La Cour de récré: Rentrée en classe supérieure

Production shut down on ABC's "Recess" series after it reached 65 episodes, as is mandated by producer Disney. But "Recess" proved to be so popular that an additional 13 episodes were commissioned. For some reason, though, ABC never broadcast the new episodes and they were instead edited into three direct-to-video movies. This entry, comprised of three episodes loosely joined together, finds the "Recess" gang finally being promoted to the fifth grade. But it seems they've lost some of their magic with the change in grades. First of all, there are distracting problems with character voices. Courtland Mead (Gus) and Jason Davis (Mikey) don't quite sound like they usually do, and Myles Jeffrey has replaced Andrew Lawrence as TJ (Lawrence's voice was sounding pretty deep in the final episodes of the series, so this change is understandable). Jeffrey is OK, although he hasn't captured TJ's spunk the same way that Lawrence did. The real problem, though, is that the stories just seem...tired. The first, in which TJ becomes a truant to protest changes at school, is simply boring. The last one, in which Spinelli decides she is too old for Halloween, seems like a rehash of previous stories. Only the middle entry, in which the kids join a secret club, comes close to the series' standards. Fans of the series will understandably want to catch up with their favorite characters, but this movie may make them realize why all good things must come to an end.

Despite being touted as a 'movie' in the style of 'School's Out' this is in fact three episodes of the show sandwiched together, and although you can't really see the join, the quality of the animation and story telling isn't on a par with that of 'School's Out'.

It's not a bad collection of tales, but the new voices in the cast take a while to get used to, and the writers have taken some liberties with believability that are a bit daft.

Watchable, yes, totally enjoyable, no

I know it's a cartoon but why is the first day of school on Halloween? Aside from that small detail, it's pretty nostalgic. Not a bad movie.

I always thought Recess was a really cute show, It was enjoyable and you could actually sit through a half hour or an hour of it, unlike other shows.Was the show realistic or ethical? Of course not, Did anyone really expect it to be? But it really was still cute. The characters were cute and I thought the animation was very well done. This movie was cute as well, the show was better, but not much, all in all it's worth a look if you enjoyed the show, Is it worth buying? That's up to you. Just keep in mind if you never cared for the show, you probably won't like this much either. It is a cute followup to the original, and is worth a look for fans of the show!

Thankfully better than 'Recess: All Growed Down', but 'Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade' is still a bit of a chore to watch.

This again features a couple of different stories, though to be fair their integration into the film is much improved if still a bit messy. The cast are as they've always been, solid but not exactly memorable. Animation-wise it's decent.

This is more on the level of 'Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street', yet still miles off 'Recess: School's Out'. I simply don't understand why they didn't create three unique stories for these sequels, as they did for the original production. Compiled stories are, in my opinion, lazy.

Not a series of films that I'll be revisiting, but they are ones that have pretty respectable ratings across a few platforms so it seems I'm in the minority. Each to their own, as always!