T.J. leave with the rest of the students. He also got them a motorboat for the preschool natives (oh lord; that angle was insulting in itself) which pisses off Prickley and he wants to throw the book at him. T.J. is clearly testing him and clearly has no respect for him (although to be fair; even adults like me didn't have much respect for Prickley. On the other hand; Miss Finster had no respect from anyone including adults) as he informs Prickley that he has 20 seconds left as Prickley realizes that he has a point since the clock is reading 20 seconds left. So we head to Miss Grotkey's class as she is in tears saying that this is both a sad day to see them go; but an ultimate high because every milestone passed is another step for kids to reach adulthood. Spinelli raises her arm and Miss Grotkey addresses her. Spinelli points to the clock and Grotkey notices that they have ten seconds later; so she gives the floor to Spinelli. Spinelli and the class get up and we count down to the second hand reaching 12 on the closeup and it hits it. The 2000-2001 school season is over as everyone pops and Gus rips papers while standing on the desk; while the Ashley's call this scandalous. I wonder if someone walking their dog is scandalous to these three? Hmmmm... So we do the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM as all the kids (including the preschoolers) are playing around while "Dancing In The Streets" plays(Martha & The Vandellas). Interesting that even when I bought this; because I thought Disney would just overdub the music due to licensing issues; but they didn't in this case. Captain Sticky is chasing Mrs. Klemperer away who is covered in paste.

We cut to Mikey in the hallways with Vince and the preschoolers as they run into the hard camera. Then we see two teachers come out from the doors blowing them off for running in the hallways. One male is wearing all green with red curly hair and glasses on; while the second one is Mr. Yamashiro who is a black haired male with dark skin and wearing the usual formal teacher wear and glasses. Yamashiro is voiced by Clyde Kusatsu (who was last seen on my rants doing Kim Possible voices for So The Drama; and Coach Koolgey (along with Mr. Detweiler later on) is voiced by Paul Wilson and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Wilson has played numerous guest characters on a variety of shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boston Public, Caroline in the City and Star Trek: Voyager. He is perhaps most famous for his repeated guest character of "Paul" on the television show Cheers (which he also reprised in an episode of the Cheers' spin-off, Frasier). His character was originally called "Tom" because Paul Vaughn was already playing a character named "Paul" on Cheers. For five years (1986-1990) he was Garry Shandling's neighbour "Leonard Smith" on It's Garry Shandling's Show. Willson also appeared on Garry Shandling's The Larry Sanders Show playing Larry's accountant, and the brother of Sid the cue card holder. He played Ed, a neighbour, in a few episodes of Malcolm in the Middle. He also starred in the comedy film Office Space as one of "The Bobs". He was recently[when?] in a promotional video for the Nintendo DS game Personal Trainer: Cooking with Fred Willard. Although primarily recognized for his television work, he has been noted as a "great improv player" by Garry Shandling as a result of their time working together doing improv in the late 1970s.[2] Since 2012 he has appeared in television ads for Safeco Insurance.

He began his career as a Guerilla Theater Troupe in The Strawberry Statement in 1970. Recess is his DTVA debut (also as Coach Kluge) and his only appearance. Do It Yourself (Middle Aged Man) and Inventing Adam as William Parks are his most recent credits. He has 117 acting credits, two self credits (The Last Laugh & The Martin Short Show) and two writing credits (Studio 59 and Be Somebody! Or Be Somebody's Fool! Oh lord...) to his resume. So the music has stopped as Yamashiro is angry at them doing this during the school year; but then recoil because it's the end of the school year. They jump up and down and cheer like kids. That was funny. The music plays again! We head to the lunch room as all three lunch ladies dance and laugh as a dark skinned big woman comes in (they are all wearing the same stereotypical lady cooking wear by the way). One of them looks clearly like a male; the dark skinned one is wearing purple circle earrings. One of them is clearly Lunchlady Irma (Tress MacNeille) as they talk about a huge pot of corn chowder and they all decide to keep it piping hot since it'll keep until September. By the way; corn chowder keeps for up to six days in the fridge, so there will be food poisoning this fall for sure. They laugh; I don't care about them. I'm guessing the dark skinned one is Andrea Martin aka Lunchlady Harriet since Andrea has voiced Miss Grotkey in the past. So we cut to everyone running in the halls and out of the school. We see T.J. leaving the principal's office and waving goodbye to Prickley in the process and leaves stage left. Prickley comes out and tells T.J. to grow up during the summer and then proclaims that he hates his job sulking in defeat. So we see all the students running and they all run in basically a neat triple file line onto the sidewalk; and none of them run on the road. Which is funny because Miss Finster comes out with Miss Grotkey and Finster calls them hooligans. Miss Grotkey gleefully retorts that one for me. To Finster: Hooligans do not run together in a straight line and follow the street rules. Then Prickley comes out and he and Finster slap skin because there is 12 weeks of vacation at the golf course with no T.J. to be seen. Which by the way means that there are 84 days of summer vacation in the Recess world which is 20 days less than in Phineas & Ferb's world! Yeah.

So the ONE GIMMICK BAND are walking on the sidewalk as we exchange notes. Hey Mikey?! What is with the neon green lips dude?! Oh wait; Mikey like neon green lime ice treats. T.J. is eating an ice cream sandwich as he calls this a tasty start to summer vacation as he wants to hang out at the lake; play baseball (what? No kick ball?) and annoying Prickley at the golf course, of course. Vince then proclaims that he is going to baseball camp; and this shocks T.J. Spinelli claims that she will be out of town because she's going to be in a training camp at the Big-time Wrestling Federation. Gus is going to military camp, Gretchen is going to space camp and Mikey is attending a singing program because his new gimmick is that he likes to sing like Robert Goulet. And yes Mikey does sing in this movie. Like the late Robert Goulet (passed away in 2007) and according to IMDB: He was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph and Jeannette Goulet. After hearing his son sing "Lead Kindly Light", in their church hall, his father told him, "I'm proud of you, son". A few weeks later his father, lying on his death bed, called Robert to his side and told him the Lord had given him a beautiful voice and he must go and sing. His father died when he was 13 and he moved to Edmonton, Canada, a year later. Goulet won a singing scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of music in Toronto and in 1951 made his concert debut at Edmonton in Handel's Messiah. Goulet was also a DJ on Canada's CKUA in Edmonton for two years. In 1960 he landed one of his biggest roles as Lancelot in Broadway's Camelot opposite Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. He received a Tony award in 1968 for his role in "Happy Time". He and first wife Louise Longmore had one daughter, Nikki. His second wife, actress and singer Carol Lawrence, produced two sons, Christopher and Michael.

In 1982, with Glenn Ford giving the bride away, he was married in Las Vegas to Vera Novak, a Yugoslavian-born writer, photographer and artist. When not living at their home in Las Vegas, they reside on their yacht "Rogo" in Los Angeles. Goulet has performed at the White House for three presidents as well as a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II. On September 30, 2007, he was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, "a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition." On October 13 he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined he "would not survive without an emergency lung transplant." Goulet died on October 30, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, while awaiting a transplant. He might be a born American; but he made the perfect Canadian. He also performed the Canadian National Anthem at Wrestlemania VI in Toronto and later the American National Anthem at Survivor Series 1993 in Boston. He started his acting career as Trapper Pierre on the Howdy Doody Show. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. In fact; his last acting credit was on Recess Christmas: Miracle on 34th Street in 2001. He has 51 acting credits, 114 self credits and 27 soundtrack credits (began with The Jack Paar Program in 1962 and his last credit would be The King Of Queens in 2006) to his resume. T.J. is upset because summer is ruined and he has to watch re-runs by himself. That doesn't sound so bad. The gang points out that they have to think about their futures and cannot fool around in summer like kids. T.J. points out that they are kids; but Gretchen claims that they all passed fifth grade; and that makes them pre-adults; and if they past fifth grade, they lose the "pre" part. Ummm; no guys, you become adults at 18 years of age usually; which is after Grade 12. T.J. sighs and asks when they leave so they can at least spend some time together before they separate. The kids admit that it happens first thing tomorrow morning which causes T.J. to sulk.

So we get a sky shot of the parking lot with all the buses as the parents and kids are all in their proper uniforms for various camps. Spinelli is of course dressed up like a goofy gimmicked wrestler with a purple mask. They say their goodbyes to T.J. and tell them that he'll find a way to have fun as they leave. T.J. sulks because all of his plans were for all six of them together. That is what happens when you don't have backup plans T.J. They often turn into Krackpotkin plans real quick. So Vince is next to the school bus and there are the Ashley with their cheerleading gear as Vince thinks that they are going to baseball camp. Personally; I was hoping that they were, just to create tension between the Ashley's and Vince; and maybe show boys up in the gender role department. But no; they are going to cheerleading camp which is across the lake. Vince enters the bus behind them saying that he hopes it's a huge lake. So the Diggers get in the bus with Gretchen as they hope space camp will allow them to make craters. Somehow; I think that is believable. We see Spinelli behind Hustler Kid on the bus and we notice that half of the would be wrestlers are preschoolers. Okay; this makes no sense because normally, in wrestling training camps; you have to be at least 15 years old and have $500 upfront. I doubt that in real life they train six year olds. They might allow them to watch; but not to actually do the stuff like knowing how to fall, how to pull your punches to make them look believable etc. Hustler is going because he is doing pre-management classes; and wrestler tend to buy contraband from him the most there. Okay; that is pretty smart; although I wonder if he's the middle man for Larson & Gary? Hustler Kid offers Spinelli a deal on a Winger Dinger. So we see the opera director trying to get the preschoolers on board the buses first and they run in dressed up like vikings which actually is much less insulting than natives. Why didn't they do this as the gimmick? That question cannot be answered; do not think too much. The Opera director looks SWANK and is voiced by Tress MacNeille.

The other kids are dressed in costumes as Mikey is not and he sezs Bon Voyage and when he addresses T.J. he sings the name like Robert Goulet. Everyone looks at him stunned. Yeah; the real voice of Mickey cannot sing; so they hired Robert Goulet to do the singing. Nowadays; they cut out the middleman and use Auto tune and voice sweetner on the singer as it's the voice actor. See Brandon Bubbler. He also cracks a bus window with the voice as the Vikings proclaim that Mikey sing good. HAHA! Gus is in military gear and even offers T.J. to come with him claiming that it's a blast. I got to give Gus this: he really knows how to subvert the "military school kid" trope in that he loves it. We see the bus and standing in front of it is Captain Bradley yelling at Gus to get his fanny over here right now. Gus walks away as T.J. declines the offer. Gus proclaims that he doesn't know what he's missing and greets Brad who blows him off because he's not allowed to look for friendships. Gus salutes him without question and walks up. He waves farewell to T.J. as he steps in the bus; and then gets grabbed away which is the Gus version of T.J. at the end of the opening of every Recess episode. So T.J. looks on as we get the sky shot of buses leaving and we get the second song of the episode which is One from Three Dog Night. So we see T.J. bicycling on the street as this song is playing as we get static shots of the theater which is closed for repairs. We cut to underwater as we see T.J. is on the pier of the lake and he is throwing rocks in it for a while. He manages to skip one of the rocks successfully and then tosses all the remaining rocks into the water and then walks to his bicycle and leaves. So we head to a yard and then pan up to a treehouse as T.J. is sitting on the floor of the treehouse looking bored and somewhat sad. That is actually the end of segment two almost 15 minutes in since we fade to black right there. Perfectly acceptable start overall...

We return to a news desk as a gray haired old man wearing a blue suit is reading from his cue cards while showing footage of kids going to space camp. Which looks like a theme park instead of an actual camp since the gate has space rockets as pillars and the fence is painted purple with a moon and a badly drawn star. So we run down the news as the screen changes to a playground which has a No Recess sign which is a kid dribbling a basketball and it's censored. This is called the No Recess Organization which makes them look like they hate Vince for some reason I cannot put my finger on. Anyhow; the organization has hit a stumbling block because former Secretary of Education Phillium Benedict is missing and we discover that he was fired two years ago for his extremist views. I also find out that Mr and Mrs Detweiller are at the table in the kitchen listening to the television while one of them is eating and one of them is reading the newspaper at the same time. T.J.'s dad turns off the television and blows off Phil as we see T.J. walking in looking sleepy eyed and in lime green pjs. They both blow him off for sleeping the vacation away which is stupid because it's only been 24 hours since school was over. T.J. blows off his friends for abandoning him complete with Gruffi pose which his mother calls him out on since there are other boys around; and Randels is available for a play date. T.J. looks insulted; but then Rebecca comes in wearing black pants and a goofy green and yellow shirt as I assume she works for a fast food place since she has a nametag on. Not to mention the fact that she's a stereotype because she is wearing headphones. She calls T.J. - T. Jerk. And wouldn't you know it; T.J. is acting like a jerk at this point in spite of his mother telling Rebecca to be nice to him since he's S-A-D. Which T. Jerk blows her off for as Rebecca proclaims that she needs to go to work and if she can master the Vatman 2000; she'll be assistant manager by the end of the summer; and that means she gets to drive the Floppy Burger truck. See; Disney has been trying to get a new female called Rebecca over at this point; but no one bought it because there is only one Rebecca.. last name Cunningham.

Anyhow; Beckey Detweiller is voiced by Melissa Joan Hart and according to IMDB: Melissa grew up in Sayville, New York. Her acting career started at the age of four, when she did a commercial for a bathtub toy called Splashy. Her mother, Paula Hart, has been her agent from the beginning. Melissa is the oldest of eight children, some from her mother's second marriage. Six sisters, Trisha Hart, Elizabeth Hart, Emily Hart, Alexandra Hart-Gilliams, Samantha Hart, and Mackenzie Hart who is the only sibling who never appeared on Melissa's TV series "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" (1996). Her brother is Brian Hart. Melissa performed in two plays as the youngest member of New York's Circle Repertory Lab Company: "Beside Herself" in 1989 (starring Lois Smith and William Hurt) and "Imagining Brad" in 1990. She was also in the National Actors Theater production of "The Crucible" on Broadway with Martin Sheen (as understudy of three of the children in the play). Melissa cites Shirley Temple and Audrey Hepburn as early acting inspirations and still collects memorabilia of the former. For the past few years, she has been juggling acting and attending New York University. She's now living in Connecticut. She began her career as Cindy on the ABC Weekend Specials (The Adventures of Con Sawyer and Hucklemary Finn) in 1985; followed with the mini series Kane & Abel as Florentyna Rosnovski (age seven). Sabrina The Animated Series as Aunt Hilda and Zelda are her DTVA debuts and only appearance. Melissa & Joey as Melissa Burke and Bizarre Bracket Behavior are her most recent credits. She has 57 acting credits, 91 Self credits, 8 producer (Sabrina The Teenage Witch both animated and live action; Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story, Rent Control and My Fake Fiance), and five director credits (Mute, Tania and So Weird) to her resume.

So Rebecca leaves and T.J. sarcastically claims that she's only thinking that she's aiming high; but she isn't. From where I'm standing; T.J. is aiming much lower than Rebecca, so he's just a jealous jerk. T.J.'s dad points out that at least she is doing something that doesn't involve moping around in the house all day. So T.J. looks bored and then we see him outside near the school bicycling as he has his helmet on (I don't recall him putting on the helmet during the first bicycle sequence) and blows off himself for sinking to the low of being Randel's play date. T.J. calls this the worst summer ever as he bicycles away and we see the windows in the gym flash neon green lights and make sparking sounds. T.J. notices this and goes to the fence and parks his bike. He sees the lights and sparking sounds and wonders what is going on. Then we hear and see the bald headed dude (Clancy Brown) running at T.J. ordering him to get away from the damn fence. Geez; what is this guy's malfunction at the junction? T.J. gets on his bike and bikes away as the bald suit guy glares at him and stops running. So we head to T.J.'s house AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) and T.J. and his parents are in the kitchen eating meat and veggies as T.J. is playing with his food again in a bored manner. T.J. asks about what happens with the school during the summer. Dad explains that they lock it up and T.J. claims that he saw a scary guy yelling at him; which they are certain was someone from the cleaning department who was in a grumpy mood. T.J. claims something weird is going on and his mother tells dad that Miss LaSalle was right in suggesting that T.J. go to some sort of camp as T.J. examines some broccoli flower on his fork for a while and then we head to morning as it's 9:32 am and T.J. is hiding behind the bushes with a tape recorder in his hand. He's speaking to it as he is at the street opposite of the school where the bald suit guy is guarding the fence. So then we hear cars coming and bald guy opens the gate and in comes two green jeep like cars with No Recess signs on the back of the cars. They stop and various dark skinned male guards come out and chatter for a bit.

T.J. proclaims that the place is not empty and the grownups are wrong. We get more flashing neon green lights. T.J. talks into the tape recorder and proclaims that he's going in for a closer look. So he goes to the fence and climbs it and jumps down onto school property. T.J. practices the fine art of not being seen and gets to the window where the green lights are flashing. T.J. looks in and we see four scientists inside the lunch room with a laser beam like device and they shoot it at an iron safe and it rises into the sky. That's it?! It's basically the same anti-gravity weapon that they used in the pilot episode of Darkwing Duck. The safe drops and T.J. gasps and looks down. I have no clue; but one of them looks exactly like Doctor Rosenthal (Tony Jay); one of them has to be Doctor Lazenby, another one has to be Scientist #2 who is voiced by Phil Proctor; and I guess the fourth one is female; since she is wearing kilt like pants and has a ponytail; So I think she is Doctor Steinheimer (Tress MacNeillie). So; Doctor Lazenby is voiced by Ron Glass and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Glass made his stage debut at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis before moving to Hollywood. His earliest TV appearances include episodes of Sanford and Son in 1972, an episode of All in the Family in 1973, an episode of The Bob Newhart Show, and episodes of Good Times in 1974. In 1975, he landed the role of Det. Ron Harris in Barney Miller which ran until 1982. The following season, Glass also co-starred with Demond Wilson on television in the short-lived remake of The Odd Couple, called The New Odd Couple. On December 13, 1985, he played a soul-collecting devil opposite Sherman Helmsley's mathematics professor in an episode of the revived Twilight Zone series.[3] In 1992, he co-starred in the short-lived sitcom Rhythm and Blues, a kind of "black WKRP", playing "the fifth Top" opposite Roger Kabler.

In 1996, Glass was cast as uptight history teacher Roland Felcher in the NBC sitcom Mr. Rhodes opposite comedian Tom Rhodes. In 1999, he appeared in an episode of the NBC sitcom Friends as Ross Geller's divorce lawyer, Russell. Since then, Glass has appeared in dozens of television series, including sitcoms such as Family Matters and the series Teen Angel where he played God's cousin Rod. He was in Star Trek: Voyager (in the episode "Nightingale") and the science fiction series Firefly (2002), in which he played Derrial Book, a Christian[4] Shepherd with a mysterious past. Glass himself is a Buddhist. Glass reprised his role from Firefly in the film Serenity (2005). Glass also provides the voice of Randy Carmichael for the Nickelodeon series All Grown Up! and Rugrats and the character Garth in the video game Fable II. In 2008 he appeared in the film Lakeview Terrace alongside Samuel L. Jackson, and starred in the 2010 version of Death at a Funeral as Duncan. He began his career in All In The Family as Jack in 1973 and then followed it up with Beg, Borrow Or Steal (Ray Buren), Shirts/Skins (Mr. Brown), Maude (Whitnauer Fulton), Hawaii Five-O (J. Paul), Griff (Dietrich) and The Bob Newhart Show (Elevator Repairman). Aladdin The Series as Kwanseer is his DTVA debut and also appeared on The Proud Family (Talking Baby). Agents of SHIELD (Doctor) and Major Crimes as Clayton Carter are his most recent credits. He has 72 acting credits, one direction credit (Stat) and 17 Self credits to his resume. So we cut back to T.J.'s kitchen as his mother is cutting carrots into a pot on the stove; as T.J. runs in screaming. T.J. forgets that the glass window doors are closed and whacks into them like a misguided bird. HAHA! Mother notices him groaning as T.J. gets the door open and tells her that scientists are performing an evil experiment. Wait; how is lifting a safe with a laser weapon supposed to be heelish? I don't get it.

Neither does his mother as she thinks he has a concussion; and leaves to get the thermometer and petro jelly. You know it's serious when the JELLY OF DOOM gets involved with a concussion. No, not really. T.J. runs to the garage as we see his dad fixing the undercarriage of his station wagon which has a splash flower on the back of it. T.J. tries to tell him that evildoers are lifting safes in school with laser weapons. Dad pulls out and asks if he hit his head on the sliding glass door again. T.J. stammers like an idiot saying no; then yes, and then cringing and growling. He runs out of the garage as Dad states that mom wants to see if he has a fever. Can you get a fever directly from a concussion? Medicial guys say yes; so this makes sense actually. The jelly part is overkill as we head to a police station and we head to a desk as we see a black cop who looks dangerously close to being a racist black stereotype in a police uniform sarcastically filling out the police report and proclaims that he'll never allow floating stuff for no reason happen on his watch as he laughs with a mustached black police officer who actually sounds familiar to me. He is addressed as Artie by Cop #1 (voiced by the same guy who voiced Rock Callahan (Kevin Michael Richardson) for a while in Kick Buttowski before Dwright Howard took over in the second season; for no reason that I can think of). Artie is voiced by Nicholas Turturro and according to IMDB: The whole Turturro clan and their extended family seem to have gotten into the show biz act at one time or another. The youngest of three boys, including famous older brother (by five years) John Turturro, Nicholas was born on January 29, 1962, and grew up in the Rosedale section of Queens, New York. After attending various Catholic schools, he graduated and majored in theater at Adelphi University for two years, but left to marry Jami Biunno and help raise their child, Erica. The couple later divorced.

While working as a doorman at the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City, Nick managed to find a job as both an extra and voice-over artist in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) after brother John introduced Nick to Spike. Spike took an immediate interest in the rough-edged Nick and wrote a featured role for him in his next film Mo' Better Blues (1990) in which John and Nick played repugnant Jewish brothers and co-owners of a club. Both the brothers went on to appear together again in Lee's Jungle Fever (1991) and Nick also appeared in Lee's Malcolm X (1992). Nick branched out on his own after this and earned parts in the movies Federal Hill (1994) and Excess Baggage (1997), and garnered serious TV attention as rookie detective "James Martinez" on "NYPD Blue" (1993). His character was originally created as a foil to David Caruso star character, but he lost momentum after Caruso's early departure from the show. Still, he managed to hang around for seven seasons. Very dark in tone and complexion, the compact-framed Nick certainly has had a wealth of experience in mob drama, playing a young Al Capone in one guest appearance, and assorted mobster types in other TV-movies. Plenty of guest-starring roles have also come his way with episodes of "Law & Order" (1990), "L.A. Law" (1986) and "The Twilight Zone" (1985) and a recurring role on "Third Watch" (1999). He has lightened up on a rare occasion in such comedies as "The Drew Carey Show" (1995) and in a couple of failed pilots. On stage, Nick has appeared in "Wild Goose", "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" (with John) "Lusting After Popino's Wife" and "Siddown: Conversations With the Mob".

Nick's never strayed too far from the family fold. He's appeared in a number of John's projects over the years that have also occasionally featured cousin Aida Turturro (from "The Sopranos" (1999) fame). His mother has also appeared in a few films, as has John's wife and sons. Nick remarried a number of years ago. His acting mentor was Dennis Franz who played Captain Klegghorn in Mighty Ducks. He also appeared as a guess celebrity at Wrestlemania 11; the one with Lawrence Taylor main eventing against Bam Bam Bigalow. I watched it on Pay Per View unscrambled. Nick began his career as an extra on Do The Right Thing in 1989. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Devil's Door and Subterranea as Remy are his most recent credits. He has 70 acting credits, 12 self credits and produced Nick The Doorman, The Deported and Bless Me Producer as his most recent credits. So Cop #1 floats a doughnut in the air (Open Office doesn't see doughnut as a word for some stupid reason. Disney Captions got it right actually.) to mock T.J. some more and shines a flashlight on it. They laugh as T.J. is angry and despite not hearing much of anything; they say go home kid. T.J. storms out of the police station and blows them off because he'll be a taxpayer someday; and he gets mocked again which we barely hear. Okay; I have stated before in an earlier TaleSpin Bullethead Baloo rant that I was pissed off at a reviewer for being angry because the police didn't take T.J. seriously because I felt that the police were called at the school during the pranking sequence and when T.J. showed up here; that would be the reason why they never took him seriously since he cried wolf one too many times. Well; I was wrong about the police being called in on the prank and now I still don't agree with that IMDB reviewer; because what the scientists did wasn't heelish. The police probably knew about it and the scientists got permits to the school from the district and police to test the anti-gravity device inside the school; so that's why they mocked T.J. in the first place. So it makes perfect rational sense here to mock him here.

So T.J. notices Prickley coming out of the golf store wearing an outfit that even in golf would be outlawed by the FASHION POLICE OF LAW. He gets in his blue car and drives way ignoring T.J.'s yells for him. T.J. gets on the bicycle and follows him as we head to the West Side Golf Course. So we are on the green of hole number who cares as Peter is with his golfing buddies who I don't give a crap out. One Golfer is voiced by Phil Proctor; and Golfer #1 is voiced by Jack Riley and according to IMDB: Cleveland-born comedy actor Jack Riley switched his career interest from baseball to acting after obtaining a radio job, writing and performing skits while attending John Carroll University. He toured military bases throughout the world in comedy shows after being drafted in the Army in 1958. Following his discharge, he returned to radio and became one of Cleveland's top personalities before setting his sights on film and TV. Receiving a break from old radio pal Tim Conway, Jack headed west and began writing material especially for Tim for assorted TV guest appearances. He also performed in radio commercials. Soon Riley was working in front of the camera, his first role being a regular part on the sitcom "Occasional Wife" (1966). Other parts soon came his way on various '60s laughfests, including "Hogan's Heroes" (1965), "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965) and especially "Laugh-In" (1967) where both his writing and performing skills were utilized. It was also on "Laugh-In" that he met future wife Ginger Lawrence, the producer's assistant at the time. The slim actor sought out films in the '70s with roles in Catch-22 (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), The Long Goodbye (1973), and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978). He also became a minor staple in Mel Brooks's spoofs, with Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977) and History of the World: Part I (1981) to his credit.

TV gave Jack his best shot, especially as the dry, terminally-depressed Elliot Carlin on "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972), where his hilariously morose character proved a constant scene-stealer. Along with continued guest roles in "Night Court" (1984), "Seinfeld" (1989), and others, he appears on stage occasionally, most recently playing comedian Fred Allen in "Mr. Allen, Mr. Allen". He began his career as an uncredited waiter in Days Of Wine & Roses in 1962. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. He was also Stu Pickles in Rugrats in case anyone gives a damn. Nora Falls as Avery and Easy To Assemble as Jack are his most recent credits. He has 145 acting credits, 12 Self credits, one writer (The Many Sides of Don Rickles in 1970) and two sound track credits (The Long Goodbye and The Rugrats Movie) to his resume. Goodness; the pacing of this movie has slowed down considerably after the hot start it had. So Peter is complaining about his golfing buddies having great jobs; and he's stuck as a school principal as Golfer #1 or #2 tells him to putt already and stop being a crybaby, more or less. Prickley is trying to sink a three foot putt for whatever; and he is in his putt motion; but T.J. yells at Prickley from out of nowhere and he putts it into the water hazard. HAHA! Prickley notices him as T.J. runs in because we have a major problem. The golfers mock Prickley's saggy butt and apparently; this is a true medical condition he has since Prickley is invoking privacy laws between patient and doctor. Prickley calls him Mr. Icecream For Everyone as T.J. tries to explain that there are mad scientists inside the school and it's in danger; but Prickley isn't buying this because T.J. cries wolf one too many times. Ah; so I had this confused with the police. Anyhow; the three golfers want him to do it anyway because they like mocking him with the fact that he should make sure nothing bad is happening to the school since he's the principal. He does have a point there sir. Prickley relents and decides to get this over with.

So we head to the school as Prickley is driving his car to the front. Both him and T.J. get out of the car; and Prickley looks around. Prickley deduces that everything is fine; but T.J. wants him to look inside since the mad scientists are doing this inside instead of outside. This actually sounds reasonable enough. Prickley groans and brings out his key as he heads to the front door; and is about to put the key into the lock; and it is sparking neon green and Prickley gets fried and shocked in that order. Oooooooo...He then disappears and T.J. panics on cue as we zoom down and see that Prickley's shoes are on the steps and filled with ash and soot. Yes folks; Principal Prickley is dead! He was murdered by a neon green fry beam! Now T.J.'s paranoia is officially apporos now as he runs off and runs into the back door of the house. He brings out the recorder and it's almost noon time as he proclaims that no one will listen to him and Prickley has been...dematerialized. Yeah; you cannot say die in this cartoon apparently; which is hilarious considering that Kick Buttowski and Fish Hooks got away with die and dead many times; and I think there were 11 death references in Friend Hooks recently. So T.J. is using his body to barricade the door; which sounds perverted for some reason. He proclaims that he must bring back the ONE GIMMICK BAND back together as we head to Rebecca's room as she is lying on the bed reading a teen magazine while talking on the phone with Melissa about boys. Yeah; the stereotypes keep flowing as she is upset that a boy winked at her and asked if she spoke French and that offended her. T.J. runs in and hang up on this conversation as he demands a ride to Chesterville; which she no sells because he's a dork. She tries to dial another number as T.J. reads a poem from a small little book; and Rebecca protests this outrage because as I discovered; the book T.J. is reading is a diary. T.J. basically threatens to put copies of her diary pages on the Internet if she doesn't give him a ride in the car. Oh screw you T.J.! Yes; he threatened to destroy her privacy if she didn't give T.J. a ride. This is so NOT cool of you T.J.; and goes against your gimmick to boot.

So we head on the road in the station wagon his father was repairing (making Rebecca look even more rigid of a gender role than she already was); and Rebecca is driving while T.J. is lying down happy with himself and proving that Rebecca's T-Jerk label is totally justified. Even Baloo was more subtle at getting back at Miss Cunningham than T-Jerk is; which should be his new booking name from now on. So we play "Born To Be Wild" and Rebecca hopes it's not the Steppenwolf version; and it's the Air Farce Lucian Bouchard version "Born to Be Separate"; but no luck of course because Disney couldn't care less about Royal Canadian Air Farce humor. I'll give T.J. this; he did thank his sister for the ride and calls her the best sister ever; while Rebecca calls him the annoying monkey no one wants. We also get a subtle bathroom humor joke because T.J. needs a rest stop to take care of business. So we head to Chesterville at the baseball camp as a coach guy with a whistle and a white shirt is blowing off the kids including Vince for throwing the ball incorrectly. Vince claims that he knows he should throw it and not aim it. The Coach is voiced by Ken Swofford and according to Wikipedia: Born to Howard and Goldie Swofford on July 25, 1933, Ken Swofford graduated from the College of Liberal Arts, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 1959 with a BS in theater.[1] From his first appearance in March 1962 in an episode of Surf Side 6[2] and two uncredited appearances in 1963 in Captain Newman, M.D. and the film Father Goose, Swofford worked steadily in films and prolifically in television for four decades, often appearing as different or recurring characters on the same series; his credits are a “who's who” of the best and most popular TV shows of the period. In a bread-and-butter interview in 1976, Swofford described the advantages of a career as an actor as spending more time with his children and having the freedom to do any job.

“If you're an actor, you can do anything. I have cleaned carpets, painted houses, worked on loading docks. It didn't bother me, because I could always act and enjoy myself.” [3] He also revealed that he had briefly been a script writer on the The Lucy Show. A disadvantage was being coldcocked by the breast of Babette Bardot on the set of a Russ Meyer movie, when it accidentally dislodged from her top. “It just flew out and hit me in the face,” he said.[4] He met and married his wife Barbee Biggs in summer stock in 1958. They had five children: Meemee (1961), twins Stephanie & Stephan (1963), Brendan (1968), and Sabrina (1972). In a rare L.A. Times interview in 1985 titled “Autistic Youth Thrives in Large, Loving Family”, the Swoffords discussed the (then) unusual step they had taken in bringing up their autistic son Brendan at home. “My hope is he can cross the line from being autistic to just eccentric,” said Stephanie Swofford, 22 at the time.[5] In 1989, Swofford was convicted of felony drunk driving and sentenced to 28 months in prison,[6] after which he made a comeback and continued to work steadily until his apparently self-imposed retirement in 1995.[7] In 2001, he supplied the voice of the coach in Recess: School's Out, and Officer White in Teacher's Pet in 2004. After working on those two films, he retired from all acting work. He began his career as Garth in Surfside 6 in 1962. Recess is his DTVA debut and Teacher's Pet as Officer White was his final credit. He has 117 acting credits to his resume. So the coach leaves stage left as Vince hears T.J. hissing in the bushes behind him 20 feet away. Vince runs over there and asks T.J. why he is here and T.J. wants Vince to come back to town as Vince claims that he cannot just leave; as T.J. claims that Prickley has been dematerialized which Vince laughs off. Glad to see in an unintentional way that skirting around "dead" is a bad idea. T.J. then shows the tennis shoes of Prickley which have ash and soot in them still. Vince panics and we see him in the station wagon in the back seat as the hard camera is pointed directly at their faces. Once again; even in a more enlightened time; Vince cannot buy a break, because he's not a WASP.

So Rebecca is whining and refuses to take them to Mount Van Buren because it's 20 miles away see. Geez Rebecca; that this a bad idea to be around T.J. I betcha he sics the diary on her again. I check the DVD...Damn; I'm good and screw you to Vince too for grabbing the book to see. Rebecca calls them a bunch of jerks. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. So we ride for awhile and then head inside the what appears to be a simulated moon surface as the Diggers are digging craters and then a female in an astronaut suit shoos them away as they bail. Gretchen comes in and we exchange educational pleasure thought for a bit as the teacher in the suit wants her to try them out because she can do back flips in them. Gretchen is not amused by this and I have no clue who the teacher is; so let's move onto T.J. and Vince lifting the glass from the astronaut suits since they are hiding in the suits positioned against the wall; as Gretchen is surprised to see them. T.J. proclaims that she will not believe this; and that is a segueway back to inside the station wagon as Gretchen calls the dematerialization right out of Star Trek. Yes; a casual reference to a show they do not own. So we head to the music stage as the costume freaks are Mii'ing along and Mickey is still sounding like Robert Goulet; but T.J. appears behind him and whispers in his ear. Mikey yells "me" in his normal voice as we see a wrestling ring as Spinelli is on the top rope and Wrestler Kid is simply cowering in fear wearing way too much black clothes to be taken seriously. Spinelli proclaims that she is going for the flying body press. Ummm; Wrestler Kid: Just roll to your right. She will not even come close to making contact. Trust me on that one. So Spinelli leaps and the kids run in for the DQ and catch her and drag her out of the ring and out of sight as Wrestler Kid wins since everyone left. Wrestler Kid looks around in the ring looking confused. And just to get the Wrestler Kid out of the way...

Solider Kid/Wrestler Kid is voiced by Justin Shenkarow and according to IMDB: Justin Shenkarow has starred in television and film for over 17 years. He has starred in television shows including Eerie Indiana, Home Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Strong Medicine, and Boston Public. Justin's production company, "Shake That Fro Productions" has produced three short films which he has directed and starred in, and they are currently hitting the festival market. He has a comedy pilot in development, and has recently wrapped shooting two films, one co-starring Eric Roberts entitled "Comedy Hell," and the other entitled "House of the Dead 2." Justin is a graduate of Stanford University, where he studied business, and also spent a year studying art history in Paris. In 2004, he was elected to the Screen Actors Board and was recently elected to chair the Young Performer's Committee. He is determined to improve the conditions of young actors and provide them with every opportunity. He began his career with Dad's Dog as Chip in 1989. Gargoyles The Goliath Chronicles as Dave Porter is his DTVA debut (unless you are a Gargoyle fan; then it's...); and he also appeared in 101 Dalmatians as Patch, Dexter in Kim Possible, additional voices in The Emperor's New Skool and WITCH as Eric. Jose Bond & The Superheroes (Jose Bond) and Vaughan (Narrator) are his most recent credits. He has 56 acting credits, 18 ADR credits (beginning with Scream in 1996 and ending with Warrior, Butter, Source Code, and Beastly in 2011.), three director credits (Decoy, Best Christmas Ever), three producer credits, and one self credit (Millionaire Matchmaker) to his resume. So we head to in front of the mess hall as Brad is yelling at Gus for no reason and orders him not to move a muscle no matter what. Gus sells it to the letter and Brad leaves. Gus just stands there like a statue; and the ONE GIMMICK BAND runs in and grabs Gus and bail stage left; while Gus sells the statue thing the whole time. Now that is funny!

So we head to the school AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) on the sky shot as we pan over to the station wagon parking near the sidewalk as the ONE GIMMICK BAND gets out of the car. T.J. thanks Rebecca and Rebecca blows him off because he owes her gas money and she drives away stage left. So the kids want T.J. to prove what he is talking about. T.J. tells them to follow him and they hide in the same bushes that T.J. was hiding from earlier as T.J. points to school grounds and they see various agents in suits unloading stuff from the green cars with the No Recess sign on them. The kids agree that something is fishy here. Remember that for later because it leads to a really obvious logic break. So they wonder who these agents are; as Gus thinks they are aliens from...

Staci: Don't say it!
Bradley: URANUS!!
Staci: Real mature B-man!

I should also point out that the kids do believe in lizard man alien conspiracies. So we see the guards taking stuff out and shutting the door. One of them looks like Jeffrey Robbins from Gargoyles. Guard #1 is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and the other is voiced by Diedrich Bader by the way. So they leave; and we repeat the ice cream stealing spot from earlier; but no catapulting is involved this time around. So we cut to a tree as there is a large crate that Vince whines that it weighs a ton. Gus thinks it's filled with moon rocks and alien eggs. So T.J. brings out the out of nowhere crowbar and we go to black since we open it up from the ground to sky shot and the ONE GIMMICK BAND gets...disappointed because it has a bunch paper; which contains weather maps, boring test scores and stuff written by someone who speak the Norwegian language which Spinelli thinks it's Swedish. So the kids give T.J. the stink eye and accuse him of trying to screw them out of summer camp; which Gretchen uses her psycho babble to explain psychology of this; and Mikey is being diplomatic about it anyway. T.J. begs for mercy because he saw Prickley get murdered; but then we turn around and we see Prickley in a black suit and tie go into his blue car and drive off with briefcase in tow which comes absolutely out of nowhere. Yeah; first off; here's the problems with this: (a) Prickley was wearing a golf outfit before he got dematerialized (b) we clearly saw neon green lights during the sequence which all the babyfaces saw point blank, (c) there was a No Recess sign on the back of the vehicles which they clearly saw. I mean; you expect me to believe that they wouldn't be at least wondering why dribbling a basketball is censored on the back of the cars? Yeah; the babyfaces don't sell T.J.'s bill of goods and T.J. looks like he cannot believe this. I cannot believe it either T.J. even if you are a jerk. So Spinelli blows him off after all the babyfaces give him eye contact violence.

They try to leave; but T.J. cuts them off and begs like a whiner; and then we see the top of the roof of the school open and a big ass satellite dish rises up with neon green liquid in the beam stick. It fires a neon green laser into the ski for a while; then sputters, goes down into the school and the roof closes. Vince calls this messed up and they all agree that T.J. is right all along as Mikey faints dead away. HAHA! I have no issue with Mikey fainting and it was funny. So we fade to black at the 25 minute mark and return as we are looking from Mikey's point of view as he slowly wakes up after T.J. is talking to him. So Mikey wakes up in T.J.'s back yard as he was lying in a red wheel barrow and Spinelli dumps him like a bad habit. So we exchange notes on the situation as T.J. has a Krackpotkin plan as he wants to do a stakeout every night and observe the school since they need proof on all this. So they stake out and observe; followed by calling in the feds and they have this mystery solved. Gretchen has her night vision goggles for support but Vince has one problem and that is when they are out at night; how will anyone notice that they are not gone. T.J. proclaims that the plan is to have Rebecca drive everyone back to camp near dawn and then drive them back before nightfall. Gus claims that if he goes AWOL; then he's in the brig until September. I don't think it's a literal brig Gus; but I might be wrong knowing your father. T.J. has this covered as we head to the mess hall AFTER HAPPY HOUR as everyone is eating supper and Bradley gets a call on his cell phone and he answers it. On the line is Colonel O'Malley as he's Brad's commanding officer. O'Malley praises Gus and has ordered him to be on special assignment and so when he returns there will be no funny business and Bradley better do Gus's stuff while he is gone. We discover that it's not O'Malley; but T.J. doing his microphone prank from earlier using a payphone on the sidewalk. They laugh at Bradley's expense; mainly because he's a Safety Ranger; although they do not say anything about that.

Colonel O'Malley is voiced by R. Lee Ermey and according to IMDB: A talented character actor known for his military roles, Ronald Lee Ermey was in the United States Marine Corps for 11 years. He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, and later was bestowed the honorary rank of Gunnery Sergeant by the Marine Corps, after he served 14 months in Vietnam and later did two tours in Okinawa, Japan. After injuries forced him to retire from the Corps, he moved to the Phillipines, enrolling in the University of Manila, where he studied Criminology and Drama. He appeared in several Filipino films before being cast as a helicopter pilot in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979). Due to his Vietnam experiences, Coppola also utilized him as a technical adviser. He got a featured role in Sidney J. Furie's The Boys in Company C (1978), playing a drill instructor. Ermey worked with Furie again in Purple Hearts (1984). However, his most famous (or infamous) role came as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. He did win the best supporting actor award from The Boston Society of Film Critics. Since then, he has appeared in numerous character roles in such films as Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Se7en (1995) and Dead Man Walking (1995). However, Ermey prefers comedy to drama, and has a comedic role in Saving Silverman (2001). Ronald Lee Ermey continues to be one of the best character actors in the business, and you can bet that when his name appears in a movie's credits, he is going to be top notch in his role. He began his career as Sgt. Loyce in The Boys In Company C in 1978. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command as Sarge is his DTVA debut and he appeared on Fillmore as Colonel Thrift and Kim Possible as General Sims. Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness as General Tsin is his most recent credit. He has 121 acting credits, 17 Self credits and four misc credits (two as an adviser in Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket in 1979 and 1987; along with additional dialog for The Siege of Firebase Gloria in 1989.) to his resume.

So Spinelli is next and we see the would be pro wrestlers singing the most warped version of Kumbaya I have ever heard which includes wrestling violence in a peace song while sitting at the camp fire. I have no problem with singing wrestlers; but that song being mangled is absolutely ironic comedy gold. We see Hustler Kid on the transmitter as he gets a call from Spinelli and he agrees to it as long as she pays up. Well; Hustler Kid has the politics down to a T. We see the Ashleys in a dark bedroom making a model out of Vince and Ashley A replaces the red hat with the blue hat. And Mikey is sleeping in a bed as the opera director is shining a flashlight but sees nothing abnormal and leaves as we pan to Mikey's bed as the preschoolers pop up in front of Mikey's shoes. Ummm; who has ever wore shoes in bed? That should have alerted the opera director; but then authority figures are much more stupid than even the new Disney authority figures. Ponder that one for a moment. Sadly; we never find out how Gretchen got away with her visit to space camp. I'm not sure if that was a scene cut from the movie; but I doubt it since I'm ranting on the DVD version, and thus there should be deleted scenes on the disk. So we head to inside the tree house as Vince is using the periscope like binoculars with 200:1 zoom and IR night vision abilities. Gretchen proclaims that she makes stuff from spare parts; which include a particle accelerator from a hair dryer and a four slice toaster oven; because she is the human version of Gadget; but without the quirks Gadget brought to the table. She might have gotten over if she had Anne Shirley's screaming powers though. So we pan over to see Spinelli reading Rebecca's diary as apparently, she has a fetish for fast food metaphors; which Mikey thinks is beautiful. Sure it is; because it plays right into your gimmick as the fat, dumb, happy kid. Gus is amused as T.J. comes up from the floor with a blue backpack because he had to wait for his parents to be asleep to raid the fringe as he brings out bags of meat and mashed potatoes which Mikey eats; and then a container of Rocky Road ice cream which Mikey opens and eats with spoonfuls. Sigh.

Everyone runs in to eat ice cream with Mikey as Gretchen just stands there and asks the dumbest question ever in the history of mankind: Shouldn't you be eating dinner before dessert? The ONE GIMMICK BAND looks at her; and then they laugh their asses off at her expense. You walked right into that one Gretchen. So everyone is so happy being together as Gretchen isn't so much as she points out that this will be the last summer together because in fifth grade; they are pre-adults. T.J. gets the second whomp of the movie as they talk about the previous summers as we discover that Spinelli was a poor speller at age 7 which Spinelli blows off as having difficult with the letter s. Gus sobs because he will have no memories; implying that Gus' father wipes his memories clean which is both haha funny and really sad at the same time. Mikey decides to sing a song Rebecca taught her in pre-school which apparently; she was nicer. And he sings it like Robert Goulet as it's John Jacob Jingleheimer Shmidt. Everyone joins in and then they go from singing to whisper yelling as Robert Goulet is outclassing them all. This isn't the last time Mikey sings like Robert Goulet; no, not by a long shot. Strangely enough; Mikey is singing in his normal voice when he whispers as we zoom out to outside the treehouse. That was a pretty decent segment there. We pan over to the school and zoom in as the sounds and green neon lights flash out of the windows except for one which is a zoom into Principal Prickley's office which is empty. The door opens and in comes Fenwick as he is confused over his bosses' decision to go into this office. The man with the cane walks in and we see him in full profile; but he is shadowed out as he calls Fenwick stupid in roundabout terms and proclaims that this used to be his office see. So we head to morning as we pan from the school to the street. Then to the bushes as T.J. is hiding in the bushes with his tape recorder and he's going in alone.

So we have T.J. go over the fence and practice the fine art of not being seen as he tries to look in the window; but he hears voices and jumps into the dumpster. When he comes up; he has Prickley's golf shorts on his head as he makes a recording of it. So we pan over to the fence as we see Prickley walking with Jeffrey Robbin guards as they are making small talk. One of them asks if his wife was suspicious; and then we get SWEVERED because the mask of Pirckley comes off and it's the bald guard from the beginning of the episode who was guarding the gate. He laughs as T.J. pops down in the dumpster out of sight as they mock Prickley for a while. So we head to the tree house AFTER HAPPY HOUR and we get a closeup shot of the golf shorts as Gretchen is using the magnifying lens on them; and she deduces that they are from Prickley. The gang is confused over this because it makes no sense that someone would want to be Prickley. Actually; it does make sense because if Prickley were real when he came out of the school during the time you accused T.J. of lying, he would be wearing golf shorts since he was going to play golf during his vacation. They all deduce that Prickley is in the school as there is a note in the pocket of said shorts where it reads in red letters "Help Me". Mikey calls this a cry of help and the gang finally decide to break into the school and save Principal Prickley from the forces of evil. I realize that break and enter is against the law; but the police are no help because authority figures must be really stupid beyond the pale (and they are chaneling Bullethead Baloo. At least in that episode; Baloo made a fool of himself in front of the police; along with Professor Buzz before he went to file the police report in Act III. Okay guys?!), and it's clear that they kidnapped Prickley now; so it's false equivalence logic fallacy time. That leads to a sequence of Gus cosplaying an army guy arming himself to the teeth. They have bikes ready and Mikey has the grappling hook and rope; which T.J. has zero idea what it is. Spinelli is not sure about breaking into school as they wheel their bikes out of the backyard.

Then we zoom into a trash can out pop Randell as he is giddy about having to snitch on the babyfaces like he always does in these situations; but is forced to duck down into the trash somehow because out comes T.J.'s dad as he puts trash into the trashcan and then leaves. Randell groans on cue. HAHA! Even better; that is a segueway to inside Miss Finster's bedroom as she is punching a punching bag while wearing purple boxer shorts. That is awesome! Then the doorbell rings and she also breaks her hand stopping as she is not happy since her pizza would have been free in ten minutes. So Finster goes to the door and peeps in the eye hole to see Randell at the door. She opens the door and shows off her watch since it's 9 PM. Randell tells her about T.J.; and Finster turns around blowing him off because she's gone until Labor Day and it's someone else's problem. Randell counters by informing her that the ONE GIMMICK BAND (my words; not his) are going to break into the school. Finster turns around and proclaims that it's not going to happen if Muriel P. Finster has anything to say about it. And knowing her; she'll drone on about it all night long. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm... Nice right hook there Muriel. (Miss Finster: Just call the movie already. I hate Rhinokey jokes and your jokes aren't much better) So we see the babyfaces all hiding in the bushes and they all come out and cross the street to the front of the school grounds; where they notice an open window. Memo to babyface: When there is an open window in a place that has weird stuff; it's often codeword for an obvious trap. Mikey swings the grappling hook onto the sill of the open window and they all climb up. We cut to the bushes as Miss Finster and Randell are spying on them with binoculars where wearing burglar type gear. This is NOT a good idea there Randell; although Miss Finster looks apporos in that outfit. Miss Finster wonders if she can get them tried as adults. Ummm; internal logic sezs no madam. Even if she could; no one is going to take you seriously wearing that outfit. No one.

So Miss Finster and Randell run in to the rope. Miss Finster tells Randell to hold onto the rope as Miss Finster climbs up which is really stupid because Miss Finster is much fatter than Mikey and when she climbs up halfway; the rope snaps off-screen (I thought that died with TaleSpin? Obviously it didn't.) and Miss Finster drops and squashes Randell flatter than Alexander the Grape. NYUK! NYUK! NYUK! This was made much funnier by the fact that Randell is wiggling his legs around and yelling at Miss Finster to get off of him; and Randell sounds almost exactly like Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. So we head into the hallway after dark as the gang walks slowly while Gus talks about aliens and Spinelli talks about mother ships. Then they see two shadows coming from the opposite side of the hallway; so they bail into the classroom; which so happens to be Miss Grotkey's classroom. They look around after T.J. barricades the door; and the shadows don't suspect a thing. Mikey is hoping the gerbil is being fed as we hear some voices as Fenwick is blowing off the scientists for not doing this task fast enough. They are clearly the scientists voices that we have seen before as Gretchen deduces that the voices are up one floor as they can hear it from a grate in the ceiling. T.J. and company open the grate and head inside. So we head outside as Randell and Finster are running around the school property and they notice that a basement window is open; which is clearly too small for her. But instead of Randell going first; Miss Finster climbs down and gets stuck because she is now bigger than Hoppo ever was. Miss Finster struggles like crazy; but no go. She orders Randell to get the butter and Randell runs off. So we crawl into the grate with the one gimmick band as they crawl to the end and they notice a lab which I'm guessing is inside the gym as there are lots of scientists, lots of high tech sci-fi stuff which Gretchen runs down. I don't give a crap about what she said they are because none of it is relevant to the storyline anyway. T.J. tells them to be quiet because the heels are talking. So we get into a shouting match with Doctor Lazenby and finally we see Phil Benedict for real blowing him off in kind. See; they cannot delay the experiment because they have a small window to pull this secret project off; and if they don't pull it off; he'll get angry. By the way; he has white hair.

Dr. Phil Benedict is voiced by James Woods and according to IMDB: James Howard Woods was born on April 18, 1947 in Vernal, Utah, the son of a United States Army intelligence officer. Leanly built, strangely handsome actor-producer-director with intense eyes, swarthy complexion, and a sometimes untrustworthy grin has been impressing audiences for over three decades with his compelling performances. He grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he graduated from Pilgrim High School in 1965 near the top of his class. He earned a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; dropping out during his sophomore year in 1967, he then headed off to New York with his fraternity brother Martin Donovan to pursue aspirations to appear on the stage. After appearing in a handful of New York City theater productions, Woods scored his first film role in All the Way Home (1971) (TV) and followed that up with meager supporting roles in The Way We Were (1973) and The Choirboys (1977). However, it was Woods' coldblooded performance as the cop killer in The Onion Field (1979), based on a Joseph Wambaugh novel, that seized the attention of cinemagoers to his on-screen power. Woods quickly followed up with another role in another Joseph Wambaugh film adaptation, The Black Marble (1980), as a sleazy and unstable cable-TV-station owner in David Cronenberg's mind-bending and prophetic Videodrome (1983), as gangster Max Bercovicz in Sergio Leones mammoth epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984), and scored a best actor Academy Award nomination as abrasive journalist Richard Boyle in Oliver Stone's gritty and unsettling Salvador (1986). There seemed to be no stopping the rise of this star as he continued to amaze cinema-goers with his remarkable versatility and his ability to create such intense, memorable characters.

The decade of the 1990s started off strongly with high praise for his role as Roy Cohn in the television production of Citizen Cohn (1992) (TV). Woods was equally impressive as sneaky hustler Lester Diamond who cons Sharon Stone in Casino (1995), made a tremendous H.R. Haldeman in Nixon (1995), portrayed serial killer Carl Panzram in Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995), and then as accused civil rights assassin Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). Not to be typecast solely as hostile hoodlums, Woods has further expanded his range to encompass providing voiceovers for animated productions including Hercules (1997), Hooves of Fire (1999) (TV), and Stuart Little 2 (2002). Woods also recently appeared in the critically praised The Virgin Suicides (1999), in the coming-of-age movie Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), as a corrupt medico in Any Given Sunday (1999), and in the comedy-horror spoof Scary Movie 2 (2001). A remarkable performer with an incredibly diverse range of acting talent, Woods remains one of Hollywood's outstanding leading men. He began his career as Andrew Lynch in All The Way Home in 1971. Hercules: The Animated Series as Hades is his DTVA debut and replayed the role in House of Mouse. Jamesy Boy (Lt. Falton), Ray Donovan as Patrick Sully Sullivan, White House Down (Walker), Officer Down (Captain Verona), jOBS (Jack Dudman), and Mary & Martha as Mary's Father are his most recent credits. He has 135 acting credits, 108 Self Credits, one director/writing credit (Falling In Love In Ponga Ponga) and four producer credits (Shark, Northfork, Another Day In Paradise and Cop) to his resume.

So we see the other scientists including Fenwick pointing out that they are having trouble with the machine and thus they need more time and a new place. Phil will have nothing to do with it because it starts at Third Street and ends at Third Street. So he pretty much gave away his motives before he was supposed to give them away. Can you guess why he's doing this at Third Street School? Then we hear Doctor Rosesanthal (Tony Jay) informing Phil that the test is ready to go; and Phil calms down and walks towards him. I apologize if I skipped most of the dialog; but most of it isn't all that important. It's a shouting match with psycho bable; that's all you need to know. So the scientists watch as the satellite dish rises up and the roof of the school opens (if Prickley gets out of this mess; he's going to keep the new roof I betcha. Anyhow; we get an extremely long sequence of the scientists at the control panel as Rosesanthal is setting up the coordinates and such; and then orders the tractor beam to fire at the moon. Yeah; the moon. So the tractor beam fires and hits the moon. Roseanthal moves a remote control joystick as the moon moves to the right slightly; but then the beam sputters and dies. Yeah; Roseanthal is screwed as we get a long sequence between Phil and Rose as Rose tries to point out the problem; but Phil doesn't care as we go on about naughty boys not getting better; and then Rose panics like mad because he hates detention or something like that. The Jeffrey Robbin guards grab Rose as he begs for mercy; but none is forthcoming as Rose is dragged out of the room while Mikey is eating an ice cream sandwich the entire time. I betcha that is how they blow their cover too. So Phil is so angry that he is spitting spittle on his lapel as all the scientists walk backwards as I think it's Doctor Lanzby who is appointed second in command. Phil demands results by tomorrow morning and screams in his face. Lanzy responds that he will; and Phil calms down because he notices the spittle on his lapel. I was right about Doctor Steimheimer being one of the scientists; because she got a line in about the problems too. So we cut back to the grate as Mickey continues to eat the ice cream sandwich and make bee impersonations. Vince wants to leave now; but then...Damn; I'm good, although I could have done without the belching spot on Mikey, thank you.

It echoes as Phil is pissed off because someone better say excuse me. Then the vent breaks and it drops on the floor and the babyfaces are exposed. Okay; that was more disturbing than I had intended. Phil demands answers to this outrage; and Fenwick has no idea how they got in. So Phil wants those kids right now as T.J. runs for the one gimmick band to run and we have the Jeffrey Robbins clones chasing the babyfaces to the door leading to outside into the hallway; which when Spinelli opens the door; it's blocked by the bald guy. Spinelli then does the most awesome thing she has ever done; she literally headbutts the bald guy in the groin and the heel guard goes down in the fetal position. That was awesome! And in just you thought I missed the scene; Miss Finster does notice the satellite dish with the laser beams and wonders what the hell the kids are up to. So back to the SCOOBY DOO CHASE SEQUENCE THE ONE GIMMICK BAND MOVIE EDITION~! You know what would make this complete: Hippie music! And that is exactly what we get as they play "Wipeout" from The Surfaris. Although this version is the arranged version instead of the original. I guess the band doesn't like movies since the original soundtrack is on the movie's OST CD anyway. So they try to escape left; but the exit is barricaded with a steel door. T.J. trips up the heels with marbles from his pocket; and then ninjas block the right entrance side. All three have the "Forbidden In The UK" weapons and I betcha this scene was cut in the UK cut of the movie too. At least the cinema version of it; don't know about the DVD version. So more chasing as they get into the garage room and they all notice the garage door leading to outside is closing. Spinelli barricades the door and T.J. and Vince motions everyone to get under the door and roll out. Vince and T.J. are left; and despite having enough time for both of them to get out; T.J. tells Vince to go first. Why? Because T.J. has to be caught by the ninjas silly. So Vince rolls out of the garage and T.J. tries to dive out; but the ninja's grab him by the ankle and pull him in as T.J. yells at the babyfaces to save themselves. What an idiot?!

So the garage door is sealed shut as the babyfaces bang on the door; but then a ninja star is thrown and they bail because the ninjas are on the playground. The ninja thing is completely out of nowhere and makes no sense; but who cares? They picked up the pace of the movie at least. The ninjas chase after them as we return with Miss Finster still stuck in the basement window as Randell has brought in the butter. Miss Finster finally gets unstuck just as the babyfaces run away in front of her being chased by ninjas. Miss Finster references J.P. Morgan for fun as we head inside the hallway as the guards are dragging T.J. by his legs and T.J. claims that he is a black belt in origami as bald guy comes in and mocks him because he was in on T.J.'s plan. Wait...WHAT?! He then produces the tape recorder out of nowhere and plays it. WHAT THE HELL?! That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and it does nothing since he already saw T.J. in the lab earlier when Spinelli head butted him in the groin. Bald guy proclaims that he's in deep trouble and they take him to the store room and throw him into the room and lock the door. T.J. gets up and notices Prickley in his SWANK green underwear bound and gagged sitting on a chair. And wouldn't you know it; there is a second chair right next to him too. Nice to see someone was on the ball eh? So T.J. rips off the duct tape from Prickley's mouth and he cringes in pain. So T.J. tries to untie the ropes behind his back; but they are too thick as Prickley whines about his wrists in response. So they get into an argument about his friends for no reason as he claims that they are going to get help and he'll see. Which makes no sense because they are the backup for him anyway. It only serves to segueway to the police station and have them repeat the ultra stupid police report joke we did about 15 minutes ago. You can guess where this is going. Hey Mikey; praying for the heavens is not going to stop them from laughing at you. I'm just saying. Needless to say; the police laugh at them and the kids are not amused.

So we head back to the storage closet as T.J. is trying to untie the knot as Prickley complains about his putting hand and then we hear noises as T.J. stops and sits in the empty chair. Apparently; kids cannot be tied up anymore despite the fact that (a) this is not a television episode; thus FCC rules do not apply and (b) T.J. was tied up in an earlier episode that was ON television in the first season! So the door opens and in comes Phil, a guard and bald guy as Prickley notices him right away. Phil is just sweet talking as he claims that Peter betrayed him at one time and Peter is insulted by that and his treatment; most so stealing his pants. I absolutely agree with the last one as Phil blows him off because he's doing a night school to train his goons to become productive members of the social fabric. He pets T.J. for fun and my amusement as Prickley wants Phil to let T.J. go because he's powerless to do anything; but Phil refuses to be betrayed again since Peter is still fighting for the rights of children. T.J. is not happy about this "night school" because there is a laser in the f'n gym. Phil just stares at him as bald guy sits T.J. in his chair gently. Phil blows him off as a rude, naughty boy and then blows off Peter for not teaching him anything, let alone respect as he and his heels walk out. Bald guy shuts the door as T.J. asks how he knows that jerk. Prickley admits that he and Phil met together for teacher training which surprises T.J. So Prickley HITS THE FLASHBACK~! Let me just say that everyone in 1968 dresses up like a hippie and there is a lot of Incense and Peppermints from Strawberry Alarm Clock. That was awkward. Lots of late 1960's splashes of color and psychedelic references going on. Prickley looks similar to that male from Josey & The Pussycats; complete with peace symbol. Miss Finster is also looking like a hippie and sounds nicer than what she would become even in All Grown Down. Anyhow; they talk in hippie talk as a motorcycle arrives and it's Phil with blond hair and looks normal actually. He has the American flag on his helmet; which is awkward when he comments on it.

So I'm not going to describe the principals office which has green bead stringed down as part of the opening and a lot of candle which have been smoking recently. Anyhow; the guise of the flashback is that Phil is the new principal of the school and was the youngest one in the entire state. That doesn't sound like a trailblazing hippie to me. They talk like Dude Love by the way as Prickley sits down on an orange bean bag seat and it's time for a rap. See; Phil proclaims that they are a new generation of teachers; and it's time to shake things up a little. Phil is wearing purple colored shades as a reference to the drug induced song Purple Haze from Jimmy Hendrix which is on the soundtrack; but uses an arranged version in this film. So Prickley's idea is to have all their classes outside instead which gives them no boundaries and have Recess as a neat segueway. Phil is looking out the window and has a different plan in mind which is to ban Recess altogether. Prickley is in shock about this development because Recess is the ultimate play in; but Phil proclaims that the 1960's are over. Ummm; no they are not since it's only 1968. We have two years left as Phil wants to drive test scores up and the only way he sees that happening is that starting tomorrow morning; Recess is tuned out once and for all. Martial art zoom in's ensue as Peter overvoices that this did not go over well as we scene change to the front of the school as the teachers do what hippies do best: march around in a circle and protest in front of the steps of school. Phil is sitting on the steps acting like a dick because the teachers are ruining his buzz. The teachers blow him off because they want Recess back; but then Phil blows them off because he can do whatever he wants. Remember that for the next sequence; because it's classic. So a limo drives on the sidewalk and out comes a white haired superintendent in a suit; with Prickley walking behind him. The Superintendent walks up to the steps and tries to calm everyone down. He informs them that he is in charge of the district and has caught wind of Phil's plans.

He rules against Phil for forbidding Recess and it will never happen as long as he is around; and then he fires Phil and makes Peter the new principal of the school. Everyone pops and Phil blows off Peter and accuses him of betraying him and tricking him into speaking so he could go through the back door and steal his job going through "the man" to get it. In other words; he is accusing him of betraying the "Hippie Movement" values that he was supposed to stand for. Prickley stammers like an idiot; claiming something which Phil cuts him off at the pass. The irony of all this is that Phil was in a position of authority when he made the ruling. In other words; he became "the man" by proxy. So in essence; he was the one who betrayed the movement and this is him projecting his stupidity onto Prickley. So Prickley is the babyface and Phil is the heel. Phil orders Finster to join him and leave; and she blows him off because she can never accept "the man" (Phil) who bans Recess. When Miss F'N Finster likes Recess over you; you know that you have done something so very wrong. Phil then goes on a tirade and then trips and pratfalls onto the steps in a heap. Finster and Prickley try to help him up; because they are babyfaces in spite of Phil's stupidity; but he gets up on his own and proclaims that he'll get his revenge and they will all pay complete with martial arts zoom in. He leaves as we return to reality (no, not really) as Prickley states that he never saw him again. Which is hilarious because the next line he speaks is that Phil got into politics and became secretary of education for a couple of years; but then he talked about a nationwide ban on Recess and got impeached (fired of course). T.J. gets the closeup and proclaims that this is now personal. DUM DUM DUM! Actually that flashback is some of the best writing in this series actually. It's not overly great or anything; but the end of the flashback had a lot of heat and intensity.

Superintendent is voiced by the late Robert Stack (Passed away in 2003) and according to IMDB: "Straight Shooting" - whether skeet shooting, or portraying Eliot Ness, Robert Stack always tells it like it is, and shoots straight. Robert was the 2nd child of Elizabeth Modini Wood (who named him Charles after his grandfather) and James Langford Stack (who changed his name to Robert, after no one in particular). Even though Robert was born in Los Angeles, since his parents divorced when he was one-year-old, and his mom took him to Europe when he was 3, he couldn't speak English until he was 6; (his older brother James Langford, Jr., stayed in the USA with their dad). Robert spoke fluent Italian and French, but had to learn English when they returned to Los Angeles. His mom and dad remarried in 1928. Robert took drama courses at USC. He was not interested in team sports, so he took up skeet shooting. In 1935, he came in 2nd in the National Skeet Shooting Championship (held in Cleveland) and, in 1936, his 5-man team broke the standing record at the National Skeet Championships (held in St. Louis). Robert arrived at Universal City in 1939, when the Studio (once riding high on the successes of movies like Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931)) was in financial trouble, and looking for a superstar. That superstar was Deanna Durbin (acquired from MGM), and Robert made his screen debut as her lover in First Love (1939). At first, Robert didn't want to listen to the makeup man who had told him, "no blond has ever made it as a leading man", and insisted on dyeing his hair black and uncurling it. That makeup man was genius and Oscar winner, Jack P. Pierce (who had done all the monsters for Universal), and Robert became a matinee idol, overnight. After 2 more movies, Robert was teamed with Deanna again, in Nice Girl? (1941).

Robert was now a bona-fide star, but Universal was still only paying him $150 a week. For the next 10 years, Robert did westerns, war movies, and romantic comedies. Robert has particularly fond memories for Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), a movie produced by his pal, John Wayne, which meant 12 weeks filming in sunny Mexico. The movie had a great script; unfortunately, 2 bullfighters were gored while filming. There were several weeks of delays, they could not get a crew or a sound stage, until they realized that, in Mexico, it is necessary to bribe the local union; some money was passed and filming started, immediately. There were wild times, and lots of tequila. Robert became a local legend; when some Mexicans asked him what he did in the War, Robert said: "I taught machine gun". The rumor spread: "Roberto teaches chingas!" (that's Spanish for "hookers"). In 1952, Robert made movie history (much like Al Jolson had done in 1927, being in the first "talkie") - he starred in Bwana Devil (1952), the first 3-D movie. This gave startling effects to the story, which was based on real-life lion attacks in Africa. Robert attended the premiere, and recalled people's reactions to the 3-D lion scenes: "People in the audience jumped out of their seats, some even fainted". The movie broke box office records, and immediately started the demand to film more movies in 3-D (such as House of Wax (1953)). Around 1955, Robert (Hollywood's most eligible bachelor) was introduced to Rosemarie Bowe, by mutual agent Bill Shiffrin. Rosemarie had been under contract to MGM and Columbia, making such movies as Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and The Golden Mistress (1954). Robert and Rosemarie got married around 1957, and had 2 wonderful kids: Elizabeth Stack and Charles Stack. The perennial bachelor found out he liked being married and being a father.

Robert's onscreen fame had grown and, for Written on the Wind (1956), he received an Academy Award nomination. Unfortunately, this did not sit well with 20th-Century Fox, which had Robert under contract, and had lent him to Universal for this picture. Robert talks of a few run-ins with a mystery woman he calls "Deirdre", which cost him his next plum movie role. Although he gives her this pseudonym, he drops over a half dozen bits of information about her... she was from the South, under contract to MGM, married a young actor, had an interest in bullfighters, and (refusing to work with Robert Stack) starred with Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn in a movie about a post-World War I "lost generation"; (which could be The Sun Also Rises (1957), and the mystery woman could be Ava Gardner). His contract with Fox came to an end. And so, Robert made the transition to the new medium that was sweeping the country: television. He delivered breakout performances in his signature role as Eliot Ness in the wildly popular TV series, "The Untouchables" (1959) which, after the pilot, ran for 4 seasons (118 episodes). And there was also the TV movie, The Scarface Mob (1959) (TV). There were some funny behind-the-scenes anecdotes, such as this one: there is no scene which stood out more as the most potentially evil, and risky in terms of audience acceptance, as the "bacio di morte" (the kiss of death), the Sicilian gesture when the Capo (Neville Brand) kissed a Mafia soldier (Frank DeKova) to send him out as an executioner. These 2 macho actors were nervous enough about this scene (2 guys had never kissed on TV before), but then some crewman decided to be a prankster and told each star, in private, just before filming, "look out-- your costar likes kissing guys" (a complete lie, of course).

There were some sad anecdotes: Joseph Wiseman was a fine actor, but trained to work on the New York stage with props; he was not accustomed to real Hollywood sets. In a 1960 "The Untouchables" (1959) episode, he was supposed to take an axe and smash up a brewery. He hit a real pipe, the axe ricocheted off the metal, and cut through his Achilles tendon. "I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life", Robert commented. They wrote a part for Joseph as a crippled, renegade chemist a few weeks later in "The Antidote" which Robert noted "was one of our half-dozen top shows". Robert went on to do TV series, such as "Most Wanted" (1976), and he pleasantly surprised everyone with his flair for comedies in movies like 1941 (1979) and Airplane! (1980). Also, in 1980, Robert wrote his bio, "Straight Shooting" (with Mark Evans). Robert was the host of "Unsolved Mysteries" (1987) and did more zany humor in Caddyshack II (1988). He even portrayed the no-nonsense G-man, again, in The Return of Eliot Ness (1991) (TV). Truly one of the greats, a fine gentleman and a great actor. He began his career as Ted Drake in First Love in 1939. Hercules The Series as Bob The Narrator is his DTVA debut. Butt Ugly Martians (Stoat Muldoon), King of The Hill (Reynolds Penland) and Killer Bud (The Gooch) in 2001 were his final credits. He has 96 acting credits, 95 Self credits, and two production credits (Lords of The Mafia and Gangsta King: Raymond Lee Washington) to his resume.

So we head back to the ONE GIMMICK BAND looking at the crate with weather maps and all this Norwegian stuff as they fish through the box and find a Farmer's Almanac and a date book since Spinelli is playing a prank on Phil to make him late for some 12:22 appointment with some Italian chick whose name is Luna Pergium. Gretchen then steals the book because Spinelli is being an asshole; and then gets the LIGHT BULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY as it really means Lunae Perigeum as it's not a girl; but an event. Vince is confused about this as Gretchen shows off her transmitter which has a neon green screen and it shows that once a month; the moon comes closest to the Earth; and the event happens at 12:22 tomorrow afternoon. Wait a minute?! If that is the case; then the entire finish and ending make absolutely no sense at all. Gus thinks that Phil is going to blow up the moon. If only Gus; if only. Gretchen claims that at space camp she was noticing some abnormal positioning of the moon and deduces that it's a tractor beam; which Mikey confuses as a tractor for sowing seeds which Spinelli blows him off for. Mikey needs some sci-fi lessons methinks; and forego the singing for awhile; because it's obvious that he can out sing any of the kids at this point. The gang wants to know why Phil wants to move the moon into another orbit and Gretchen proclaims that she doesn't know. So we head inside Principal Prickley's office...ZAP! OUCH! Ummm.. Principal Benedict's office as T.J. and Prickley open the vent and T.J. jumps down while Prickley climbs down the filing cabinet blowing off T.J. for ruining school property again. T.J. checks the phone; but the phone line is dead. Lovely! He cannot say die when Prickley was dematerialized; but an inanimate object is perfectly fine to say. So T.J. asks about his walkie talkie that Prickley snatched from T.J. and Prickley tells him that in the right drawers (NOT THOSE ONES!) on the desk. He also blows off Benedict for messing up his office despite the fact that the room looks perfectly fine; other than the moon orbiting the earth poster I saw in the first shot in this scene.

So T.J. opens the drawers and fishes out stuff and steals the baseball back putting it in his pocket. There's no way that this won't play into the finish now; won't it? So T.J. finds the walkie talkie and is about to talk into it as Prickley gasps in horror as he looks stunned and only states that Phil Benedict is a nut. Which nut? Odds: Sadist Nut 3:1, Insano Nuts 2:1, Not a Nut: Infinity:1. So T.J. talks into the walkie talkie as we head back to the treehouse which the transmitter is conveniently placed on the table inside. Vince grabs it and T.J. tells him that he has found Prickley and he doesn't have time to explain right now; but he has an idea what Phil is up to. I betcha Phil walks in right about now. Aw; close enough; it was Bald Guy. We then finally see the wall that they never showed at all; and it is completely vandalized with No Recess and the No Recess organization sign as T.J. proclaims that he is trying to get rid of summer vacation. Mikey screams in agnoy on the other side and I'm guessing that he faints; but I don't care. T.J. stammers like an idiot as the line is dead and Mikey gets overdramatic. I don't understand why people laud Mikey and then turn around and condemn Bea for doing the...Oh wait; I know why. Never mind. The gang proclaims that they got T.J.; and they must rescue him. Vince proclaims that they need help and we head to Floppy Burger which is basically a anthro version of Burger King with dogs. Including a statue of a dog as the drive through P.A. system. Rebecca is on the transmitter as we see the ONE GIMMICK BAND telling her that they need help and Rebecca blows them off on the other side because her problem is that they are all dweebs. They tell her that T.J. is in trouble and needs help; which she blows off because if you recall T.J. threatened to put her diary on the Internet and asks for one reason why she should help a blackmailer like T.J. Mikey's response is absolutely priceless as he speaks in a calm manner that he's her brother and he needs you. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And it works too as Rebecca relents and tells them to come to the pay window.

Okay; so the next scene is in the principal office as Phil is sitting at the desk repeating Prickley's torment speech on T.J. as we continue with Phil blowing them off for hurting his feelings thirty years ago; and blowing off T.J. for having no gratitude. Prickley claims that Phil is insane. Geez; you THINK?! Phil looks at the window calm and then turns around and gives another Grade S tirade. I don't care what he said; but it's still epic either way as he is ridding of the ultimate Recess called Summer Vacation. Yeap; insane. Prickley is not always wrong you know Phil. So we have a trap door coming up and out comes a neon green globe of earth with the moon orbit as he demonstrates it by moving the moon out of alignment as he explains what happens since the moon plays a role in the tides and he is going to move it to California to put everyone in the deep freeze for the entire summer as the globe turns into CGI ice. Yeah; I skipped his speech because like most of this show; it's so overwritten that getting to the point is much faster. Okay; so he'll move the moon over to create a forevermore winter which will force everyone to stay inside to study for the whole summer. Okay; that actually makes sense. Because when I got the summary for this episode; I was confused because if the storyline was that he wanted to create a winter for school to take place year round; then that makes absolutely no sense because if it's winter all the time; then everyone is forced to stay in and have fun inside. They would not go to school to learn because everyday would be a snow day which is downright stupid and the premise is dumb in that context. However; having it only in the summer time only actually makes sense and puts heel heat on Phil which is what it is supposed to do. So both bad scenes are better than the summary indicates. Stupid Disney PR strikes again! So T.J. calls him a fiend and does the standard "won't get away with this" speech which Phil asks who is going to stop him.

And then we head on the road inside a truck with Floppy Burger in red letters on the side with Rebecca in the front seat; and Gretchen as the passenger side because apparently; Rebecca thinks Gretchen's psycho babble will not drive her insane or something like that. Did I mention that there is a statue of a dog on top of the truck? So Rebecca is actually changing her tune because Theodore found an evil conspiracy brewing at school as Gus mentions the sodas in the back along with mustard and ketchup bottles which Mikey squirts some in his mouth. Rebecca blows them off for eating profits from Floppy Burgers International; which Spinelli blows her off in kind since they need to step on it and get the reinforcements. So we see them stop at the baseball camp, space camp, wrestling camp and I think the opera camp and military camp; although it is not seen in the shots. Vince runs in; and then he runs out behind the baseball players. Same with space camp and wrestling camp; although we never see Spinelli get out since they cut to the shot of the police station as the Floppy Burger comes in and we hear Miss Finster yelling at the laughing Keystone Cops of Doom because apparently; ninjas are funny, or something. Yeah; that's the third time they did the joke; and it's has no heat anymore. Sad; because seeing Miss Finster doing the hard sell of this is hilarious. Finster gets the word jitisu as the cops laugh her off and she is not amused because she saw something. So the cops tell her to get some rest and they'll call Jackie Chan while snickering and laughing. This would have been a lot funnier if they had only did this joke with Miss Finster and Randell in burglar costumes. And then getting arrested and charged with break and enter. That would have been hilarious actually. Never mind; let's cut to the basement as T.J. and Peter are locked in a bird cage and hung from the ceiling. T.J. is yelling his lungs out for help; and there is no dice. So Peter wants him to calm down; which T.J. throws a fit because they are going to ruin summer vacation see.

Peter tries to reason with him and then T.J. does the dumbest blow off ever by accusing Peter of not knowing summer vacation because he is a grown up. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ummm; memo to T.J.: What exactly was Prickley doing playing golf on summer vacation? Working a second job as a professional golf player? You really believe that Prickley is NOT going to love vacation time? After all; he was the one who even defended summer vacation and called Phil insane right in front of you. It's called the "two clicks in the making of a clue"; and you cannot even get to one click; you one note stereotype. Prickley is now invoking eye contact violence and getting in a stiff huff as he does this great speech reminding T.J. that he was a kid once and did all those summer vacation stuff like riding bicycles, catching Polliwags...ERRR...I mean polliwogs. Pokemon has that effect on me sometimes; best seen when I call Pikachu "Pikaclue". Even it has more clicks than T.J. right now. He blows T.J. off because he remembers summer vacation and looks out on the office proclaiming that he thinks the kids have it good. He then proclaims that they can do all sorts of messy evil things to his office; including mocking his saggy butt; but when it comes to caring about summer vacation, that is a grave insult to him because those are the only childhood memories he has left. That pretty much cements Prickley's road back to redemption now as T.J. cannot believe that he would care. Prickley proclaims that now T.J. knows and brings out the keys which he swiped off-screen from Phil's desk when he wasn't looking. So Prickley opens the door and they jump down and apparently; the cage was too high and they bump off-screen which looks silly because the cage was only about four feet off the ground. So we head to a clearing in the wood as all the kids have gathered around and Gretchen is trying to talk to them; but no one is listening. So Spinelli threatens to introduce Madam Fist to them; but Vince cuts her off since Madam Fist is her one note gimmick.

Spinelli blows him off and then Mikey yells at them for not helping; and then all three of them argue like children. Oh wait; that's apporos actually. Then Gus screams and everyone shuts up as he points out that they need a commanding officer which is one who trains in battle tactics and strategy; plus one who commands respect. Vince asks who that kid would be and Gus tells them to leave it to me. If you cannot guess who this commanding officer is; then you have no business reading this rant. So we have Gretchen whistling as she wants everyone to be organized; but the kids feel that it doesn't matter because even if it's true there is nothing they can do about it. We go on for a while as Hustler Kid claims that T.J. is the planner and thus this idea is doomed. So then Vince and Spinelli both appear in front of the bushes as Vince gets to pull the rope as they present their new commanding officer; and out comes in full army gear and helmet with whip is Gus Griswald and man he certainly is looking the part. Vince pulls the rope and down comes the American flag right behind him. Bradley and the kids laugh him off because apparently; he couldn't lead a Glee club. Sadly; that might be accurate as Gus walks forward looking mad as he uses the prod to slap Bradley with it and blows him off because he's had enough of the jokes since he's making history. He tells him that if he wants to laugh at him; do it somewhere else. If he wants to save the world; then Brad should suck in his gut and stand at attention. Brad looks nervous and stands at attention. HAHA! See what happens when you try to bully Gus into submission earlier Brad? Gus bends down and asks who is with him. So we head to the school as we have bushes in the foreground and two glasses guards are guarding the school. I would like to know how the kids convinced the camp teachers to let them go? I'm guessing that one of the cut scenes was with one of the teachers being pissed off that someone would ruin summer vacation because that actually makes sense in that context.

So we hear kazoos as they are doing the River Kwai March (Thank you Disney Captions for being useful for a change since I would have no idea what march they are doing). So we zoom out to the bushes as everyone is preparing for the FCC approved war of doom as water balloons, silly string (in purple color as it was sprayed in Erwin's face for fun). Soda pop; ketchup and mustard bottles are sprayed onto a target by Wrestler Kid and provided by Rebecca. Sticky plays with the sodas and they panic as they spray like soda bombs. So we head to Gus with stones of a map of the school; as he gives Vince and Ashley point A; while Gretchen gets point B. Spinelli takes the special forces who are the preschoolers of course which Spinelli claims that Griswald will owe her hazard pay in the future. So Gus gets up and causes everyone to stop as he goes into this speech about saving Third Street School and being bigger than one kid; or even Prickley himself. They want to say that they did it; that they saved Third Street School and Summer Vacation. The babyfaces seem to see Gus as T.J. now as we get a closeup of Gus's kisser and it's time to go in. You know; I always had a soft spot for Gus even at the beginning, and damn it, he's winning my heart like Kit Cloudkicker did in 1994 when I loved TaleSpin after hating it for almost four years. So we head back to the gym as Phil is observing the satellite dish as Fenwick comes in to inform him that they have 22 minutes remaining to perigee. Phil is happy for this and by the way this happens about 55 minutes into the movie; so it is going to happen at the 77 minute mark of this movie which is about six minutes from the end of the movie including the credits! So we head out in the hallway as T.J. and Prickley are running around and they then turn the corner and then bail as they notice the two guards guarding the door. So T.J. comes out and taunts them. The guards buy it and run into the hallway after T.J. off-screen and we get the FCC APPROVED OFFSCREEN FIGHT OF DEATH which always results in the Locke method of stealing as we see Prickley and T.J. come out wearing the uniforms.

There is just one problem with this plan: T.J. is at least two and a half feet too short to be taken seriously as a guard. So they walk forward as we head to opposite the street as Mikey gets on a step ladder and sings like Robert Goulet again to attract the guard. The guards notice him and order him to go away; but Mikey no sells because Robert Goulet is awesome and you do not interrupt Robert Goulet. Even if it's Mikey doing an impression of Robert Goulet's singing. I discover that the JJ Jamieson clone guard is named Anderson as the black guard tells him to get rid of Mikey. So Anderson runs in behind the bushes to get Mikey and then screams and disappears. HAHA! Two more run in who are called Smithson and Underhill; and they scream and disappear. Geez; Underhill literally got buried there. So the guard gets on the transmitter and he calls Hanklin, Morrissey and Goodman to get over here and try to stop Mikey from singing like Robert Goulet. So three more guards run in to join him as their backs are turned towards the school; which allows Vince and the Ashleys to practice the fine art of not being seen as they head inside. Or so I think as we go down the hallway to the autotorium as we see T.J. and Prickley turn the corner. Prickley asks if this will work and T.J. claims that it's pure gold because it always works in spy movies. So he walks over and tells the two guard that Phil has told them that they need to talk to him about a very important matter; and the guard actually doesn't fall for it. HAHA! Memo to T.J.: get lifters on those shoes next time. T.J. yells run and they bail as the guards chase them through the school. So we cut back to Mikey still singing Robert Goulet and this just never gets old. I don't care if it's not the actual kid voice singing this because if he tired; everyone watching would notice it right away and boo Mikey. This way; it's perfectly done and it makes me enjoy Mikey for something other than his gimmick of being dumb and fat. So the three guards already ran in; and they disappear as he is on the transmitter and is getting nothing.

So he foolishly tries to run in himself as we finally see how Mikey pulled this off as the guard falls into the Team Rocket Pit Of Death which is a perfect cube shape as the guards protest this outrage. HAHA! Great gag there Mikey! We then get a ground to sky shot of the Diggers showing off their power shovels which are from space age technology. So we head back inside the hallway as Prickley and T.J. are being chased by the guards and Prickley stops near the lunch room and pulls T.J. to follow him in there. So we head inside the kitchen as the guards run into the kitchen; but there's no one there and they leave. We notice that Prickley and T.J. are hiding behind the big ass pots of corn chowder as T.J. looks inside and sees a lot of ammo. Prickley looks inside and they both say Tender in stereo. So we head at the crossroads in the hallway as Gus, Vince and Spinelli (wait; wasn't she supposed to be with the preschoolers group?) as they separate into two groups as only the main characters go right and everyone goes to the left. So we see the three main babyfaces notice the guards guarding the autotorium and they bring out their water balloons; call out the guards and then throws the water balloons which break and sploosh water all over the guards. The guards get pissed; the babyfaces flee stage right; and one of them calls for reinforcements. They all chase after the main characters; including the ninjas. So the main characters take separate paths on the crossroads hallway as Spinelli goes right, Vince goes left and Gus goes in the middle I guess. Doesn't matter because only the ninjas take the path Spinelli took. So we see Vince being chased as they make it to the end of the hallway as he goes past a rope and then it gets pulled up by all four Ashleys; which causes the heels to trip and slide on some slippery brown substance as they take wussy bumps into the wall and the net gets dropped on them. All four of them high five each other and call this scandalous and laugh. So we cut to Gus being chased out of the school by the heels and then they stop as Gus climbs over a junk pile in the middle of the school grounds. Gus climbs to the top and gives the signal as we see the fifth and sixth graders led by Brad and King Bob on the roof as they nail various balls down on the heads of the heels. I find a giggle in Bob calling everyone a man despite their being at least two females in the group during this sequence.

So we cut to Spinelli being chased by the ninjas and they chase her around the corner; but then stops because there are the preschoolers right there to defend her; and the ninjas chase the preschoolers out of the school instead as Spinelli is saved. Whatever. So we see Gretchen go into the electrical room and open the fusebox as she looks for the autotorium switches despite being labeled as the bottom switches. Gretchen flicks the switches and the power to the autotorium dims and then the power goes down. Phil wants answers to this as Fenwick points out the obvious to us; which causes Phil to scream in his face to fix it. So Fenwick and two other scientists run out of the area and go towards the electrical room and head inside. Gretchen then sneaks from the left side and closes the door and locks it. Now; the problem with this is, the fusebox is still there; so they can switch the autotorium switch from there and get the power back on. What a stupid logic break that was?! So we see Gus' group going towards the stair well and here comes Bald Guy who is pissed off mad. He runs up the stairs and we hear T.J.'s voice from above as T.J. and Prickley throw chowder onto Bald Guy who winces in pain and then the barrel gets dumps on his body and he bumps like crazy down the stairs like some sick cartoon. Oh wait... Anyhow; T.J is so happy to see Gus has come back; but Gretchen has her watch on and ruins the buzz by pointing out that they have six minutes left to perigree. Prickley wants everyone to head to the autotorium and not run in the hallway. So we head back to the autotourim as Doctor Lanzby brings in a spare generator and plugs it in as everything turns back on again. I don't the point of this since Fenwick is in the electrical room other than to allow Phil to check his watch as there are four minutes left; after less than thirty seconds after Gretchen stated that it was six minutes left. Okay; the logic is thrown out the window in this episode and replaced with Dragon Ball Z logic of time. So Prickley barges in with all the kids as Phil has no minutes left and he's taking the school back. And apparently; he got some brown pants in the intern.

Phil blows him off as he snaps his fingers and 30 guards come in to cut them off as we get the STANDOFF OF DOOM as Gretchen breaks the ice and pleas for him not to do it; with Mikey saying please. So Phil goes on and on about test scores and adults caring about them. Sir; no one cares about test scores anymore because science has ruled that they are not the best indicator of performance. Otherwise; I would be the president of Nintendo right now. Okay; maybe not. So Phil asks who has the highest test scores and Gretchen has Japan as one which is actually true, and Mikey's Spanish is awesome here as I think he said Lake of Fire which is a toned down phrase for hell; but it has a cooler phrase than hell anyway. Saying firepit sucks (as I can admit in my fanfics); as Phil screams that it's Canada (that's true), Iceland and Norway. Ummm; no Phil. You are right about Canada having high test scores; but it's not the stereotype place you claim it to be since 90% of the population lives in areas that actually have summer for at least one month a year. I wish that the writers would have one of the kids point out that stereotype; but that doesn't happen because this is a children's movie. Sad; because even a casual person would have figured out Phil is wrong here. The other two are wrong: It's Finland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Estonia and South Korea in that order. And by the way; the website I found this information actually addresses how Finland got those scores and not once did they factor in winter all the time since Finland has a summer like most countries. Also noted is that in spite of all this; American is still #1 in global competition anyway; so Phil is in total insane heel mode here; which is perfect by the way. So T.J. blows him off about it and DARES Phil to do it because if it happens then they'll bike through the snow; live in igloos and play in the snow because he can take away summer; but summer vacation will always be there repackaged as winter vacation. Yeah; that showed him. Phil proclaims that he is going to try anyway because he's crazy about making the world a better place using junk science and test scores. Yeap; total dick heel mode now.

So they do the sequence of doom again as Doctor Lanzby orders them to engage the tractor beam which his crew is about to sell and pull it off as Mikey screams no; which is pointless because T.J. pointed out the flaw in his plan. Or they could play inside instead. Either way; Phil is done. And then from the top of the ceiling; the window roof crashes and a rope drops down and we see Miss Finster wearing a banana yellow body suit which is probably the only time in history that Gedo fashion sense worked. Well done Miss Finster; well done. She drops down on the floor in front of the guards as Phil is in shock because if you recall; Miss Finster was the girlfriend of Phillum Benedict (which sounds like a phallic symbol now that I overthinking it). Finster then cuts a "Another Brick In The Wall" promo and orders Phil to leave them kids alone. That is so hilariously funny considering that it's coming out of Miss Finster's mouth; after all the months of BS vileness, NOW, she wants us to believe that she is with the kids movement. Anyway; Phil is still charmed by her; but Finster blows him off because he's a two bit Recess hating pretty boy. Okay; I laughed my ass off hearing that. Phil claims that he's hurt; but offers to look the other way if she would turn on Prickley; but she no sells and rather eat playground dirt. Phil proclaims that this can be arranged as Finster wants to take him down good. That sounds perverted for some strange reason. Phil dares her to take him down and Finster calls for her army as we see ropes coming from the roof and down comes the monk ninja teachers of Third Street. Everyone drops down as Miss Clamperer does the splits while welding nunchakus is hilarious as Grotkey's battle girl skills and her red monk suit is so SWANK; I cannot do it justice. She gets into the crane formation and Phil orders the guard to get them good. We play "Nobody But Me" from Human Beniz as all the adults run in while Vince and T.J. touch backs and go down allowing the guards to have a meeting of the minds. And it wasn't at the PTA meeting.

Hector is standing in the background like Gus when he was a statue. Spinelli literally gets in behind a goon and does a hammerlock which is good straightforward classic pro wrestling. Grotkey manages to punch two guard down on the closeup; and none of the punches made contact, but they fall anyway. Normally; that is the power of suggestion being too suggestive; but that was still awesome. All the kids run in as guards get bombed with balloons; flee from pirates, get sprayed by mustard and ketchup when they are baited with..I think it's Randell dressed up as a sheep. If so; that was funny. If not; that was still funny. One of the scientists gets sprayed with silly string by Gretchen and Rebecca; and he oversells it like it's burning or something. Wow; just wow. I think he just pioneered the future spot that every modern cartoon would use to annoy the living piss out of the old farts; because it always makes no sense. Even the sprayers are looking at the cans confused when the scientist is lying on the floor screaming in pain. Catapults gets involved of course as more guards try to subdue three teachers in green burglar uniforms; but get splooshed down. Mikey tries to do the high five spot with the preschoolers; but Mikey is too tall for them to reach and that frustrates them. The ninja trap Gus against the wall which sadly; is not a brick wall. However; Gus invokes the SODA BOMBS OF DEATH on the ninjas as he shakes them and uses them as guns. By the way; the soda is diet grape soda. The ninjas get sprayed; but then look at themselves seeing that there is no damage; and they stop selling. So Gus invokes the LEGAL HAND OF GOD and points up above as we see Spinelli on the railing of the catwalk and she invokes the flying body press onto the ninjas (called a flying press which is almost right; it's known as a Cross Body Blocks) and they get knocked out as a result. Gus praises Spinelli and Spinelii give him the thumbs up. Some guards chase a cow suit containing Zed I do believe; and then we focus on the double doors as Bald Guy enters and he's PISSED. He sees T.J. and walks towards him as T.J. turns around and drops his green water balloon.

Bald Guy stalks him; and then Miss Finster addresses him as Kojak and calls him out. She challenges him to a fist fight and Kojak goes over and we knuckle up. Kojak smiles; but Finster literally jabs him in the face with on screen punches which we see every single one of them. I know this is a movie and all; but I thought BS&P on television would apply in this movie. It apparently doesn't. She does about 2 dozen of them before hitting the right hook which is screwed up by Sunwoo; and has a blue Wii impact flash; which is funny because we see the punch connect anyway as Kojak is knocked out cold for good apparently. T.J. thanks Miss Finster for the save as Finster claims that she is just doing her job. So more guards go flying away as soda misses by 12 feet; but the guard still goes sailing away as Lanzby and Phil rise up from the control panel and Phil demands him to get the tractor beam working again. Lanzby pushes the lever down to medium and gets the dish outside to power up. Phil then shoves Lanzby because it's going too slow and is about to throw the switch to high; but Prickley comes in and calls him out on it because it's all over. So Phil turns around and brings out the red/gold shock beam of death and points it at Peter as he is going to put him to sleep. Peter tells him that there is a spot on his tie; which causes Phil to be distracted, and Peter invokes the POWER OF THE PUNCH (like Baloo in From Here To Machinery) and Phil goes flying into the control panel. As he slumps down; his arm catches the lever and pushes it down to high. D'OH! That was pretty dumb of you Prickley. So we see the satellite dish firing into the sky towards the moon as the chaos continues including Spinelli doing an ankle lock on a ninja. So Prickley tries to push the lever back; but it's jammed as Phil rises up and proclaims that it's all over and that he wins this one for good. The beam hits the moon as everyone is in shock including T.J. He notices the glass core with the purple thunder beams and then takes out the baseball from his pocket. He calls for Vince who is on the catwalk and throws the baseball to Vince. Yeap; this is the finish folks; just accept it.

Vince aims the ball and tosses it at the core; and it shatters which causes the entire satellite dish to crumble from the lack of stableness from the core as most of the babyfaces and heels all bail from the area as we get explosions and the entire device implodes and crumbles to the floor. The smoke finally clears and I have decided to list the tributes for the remaining characters; because I can. BWHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm...Thank you Kit; I needed that. So Mort Chalk is voiced by Charles Kimbrough and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Kimbrough has extensive stage experience. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kimbrough and his first wife, Mary Jane were part of the resident company of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre where they appeared in such plays as Feydeau's "Cat Among the Pigeons" and Jules Feiffer's "The White House Murder Case." In 1971, he was nominated for a Tony for best featured actor in a musical as Harry in Stephen Sondheim's Company. In 1984, he performed in the original Broadway cast of Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. He also starred in the original Broadway production of A.R. Gurney's comedy Sylvia. In 1988, Mr. Kimbrough was cast as Jim Dial, a veteran network news anchor with the integrity and experience of an Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite, on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown. The series ran for ten seasons, or 247 episodes, scoring 17 Emmy Awards and three Golden Globes. Mr. Kimbrough was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1990. He is married to actress and fellow Company cast mate Beth Howland, known for her television work as Vera Louise Gorman-Novak on the sitcom Alice. He studied theater and drama at Indiana University Bloomington, and graduated in 1958.

To younger audiences, he is probably best known for supplying the voice of Victor, the most mature gargoyle in Disney's 1996 animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a role he reprised in its direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.[2] Mr. Kimbrough is part of the cast of the Roundabout Theater Company's 2012 Broadway revival of Mary Chase's Pulitzer prize-winning play Harvey playing William R. Chumley, M.D., with Emmy winner Jim Parsons in the lead as Elwood P. Dowd. The show is scheduled to run from June 14 to August 5, 2012 at New York's Studio 54 Theatre.[3] He began as a Committee Counselor in The Front in 1976 and on Kojak as Greg Burton and Rudy. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance as Victor (the same character he voiced in The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2) is his most recent credit. He has 37 acting credits and 13 self credits to his resume. Techie is voiced by Mark Robert Myers and Bambi 2 doing ADR is the only credit he has. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Jordan is voiced by Patrick Renna and according to the USIMDB: Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts Patrick began acting at an early age in school plays. He started his film career as Hamilton 'Ham' Porter in the popular movie, The Sandlot (1993) with James Earl Jones and Denis Leary and went on to star in The Big Green (1995) and Son in Law (1993). Since then, he has kept busy working in such feature films as_Very Mean Men (2000)_ starring Martin Landau, Matthew Modine and Charles Durning, _Boys Klub (2001) (V)_ starring Beau Bridges and _Everyday (1999)_ with Andrew Keegan. His voice can be heard in the cartoon TV-series turned movie, Recess: School's Out (2001) as the character Jordan.

He has done several Movies of the Week and guest stars on such TV shows as "ER" (1994), "The X Files" (1993) and "Home Improvement" (1991). Patrick can be heard in the new animated series, 'Rollercross'. He began his career as "The Kid That Said Denucci peed in his pants, and later was in a headlock" in Salute Your Shorts in 1992. Recess is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Touring and The Matthew Morrison Story as the bus driver are his most recent credits. He has 43 credits to his resume. Flo Spinelli is voiced by Katey Sagal and according to IMDB: An extremely gifted and versatile performer adept at both comedy and drama, actress/singer Katey Sagal became a household name in the late 1980s as the fabulously brazen, undomesticated Peg Bundy on the enduring Fox series "Married with Children" (1987). During its lengthy run, she received three Golden Globe and two American Comedy Award nominations. As popular and identifiable as her Peg Bundy persona was, Katey assertively moved on without a hitch after the show went off the air, not only starring in other sitcoms and television movies, but portraying characters that were polar opposite to the outrageous role that first earned her nationwide attention. For example, In 2008, she took on the role of Gemma Teller Morrow -- the matriarch of a Hell's Angels-esque California biker gang -- on the series "Sons of Anarchy" (2008), and in 2011, her portrayal earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama. In addition to her busy on-camera scheduling, Katey has retraced her steps back to her first love: singing and songwriting. With the support of her record label Valley Entertainment, she released the album "Room" in 2004, which combined such classics as "Feel a Whole Lot Better" and "(For the Love of) Money" with original songs she penned, including "Life Goes Round", "Daddy's Girl" and "Wish I Were a Kid".

"Room" is her first CD since her 1994 debut "Well". Born Catherine Louise Sagal, her father was the late Boris Sagal, the noted television and film director; her mother, Sara Zwilling, was a director and singer. Katey began performing at age 5 and studied voice and acting at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. A singing waitress during her "salad" years, she first started performing with the band "The Group with No Name", and then caught a break after hooking up with Gene Simmons and his 1970s rock band KISS. In the meantime, she gained valuable experience as a backup recording singer for Simmons and such other established stars as Bob Dylan, Olivia Newton-John, Etta James and Tanya Tucker. Katey also was dynamic performing live backup with diva Bette Midler as one of her "Harlettes" in Bette's wildly avant garde stage shows during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1985, while performing on stage in a musical, she was spotted by talent agents who subsequently cast her as Mary Tyler Moore's feisty co-worker Jo Tucker in "Mary" (1985), a short-lived comedy series. From that point on she focused on film and television. In 1987, she won the role of Peg Bundy in "Married with Children" (1987), and the rest is history. In her post-Bundy career, Katey has continued to demonstrate a strong range, playing a much more responsible parent in the popular sitcom "8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter" (2002). Co-starring the late John Ritter, Katey valiantly moved to single head of household after Ritter's sudden passing in 2003 with highly successful results. Katey has earned equally fine kudos for her television movies, appearing in such fare as Chance of a Lifetime (1998) (TV), a charming romantic comedy that also co-starred John Ritter, God's New Plan (1999) (TV), a tearjerker in which she played a dying mother, and the Disney offerings Smart House (1999) (TV) and Mr. Headmistress (1998) (TV). The voice of Turanga Leela, the beautiful one-eyed sewer mutant, in the animated series "Futurama" (1999), she also has guested on such series as "Ghost Whisperer" (2005), "Lost" (2004), "Boston Legal" (2004), "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (2000) and "Eli Stone" (2008).

Feature films have included Maid to Order (1987), The Good Mother (1988), the Sundance Film Festival favorite Dropping Out (2000), Following Tildy (2002) and the indie I'm Reed Fish (2006). More recently, she played Jack's mother in a live action/adventure retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk (2010) that also featured the talents of Christopher Lloyd, James Earl Jones and Chevy Chase. Katey resides in the Los Angeles area with husband, writer/producer/director/creator Kurt Sutter, whose acclaimed work includes "The Shield" (2002) and the offbeat "Sons of Anarchy" (2008), the latter show created by Sutter with Katey intriguingly cast as a motorcycle club family matriarch. They share their home with three children, Sarah, Jackson and Esmé, and three dogs, Lumpy, Lola and Blue. She began her career as a girl patient in The Failing Of Raymond in 1971. Recess is her DTVA debut and is her only appearance. Futurama as Leela (the alien with the one eye), Glee (Nancy Abrams), There's Always Woodstock (Lee Ann) and Diva.Clown.Killer is her most recent credits. She has 61 acting credits, 64 Self credits and eight soundtrack credits to her resume. Yes; that is it for the tributes. So everyone slowly pops up from the carnage and slowly walks towards the spot where Phil slowly gets up mostly unhurt physically as he walks over and drops to his knees and yells that his plans are ruined, ruined I say! The kids just look at him for a moment; and then cheer for victory. Good; that is the correct booking decision as we head outside the front of the school as Artie is pushing Phil in handcuffs towards the car as Phil is blowing him off because he's classless. Artie mocks him as he forces him into the police car. Fenwick is pushed by the other cop as he pleas for mercy and wants to turn state evidence as he's pushed into the car. The police car door closes as Randell watches and calls Fenwick a squealer. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments.

So we see Finster and Grotkey exchanging notes as Finsters wants to challenge Grotkey to a MMA match to determine who has the best martial artist style which Grotkey isn't so sure since it's only used in self defense. We get a long east pan shot of the kids being hugged by their parents. We see T.J.'s parents with T.J. and Rebecca as they praise him for saving the world; and Dad wants Mom to come with him to talk to the reporters and do the hard sell on T.J.'s heroics. I thought Gus and Vince were the real heroes because Gus got them in position for the finish and Vince was the one who destroyed the machine while T.J. was just there to throw him the baseball to do the finish. Whatever. By the way; T.J. also gives Rebecca his diary and thanks her for helping him which Rebecca gives the same back. She also tells T.J. that he no longer has any control over her as she leaves stage left. Spinelli comes in and asks about the stash of copies in his tree house and T.J. points out that he bluffed the whole time. So Vince comes in and asks T.J, about the rest of summer vacation which T.J. is surprised at this since they should be back at their camps and planning for the futures. Everyone comes in and admits that there is lots of time for such stuff like that. I cannot take Spinelli seriously on agreeing with this. It's PRO WRESTLING after all. Maybe she found out that it was a sexist line of work and decided not to bother with it. Which is actually a rational decision to make. Mikey proclaims that they have little time to spend as kids and want to skip rocks with T.J. at the lake. T.J. likes this and we see them running from the school; but T.J. stops and tells them that he left something inside. The ONE GIMMICK BAND tells him to hurry up with it as they run on the sidewalk stage right. So T.J. walks towards the front of the school as we head to Prickley's office as he is sorting out papers on his desk and opens one of the drawers on the desk as it has a bronze peace symbol. T.J. comes in and he hides it in his desk in shock to seeing him.

So T.J. comes in and thanks Prickley for all the defense of him during this time as Prickley tells him that he thanks T.J. for dragging him into this mess because in the past; it was more than just about promotions and getting to the golf course at 3:45 pm; but it was about the best interests of the kids; and he completely forgotten about his mission as he brings out the peace necklace and states that until today. He wears the necklace as we see banging on the window and it's the ONE GIMMICK BAND calling for Teej; as Prickley tells Teej to play with his friends and even calls him by his pet name. T.J. is surprised by this and thanks Pete for it as he opens the window and climbs out. The kids all run away; but T.J. stops as Prickley playfully yells at him that in September; he will get his revenge on that saggy butt crack on him. That was actually great because he said it without malice. I should point out that "Let In The Sunshine" by The 5th Dimension is playing in the background as T.J. playfully counters that it's a long time away as he leaves and Prickley sits on the window sill holding his necklace as we zoom out; and the CGI is crappy here at the end. Seriously; it looks like a cel shaded Gamecube game on the rotating pan shot and everything looks like cardboard. We see some art on the walls of the school from 1968 too as we see the kids running away from the hard camera on the sky shot. They run off towards the trees and that unofficially ends the movie at 70:00 exactly. This was a really fun; albeit flawed movie which logic breaks in places that I didn't expect it; and stuff that made sense in those that I expected logic breaks. The animation was not good; but it's Sunwoo; what can you do. However; the storyline for the most part is great; although they could have chopped off some of the overused gags and overwritten speeches and created an OAV out of it on direct to video. Not that it matters now since the movie made profit and then some, so whatever. It's not a blockbuster Disney film; but it's a fun film in which Prickley and Miss Finster truly redeemed themselves; and the climax and finish was awesome at the end. I give this *** 3/4 (75%).

However; there is still fourteen minutes left in this movie; so they padded it with a couple of music videos for the credits. So first up is "Green Tamborine" from the Recess Band as the kids sing and play music against a purple background of swirls. Kind of like a purple induced drug haze. Mikey is Robert Goulet here; T.J. singing voice is Randy Peterson (!!); Gretchen is singing with Anndi McAfee, Gus is singing with Blake Ewings voice, Vince and Spinelli are either not singing at all; or Paul Aldon is providing Spinelli's singing voice; if Spinelli was actually singing. I'm not going to bother calling this because it's the end credits sequence. Vince is shirtless, Gus is playing a violin while wearing a green beret hat that screams Fat Albert style. Mikey is playing tamborine and his singing Robert Goulet mode is still as awesome as ever. I have nothing else to say about this; I'll let the screens speak for themselves. Mikey is wearing the same cross symbol that Una was wearing in Destiny Rides Again; and he's shirtless. Great frisbee throwing of the tamborine into the credits there. Gretchen dances hippie style with the colors reversed and we get all trippy. Prickley plays drums in his 1968 gear which is great to see and he gets the hook for no good reason that I can think of. Mikey falls from the sky and lands gently on the flowers and those flower designs all hit the hard camera. This is much better animated than the entire movie now that I think about it. Then the closing shot is the gang all hanging out on the lake as Gus is splashing his legs in the water while T.J. is skipping rocks, and the other simply lie around watching the entire scene go through about a hundred different color styles in about two minutes flat which looked like they took the RPG Maker Palette Swap color bar and slided it to the left and right for a while. That was interesting. Then we get the water effect which washes out the area as the first song ends and now we head to the second song which is Dancing In The Street from Myra or Atomic Cat depending on if you are in North American; or in the UK. We get a blue background with green on the horizontal edges of the screen and we play the credits as a scroll. And that is it; folks, it's over until Christmas break. YAHOO!! **** for the "Green Tamborine" sequence which was the best part of the movie anyway; so that was a win.

THE REVIEW LINE

Whew! I cannot believe that I got this all done in 12 hours flat! I'm just going to cut to the chase on the Review Line: The storyline was actually well done; but it was so overwritten that if they trimmed it down; they would have had a 45 minute OAV; which would have been an even better bet than a cinema release. Moot point I know; but still it's leagues ahead of Ducktales The Movie in terms of quality and profits. The police joke wasn't funny but at least it made sense; problem is that they overused it and it ceased being funny. Having Miss Finster do this spot only would have worked much better. The climax and finish was awesome in heat as every possible logic break I was expecting didn't happen. Phillium's heelish plan did in fact make sense as he used junk science to go completely insane. The movie was brisk in the first 15 minutes; and then it slowed down to molasses to the point that I thought I was not even going to make it to the halfway point, but it picked up near the climax and the finish when Miss Finster managed to make banana yellow colors look cool; and both she and Prickley really earned their crew cuts at the end of it as they got the serious character development they needed to stop being malevolent and just be annoying; but somewhat likable. And really; this is only what I could ask for at this point. I'm really glad that they used licensed music from other bands here; because it would have been a disaster if they did the music in house since they have no quality singers to use at this point. Plus; Mikey singing like Robert Goulet is awesome and it got me through this. I thought the ending credits will animated better than the movie because the CGI effects looked horrible and Sunwoo Animation screwed up some spots during the fight between Phil and the teachers/kids. Overall; this was a well built up episode with an excellent conclusion which could have been even better if there were better animators and less overwritten, overplayed jokes and logic breaks (Kojak somehow getting T.J.'s tape recorder did not amuse me at all; logic wise). So; that's it until the Goof Troop Christmas Special. I'll be doing prep work after December 20th; so this gives me a full month at least to relax. I need a vacation from this and I pretty much made one when I finished this in one full day too. That to me is no small feat; since it usually takes two to three days to finish. So....

Thumbs in the middle pointing up for this movie and I'll see you all next time.

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