Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street (November 6, 2001)

This is a direct-to-video compilation of four unrelated episodes of the Recess TV Series, "Principal for a Day", "The Great Can Drive", "Weekend at Muriel’s", and the series' Christmas special "Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave" (told as flashbacks by the school faculty members while stuck in a snowstorm). It was followed by two more direct-to-video Recess films in 2003: Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, and Recess: All Growed Down. I review this, as I did the theatrical film released earlier this same year, Recess: School’s Out, with minimal knowledge of the show (besides watching a few episodes as a kid) so take my review with a grain of salt. The framing used to loosely tie these episodes together involves Principal Prickly getting his car stuck in a snowbank, deciding it has to be the Recess gang's fault, but the teachers disagree and instead look back and remember all the good times they've had with T.J. and the rest of the gang. The first episode follows Mikey as he becomes principal for a day. In the beginning, he uses his newfound power to get rid of most of the rules but slowly he reverts into a tyrant. Before the day ends, he reverts back to his lax ways and throws a school wide party. Next The focus is a Thanksgiving canned food drive which, instead of simply being a good deed done for the benefit of the hungry, turns into a bitter competition. This is rectified by the end when everyone comes together to collect more food cans than they could on their own. After this Miss Finster tells the story of a time when Spinelli was forced to spend a weekend with while her parents are away. At first, they do not get along, with Spinelli feeling that Miss Finster is boring but eventually she comes to enjoy her time after Miss Finster loosens up. Only the last episode, however, has anything to do with Christmas, which I feel is unfortunate. But the episode, which sees Mikey lose, then regain his belief in Santa Claus, is extremely sweet with the merry sentiment that if you believe in your heart that Santa is real then he is as well as everything he stands for. Additionally, hearing the singing voice of Mikey, the late Robert Goulet, was a treat, with his a smooth dulcet tones. Overall, these episodes are entertaining, though I wish there were more connecting them together. It seems like it was just a cash grab on Disney’s part and so, while I would rate these episodes individually better, as a package they are not great.

Final Rating: 4/10