Heartwarming / Recess: School's Out

• Finster tells Randall that it's the last day of school, so everyone is off the hook. Well, at least until T.J. and the gang enact one last prank.
• T.J. and the gang give one last farewell to Third Street School... by raiding Finster's extra ice cream and distributing it among the whole playground. Everyone is joyous, from the Diggers to the kindergartners.
• As his final act before moving on to middle school, King Bob passes the crown to his successor - King Freddie The Second. The Ashleys are very touched by the ceremony.
  Bob: May you boss all the kids around with fairness!
• When they're talking in the office, T.J. says that no, he doesn't hate Prickly and respects him; his pranks are only to liven up the school. Prickly, despite his frustration, is not a jerk that he'd hold T.J. back on the last day of school to punish him for stealing the ice-cream and saying he has a saggy butt on the intercom. He just warns him to grow up over the summer and they'll resume this business in September.
• After T.J. fails to get help from his parents or the police, he goes to the golf course where Prickly is practicing his swing, telling the man he saw weird men in the school levitating the safe. Despite being cynical, Prickly knows that T.J. wouldn't give up his summer vacation unless it was important and goes to unlock the school to show him that nothing is wrong. T.J. looks legitimately worried that the principal dematerializes in front of his eyes.
• T.J. rallies the gang to help him stakeout the school when they see the green laser shining from it in the evening. Then T.J. finds Prickly's golfing pants in the school dumpster, which Gretchen confirms as belonging to the man, and they realize he's in trouble after finding a note in the pocket saying "HELP ME!". Everyone decides they need to break into the school to save Prickly from the "aliens".
• Both T.J. and Prickly are being held hostage, with Prickly having been Bound and Gagged as well as left in his underwear and socks. But when Benedict comes to gloat? Prickly tells him to let T.J. go, he's just a kid. T.J. is very surprised, though Benedict isn't. In fact, Prickly being crusty towards T.J. could be interpreted as Anger Born of Worry that the most mischievous kid in fourth grade got captured by an obsessive Big Bad who Would Hurt a Child, in an attempt to rescue his principal.
• Finster at first tells Randall that summer vacation is not a time to snitch, especially late at night when he should be in bed. Then Randall tells her the gang is trying to "break into the school" and she believes him. Cue the two decking out in stealth clothing. To add to it, Randall's snitching leads to Finster finding out about the "cancel recess" plot, making him the Accidental Hero.
• The ending. Before running off to enjoy the rest of the summer with his friends, TJ shares a genuinely tender moment with Principal Prickly—climaxing with Prickly calling him "Teej", and TJ calling Prickly "Pete".
  "You did me a big favor dragging me into this mess. I didn't get into teaching for the promotions, or the pension plans or so I could be at the golf course by 3:45. I... I did it because I wanted to help you kids. I'd forgotten that... until today."
  • Really, Principal Prickly kinda becoming a sort of Papa Wolf towards the kids of his school, which kinda brings back the young man from the 1960s who saved his school's Recess Time from his former friend. Prickly regained his Friend to All Children card after these events reminding of him of why he became a teacher.
  • This is expanded on in Taking The Fifth Grade, set after the movie. Part of the storyline results in T.J. going on a room strike after several poorly thought out new school policies making life miserable for the new fifth graders, and while Prickly is more sympathetic than he would have been in the original series, his hands are tied as he's still beholden to the school board. However, after T.J. almost falls off his roof, Prickly saves him, and decides to make a stand with his student, protesting that the new directives are stupid and, ultimately, ineffective. Sure enough, having an adult faculty stand up makes the school board members admit that they had just gone along with the "expert" ideas because they were afraid of getting fired, and the new directives get overturned when everyone involved admits that they hated them the whole time.
• The last scene of the movie with T.J and friends running off to enjoy summer vacation together, with "Let The Sunshine In" playing in the background, and Prickly digging out his old peace symbol medallion and hanging it around his neck for the first time in decades.
  • During the final shot of Third Street, you can see a small part of the school's paint job from the 60s still remaining
• The gang meeting with TJ in his treehouse after they all manage to sneak out of summer camp to be with him. It climaxes with them sharing their favorite summer memories together over a bowl of ice cream. Awwww...
  • Equally sweet is that when Gus bursts into tears over his realization that he'll never have summer memories like the ones his friends are describing and glomps Gretchen, no one mocks him (even Spinelli is just confused about why he's crying) and even though Gretchen is obviously startled to be hugged out of the blue, she's quick to pat him on the back reassuringly.
  • Not to mention, he finally DOES get to make those memories with the gang, as they rush off to what may or may not be the last summer of childhood.
• The gang singing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" together. Gus and Gretchen have their arms around each other's shoulders as they're singing.
  • Made all the more heartwarming by the fact that TJ's older sister, Becky, was the one who taught it to them...back when she was younger, and wasn't ashamed of being seen with kids.
• While locked in a cage, Prickly tries to calm down a panicking T.J. as he's screaming for someone to help them. As T.J. starts saying this isn't a situation for calming down, Principal Prickly gives a speech which manages to convince TJ not to give up saving summer vacation, while revealing the fact that Prickly himself was once a carefree kid just like TJ. Doubles as a Tear Jerker.
  Prickly: I'll let you in on a little secret, Detweiler. Every adult you've ever known was a kid at sometime in his life. You think we don't remember summer vacation? Riding bikes down by the creek, catching polliwogs in a jar, camping out under the stars? Well, you're wrong! Some days I sit there in my office, looking out at you kids on the playground and I think, "They don't know how good they got it. In a few years, they're all going to be grownups like me and all those good times will just be memories for them, too". So go ahead. Put a whoopie-cushion in my chair. Cover my carpet with fake vomit. Make fun of my "big, saggy butt". But don't you ever say I don't care about summer vacation, 'cause those memories are the last part of childhood I got left.
  • He says this after T.J. calls him out on how he and every adults are like Benedict, wanting to get rid of summer vacation. Afterward, T.J. apologized for thinking otherwise. Prickly says apology accepted and reveals that he pickpocketed Benedict's keys. That's why he wanted to calm down T.J.
• Most of the teachers' reactions to the kids leaving are pretty indifferent. Miss Grotke on the other hand, is crying. D'aww.
• It's a small moment, but when the gang are escaping from the school while being chased by ninjas, Spinelli quickly takes hold of T.J. by the shoulder with as they're turning to run. She wanted to make he was by her side.
• TJ's friends go to his older sister, Becky, to get help, but she's still mad at TJ for blackmailing her into driving him around, and yells "Give me one good reason why I should help! Just one!" Mikey, dead serious, responds with this: "Because he's your little brother, and he needs you." There's a pause, followed by Becky saying that she'll be right out.
• When T.J.'s walkie-talkie is taken away from him when he's trying to inform the gang about Benedict's motive to get rid of summer vacation, leaving him Lost in Transmission. As soon as his end goes dead, the first one to freak out is Spinelli...who's been implied to have a crush on T.J.
• A little twisted due to coming from an unrepentant villain, but the fact that Benedict is still in love with Miss Finster, even though she has now gotten old and, to be honest, rather ugly. Of course, she still rightfully rejects him because he's still a kid-hating fascist wanting to get rid of recess. In addition, he threatened the kids of her school with serious actions, something which she herself will not overlook; even all the students (including T.J. and his gang) are extremely happy to see Finster coming to their rescue.
  • Building on that, Finster revealed that she brought all the teachers and staff to save both their students and summer vacation itself.
  • Special note to Ms. Grotke, who adopts a martial arts pose and dives into battle as a Screaming Warrior. Normally, Ms. Grotke is a Nice Girl of a teacher that goes against the grain to educate her kids. She also proves she would go to battle for them if the duty calls for it. Even Ms. Finster is impressed by Ms. Grotke's martial skills as she happily suggested a fair sparring to see who's better in combat.
  • During the climax, the bald guy goes after T.J. after he and Prickly had previously dumped a vat of chowder on him. But before he can get the chance to beat up the boy, Miss Finster arrives to the rescue by giving the bald guy's face the speed bag treatment, knocking him out. Even T.J. genuinely thanks Finster for this, seeing that she is truly capable of compassion and vigilance despite her grouchy behavior, similar to Prickly.
    T.J.: [smiles as he watches Finster taking down the bald guy] Thanks, Miss Finster!
    Miss Finster: Just doing my job, Detweiler.
• Every single adult in the movie except Benedict and his goons think that getting rid of recess is a horrible idea and openly protest against it when they hear about it, dating back to Benedict's original plan in the 1960's when the parents picketed the school in protest, and got the superintendent involved, who also strongly objected to it and fired Benedict. This includes the U.S President who tossed Benedict out of his administration over his anti-recess crusade.
• While it's causing problems in context (since they are insisting that they're doomed without TJ present), there's something surprisingly sweet about how all the kids recruited for the final battle have the utmost faith in TJ and his plans. This includes kids who aren't friends in the slightest to TJ and crew and some of whom are outright antagonists.
• The fact that the movie expanded Prickly and Miss Finster’s history. It shows that they enjoyed their jobs as teachers and were close friends. Not to mention that they’ve known each other for at least thirty years and continue to work together in their senior years.
  • It also made it clear that despite their grouchy behaviors towards the students at school, both Prickly and Finster still upheld their genuine ideals of what's truly best for the children, unlike Benedict, who abandoned them just to satisfy his ego.
• The rest of T.J.'s friends deciding to stay with him instead of going back to their summer camps, stating they'll have plenty of time to think of the future: they don't have enough time to spend as kids, and want to spend it with T.J. for his sake.

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