History WesternAnimation / RecessSchoolsOut

It is the fourth movie based off a Disney television series to be released theatrically, the second (and most successful) movie based on a Creator/OneSaturdayMorning show, and the final One Saturday Morning based movie of the '90s lineup (''Teacher's Pet'' would be the last movie from the block altogether, unless one show makes a revival of some sort). ''School's Out'' was produced from 1998 (during the show's ''second'' season, which pretty much explains how popular it was) to 2000, and was released on February 16, 2001.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Benedict's mission to destroy recess and later summer vacation comes from a desire to improve students' test scores in the US. However, while he is not lying about this and [[InsaneTrollLogic genuinely believes]] [[KnightTemplar he's in the right]], the ''reason why'' he desires such is only because he thinks doing so will benefit & advance his career, make people view him as a hero, and possibly get him elected as President. Deep down, he couldn't care less about how anyone, especially not students, would feel or be negatively impacted about his actions. And that's without mentioning the fact that he has zero problem with creating a new Ice Age that would definitly be an ecological disaster for the entire world. Ultimately, Benedict only cares if ''he'' benefits from his "noble" actions.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Benedict's mission to destroy recess and later summer vacation comes from a desire to improve students' test scores in the US. However, while he is not lying about this and [[InsaneTrollLogic genuinely believes]] [[KnightTemplar he's in the right]], the ''reason why'' he desires such is only because he thinks doing so will benefit & advance his career, make people view him as a hero, and possibly get him elected as President. Deep down, he couldn't care less about how anyone, especially students, would feel or be negatively impacted about his actions. And that's without mentioning the fact that he has zero problem with creating a new Ice Age that would definity be an ecological disaster for the entire world. Ultimately, Benedict only cares if ''he'' benefits from his actions.

Followed by a sequel, ''WesternAnimation/RecessTakingTheFifthGrade'' in 2003.

''Recess: School's Out'' (or ''Recess: The Movie'' in certain countries) is a 2001 animated film of the popular Disney animated series ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''. It is produced by [[Creator/DisneyTelevisionAnimation Walt Disney Television Animation]] and directed by Chuck Sheetz, with the screenplay by Jonathan Greenberg and story by Greenberg and franchise creators Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere. It was the fourth movie based off a Disney television series to be released theatrically, the second (and most successful) movie based on a Creator/OneSaturdayMorning show, and the final One Saturday Morning based movie of the '90s lineup (''Teacher's Pet'' would be the last movie from the block altogether, unless one show makes a revival of some sort). ''School's Out'' was produced from 1998 (during the show's ''second'' season, which pretty much explains how popular it was) to 2000, and was released on February 16, 2001.

* NeverMessWithGranny: As in spite of her old age, Finster is very skilled at boxing and will not hesitate to use her skills against those who would try to threaten her or any of the students. The bald guy ends up learning the hard way when he tried to beat up T.J. out rage.

* DontMessWithGranny: As in spite of her old age, Finster is very skilled at boxing and will not hesitate to use her skills against those who would try to threaten her or any of the students. The bald guy ends up learning the hard way when he tried to beat up T.J. out rage.

** As much as Prickly likes to ensure law and order that puts them at odds with the students (especially T.J. and his friends), he is horrified and disgusted by Benedict's plan to abolish recess and summer vacation at the cost of endangering the Earth to ensure his success. He even chews out against Benedict for his narcissism and delusions.
-->'''Prickly:''' (''to Benedict'') Yeah, you always were more concerned about appearances than people, Phil!
** As much as Finster enjoys enforcing rules on the playground that strikes fear into the students, she is extremely appalled of the revelation that Benedict wants to abolish recess and summer vacation for the sake of raising test scores. She even is more outraged to see that Benedict is more than willing to have his men physically harm the students (as shown to her horrified reaction of seeing T.J.'s friends being threatened by Benedict's ninja henchmen), and that she will protect the students by using her fists against Benedict's men, much to the kids' delight. She even manages to take down Benedict's Dragon from harming T.J., who genuinely thanks her in return.
-->'''Finster:''' (''to Benedict'') HEY, TEACHER!!! LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!!
** This even applies to Randall himself as even though he enjoys using his snitching skills on his fellow students (mostly T.J. and his gang), he too was horrified to see T.J.'s friends being threatened by several of Benedict's ninja henchmen. He is even more disgusted about Benedict's plot to abolish summer vacation, given to his reaction of witnessing Fenwick attempting to avoid arrest for his involvement in Benedict's plot by attempting to blame Benedict to save his skin, declaring this to be low even for an informant like himself.

* FanDisservice: Downplayed with Miss Finster as she shows up to the children's rescue ''in a lime-colored jumpsuit'', which leaves very little to the imagination; even Dr. Benedict still finding her attractive doesn't help. However, the students (including T.J. and the gang) are happy to see Finster coming to their aid (given to her MamaBear nature), so it's the thought that matters.

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Miss Finster is hard on the kids because it's her job to maintain order. She especially has it in for T.J. Then the Bald Guy tries to beat him up in the climax. Miss Finster quickly goes MamaBear and challenges him instead.

** Randall comments that one of Dr. Benedict's goons is a squealer as he tries to weasel his way out of being arrested. Justified; Randall only informs on his fellow kids, and would never rat on his boss Miss Finster.
** Finster doesn't like Grotke because of her hippie teachings and lifestyle. It is revealed here that Finster had herself once been a hippie teacher. However, in the end, [[PetTheDog Finster warms up to Grotke for her martial arts skills; even suggesting a fair sparring between the two.]]

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Benedict's mission to destroy recess and later summer vacation comes from a desire to improve students' test scores in the US. However, while he is not lying about this and [[InsaneTrollLogic genuinely believes]] [[KnightTemplar he's in the right]], the ''reason why'' he desires such is only because he thinks doing so will benefit & advance his career, make people view him as a hero, and possibly get him elected as President. Deep down, he couldn't care less about how anyone, especially students, would feel or be negatively impacted about his actions. And that's without mentioning the fact that he has zero problem with creating a new Ice Age that would definity be an ecological disaster for the entire world. In the end, Benedict only cares if ''he'' benefits from his actions in the end.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Benedict's justification for destroying recess? ''To improve test scores in the US''. However, his aspiration of becoming President through this as well as his attempt to ''jumpstart a new ice age'' certainly makes it seem more like a grab for power than anything good.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Prickly, Finster and Randall have shown several moments about this in the movie:

-->'''Finster:''' (''to Benedict'') HEY, TEACHER!!! LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!!\\
'''T.J.:''' (''he and the other kids smile in relief'') Miss Finster!

* EveryoneHasStandards: As much as Finster enjoys enforcing rules on the playground that strikes fear into the students, she is extremely appalled of the revelation that Benedict wants to abolish recess and summer vacation for the sake of raising test scores. She even is more outraged to see that Benedict is more than willing to have his men physically harm the students (as shown to her horrified reaction of seeing T.J.'s friends being threatened by Benedict's ninja henchmen), and that she will protect the students by using her fists against Benedict's men, much to the kids' delight. She even manages to take down Benedict's Dragon from harming T.J., who genuinely thanks her in return.

* KnightOfCerebus: In spite of his comedic quirks, Benedict's actions are played seriously compared to other antagonists, as his endgame would result a catastrophic disaster that would condemn all life on Earth. Even the gang's frequent antagonists (such as Prickly, Finster, Randall, the Ashleys, Lawson, Gelman, and Kurst) find Benedict to be despicable for the same reason, therefore cementing his place as the most dangerous villain in the Recess franchise.

* SoMuchForStealth: TJ and his friends sneak into the school to are spying on the Dr. Benedict and his scientists from the air vent and have been successful in hiding their cover... until Mikey suddenly feels a burp coming on and unable to hold it in, he belches so loudly that not only does it shock everyone who hears it, it blows their cover, too.

--->'''Benedict:''' ''(seeing that his plot is foiled)'' All my plans.... my hopes and dreams...... ruined..... RUINED!!!!

* EurekaMoment: Earlier in the film, Gretchen tells her counselor at Space Camp that she's been noticing anomalies in the moon's orbit. It isn't until that while she and the rest of the gang are going through a crate of stuff they took from the school to figure out Dr. Benedict's plan, that she connects the dots thanks to Spinelli looking through his date book.

* EvilIsPetty: It's heavily implied that Benedict had his goons remove Prickly's pants after bounding and gagging him for no other reason than to humiliate him.

* DiabolicalMastermind: In spite of the pointlessness of his beliefs and grand plot of eliminating summer vacation, Benedict was from stupid as his plan involves stealing a tractor beam from a military base without casualties, using Third Street Elementary as his main base of operations during the summer, rigging the school's front doors to teleport anyone inside the school in case anyone attempts to investigate, having the bald guy to pose as Prickly and cutting off all the school's phone lines to draw off the authorities, using a back-up generator when the students shut down the school's electrical system, and summoning more guards in case the students and teachers would show up to stop him. Even when the students and teachers manage to fight off Benedict's men, Benedict wastes no time to activate the tractor beam before having the mechanism jammed to ensure that his plot would succeed.

* NearVillainVictory: Benedict will stop at nothing to ensure that his plot succeeds without any setbacks; even when being told about the flaws of his plan and the severe consequences that it will bring, Benedict doesn't care as he still wants to accomplish it. Even when all of the students and teachers team up together to take down most of his men while Prickly manages to punch down Benedict, the latter still manages to activate the tractor beam to move the Moon; he even taunts Prickly for it. If Vince hadn't threw the baseball at the photon channeler to destroy the beam, then Benedict would've won.

* DiabolicalMastermind: In spite of the pointlessness of his beliefs and grand plot of eliminating summer vacation, Benedict was from stupid as his plan involves stealing a tractor beam from a military base without casualties, using Third Street Elementary as his main base of operations during the summer, rigging the school's front doors to teleport anyone inside the school in case anyone attempts to investigate, using a back-up generator when the students shut down the school's electrical system, and summoning more guards in case the students and teachers would show up to stop him. Even when the students and teachers manage to fight off Benedict's men, Benedict wastes no time to activate the tractor beam before having the mechanism jammed to ensure that his plot would succeed.

* DiabolicalMastermind: In spite of the pointlessness of his beliefs and grand plot of eliminating summer vacation, Benedict was from stupid as his plan involves stealing a tractor beam from a military base without casualties, using Third Street Elementary as his main base of operations during the summer, rigging the school's front doors to teleport anyone inside the school in case anyone attempts to investigate, using a back-up generator when the students shut down the school's electrical system, and summoning more guards in case the students the teachers would show up to stop him. Even when the students and teachers manage to fight off Benedict's men, Benedict wastes no time to activate the tractor beam before having the mechanism jammed to ensure that his plot would succeed.

* AndImTheQueenOfSheba: Or rather, as the police put it to [[spoiler:a handcuffed Benedict at the end of the film]], "And I'm the Former Princess of Morocco".

* LatexPerfection: This is how [[spoiler:the Ugly Bald Guy impersonates Principal Prickly, complete with DramaticUnmask when T.J. is discovering what's really going on. One of the guards even compares the Blad Guy to Creator/RobertDeNiro]]

** Double-subverted with Randall and Ms. Finster. Randall, bored out of his mind, spies on TJ and the kids and reports to Ms. Finster when he tells her that they're going to "break into the school" during the summer. Ms. Finster decides to go and stop them, but they both miss most of the action that the gang encounters. [[spoiler:After the police laugh at Ms. Finster when she reports the ninjas that were threatening the gang, she rallies the teachers as an army to stop Benedict, having realized what he was doing. If she hadn't done that, Benedict would have enacted his plan.]]

* LatexPerfection: This is how [[spoiler:the Ugly Bald Guy impersonates Principal Prickly, complete with DramaticUnmask when T.J. is discovering what's really going on.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Wearing the same outfits as the other guards doesn't stop Benedict's mooks from instantly recognizing that T.J. (a kid) and Prickly (a middle aged man) aren't part of their crew.
** The kids decide, after calling for reinforcement from their classmates, to infiltrate the school themselves to rescue T.J. and Prickly while stopping Benedict. Miss Finster had the same idea with the teachers, ''but'' there is one kid missing from the battle: Randall. As a teacher and a responsible adult, Miss Finster would not bring any student, let alone her favorite snitch, to a dangerous situation. Randall would also be TheLoad and Miss Finster would have to worry about his safety. Him sitting out the battle means that Miss Finster can protect kids like T.J. in need of a rescue.
** While the FinalBattle has the kids knocking out and incapacitating guards with water balloons and silly string, one hilarious moment breaks the momentum. Gus shakes up grape soda and sprays it at ninjas. After a few moments, they shake it off. Then Gus reveals it was a trick to let Spinelli crush them with her flying press.
** When Benedict unilaterally banned recess in 1968, he was overruled and fired by the superintendent within days of enacting this policy because it vastly overreached his authority to implement, and he'd created a mass outcry among parents. He later became the Secretary of Education, but was fired once again, this time by the President, for trying to get rid of recess nationwide.
** Benedict's plan is to create eternal winter on the United States by ''moving the moon'' so there's no summer vacation at all, causing students to spend more time studying and thus raise their averages, and people will love this so much that he will be made President. The heroes tell him that what would really happen is that 1) vacation periods would be provided to students anyway, regardless of what kind of weather befalls America and 2) that stunt with the moon would bring an ''apocalyptic ice age'', which would probably make studying of any kind useless. Benedict thinks it over for a second before saying [[IveComeTooFar that he can at least try anyway.]]