Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street

Recess got a direct to video film released on November 6, 2001. Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street starred Andrew Lawrence, Ricky D’Shon Collins, Jason Davis, Ashley Johnson, Courtland Mead, Pamela Adlon and James Earl Jones.

Principal Prickly, Ms. Grotke, and Ms. Finster head home during a snowstorm and get stuck in a snowbank. They pass the time telling stories of their experiences with TJ and his friends.

Ah, there’s nothing like making more money off of episodes you’ve already aired by connecting them to a loose frame.

And that’s pretty much what the movie is. Why couldn’t Disney have done something original? School’s Out was a good and valiant effort at releasing a theatrical film of one of their shows with an original storyline. These compilation films just seem to drag on and on because it’s crap you’ve already seen before. Unreleased episodes would have been good too.

#70.

 Boy I’ve watched quite a few movies haven’t I?

Seasons of Giving

Winnie the Pooh got another direct to video film for Thanksgiving 1999. Seasons of Giving included an original story and two episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It also starred all the voices of the series.

Tigger (Jim Cummings) wants to ski, but Pooh (Cummings) and Piglet (Steve Schatzberg) point out that there’s no snow and when they go ask Rabbit (Ken Sansom) what day of the year it is, his calendar pages blow from November to Groundhog Day. Since they don’t have a groundhog, they use piglet, who can’t see his shadow.

During Thanksgiving, Rabbit changes the dinner that everyone brought and assigns them different tasks to make the dinner a traditional thanksgiving dinner

On Christmas Eve, everyone is decorating Rabbit’s house and Tigger arrives with a letter from Kessie (Laura Mooney), a bird rabbit took care of. He tells everyone the story of how he found her.

Not much to say about this one. All the characterization is still intact from the original film, albeit a little bit exaggerated.

The individual stories are good and bring out the best of each character, especially the last one and Rabbit’s neuroticism with taking care of someone.

However, the original songs leave a little bit to be desired. They’re not as good as they could be, but they’re ok. I don’t think the Sherman Brothers could make a bad song.

#40