As summer vacation is about to begin for the kids and even the adults of Third Street School, a bunch of men break into a military base for a top-secret plan. Then they go to Third Street School to use as a headquarters.

Shortly after, it’s the last day of school, and the students are celebrating. When Ms. Finster tries to prevent the children from having ice cream, she fails because “Principal Prickly” gave a green light to enjoy them.

But it’s actually T.J. Detweiler using a voice changer. Principal Prickly catches him and confiscates the speaker.

Later, he is in Ms. Grotke’s class, counting down till school is over. Once that time comes, everyone cheers and runs out.

T.J. is looking forward to spending the summer with his friends, Spinelli, Mikey, Vince, Gretchen, and Gus. However, they are all going to camp. Poor T.J. feels heartbroken and lonely.

While eating breakfast with his family, T.J.’s parents try to get him to focus on other ways to enjoy the summer. But it doesn’t exactly help him.

At some point, T.J. notices that peculiar things are happening at Third Street School. He even discovers a tractor beam.

Shocked and suspicious, T.J. tells different “trustworthy” adults such as his parents, the police, and even Principal Prickly about this activity. But none of them will believe him—not even the cops (they laugh about it in his face).

Yet Principal Prickly goes toward the school but still suspects that T.J. is pulling a prank. Then suddenly, he is zapped and disappears into thin air.

Horrified, T.J. goes to his teenage sister, Becky, and reads her diary as a way to push her to pick up his friends from camp. She does what he wants, even if it’s against her will.

Like the grown-ups, T.J.’s friends refuse to believe that he’s telling the truth about the school—until they all notice a giant laser beam coming out of the roof. Not only that, but T.J. also finds Principal Prickly’s pants in the dumpster with a note saying, “Help me!” So, the kids decide to investigate.

They spy on these mysterious science men as they work on a bizarre plan. Even though they’re trying to hide, Mikey eats a snack and is unable to hold in his burp. This distracts the men, who take the children out of the air vent they were sneaking in through.

While most of the kids escape, T.J. gets captured and trapped with Principal Prickly, who is tied to a chair with no pants on. He then tells T.J. what happened 30 years ago.

He, Ms. Finster, and the head science guy, Benedict, were all teachers in training. Benedict was chosen to be principal—except that he wanted to take away recess. Shortly after his success with that, though, everyone protested against it. So, recess was brought back. And Benedict went down a dark path.

Meanwhile, T.J.’s friends review these strange documents from the school. Spinelli discovers a date book, which may seem like it’s about romance. But it actually focuses on something called a lunar perigee.

Gretchen figures out that the laser beam is targeting the moon once it nears Earth. That is because Benedict wants to get rid of summer vacation forever. His idea is to have a permanent ice age and keep kids indoors all year round in order to increase test scores.

But T.J. and the other children won’t stand for that. Can they stop him.

Despite only watching some episodes of Recess as a kid, this movie kept my attention and did not get me lost one bit. There was enough information from the series that could make the film easily stand on its own.

I thought the plot and premise were interesting, although moving the moon’s distance from the Earth probably wouldn’t change its climate in real life. But then again, this is a cartoon.

T.J. was very likable and determined to enjoy the summer. I appreciated how he pointed out to Benedict that taking away summer won’t stop kids from having fun on school vacations. I also found it funny when he pretended to be Principal Prickly with a voice changer.

His friendships with his friend group were nice, and they worked very well as a team. I even liked when they thought about good memories and started singing a childhood song.

Becky was the typical teenage girl who found her little brother annoying. T.J.’s mom was sweet, but his dad was hard to have sympathy for due to his harsh attitude.

Even though cartoons can get away with unrealistic happenings, I felt that the police laughing about T.J.’s report was too much—not to mention how unprofessional that is.

Aside from characterization, I think the pacing was quick enough, although some parts may have been a little slow. But the movie is not even an hour and a half long.

Lots of twists and turns occur, too. See the movie to find out what they are.

Overall, I enjoyed Recess: School’s Out. Although it would be useful to watch the TV show before seeing this film, it can easily be watchable without even knowing a bit about the series.

Anyway, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.