User:2607:FE50:0:8110:F16D:41F6:96C6:EF6A/sandbox

Recess (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Recess is an American animated series created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere (credited as "Paul and Joe") and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, with animation done by Grimsaem, Plus One Animation, Sunwoo Animation, and Toon City. The series focuses on six elementary school students and their interaction with other classmates and teachers. The title refers to the recess period during the students daily schedules, following the North American tradition of educational schooling, where students take a break from their lessons and are outside in the schoolyard. During recess, the children form their own society, complete with government and a class structure, set against the backdrop of a regular school.

Recess premiered on ABC on August 31, 1997, as part of the One Saturday Morning block (later known as ABC Kids). Beginning on September 11, 1999, it also began airing on UPN as part of its block, Disney's One Too. The series ended on November 5, 2001, with 127 episodes and six seasons in total. The success and lasting appeal of the series saw it being syndicated to numerous channels, including ABC's sister channels Toon Disney, which later became Disney XD, and Disney Channel.

In 2001, Walt Disney Pictures released a theatrical film based on the series, Recess: School's Out. It was followed by a direct-to-video second film entitled Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street that same year. In 2003, two more direct-to-video films were released: Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade and Recess: All Growed Down. The characters also made an appearance in a 2006 episode of Disney's Lilo & Stitch: The Series.

Overview

Recess portrays the lives of six fourth graders—popular and confident Theodore Jasper "T.J." Detweiler (Ross Malinger, Andrew Lawrence), athletic Vince LaSalle (Rickey D'Shon Collins), tough girl Ashley Spinelli (Pamela Segall Adlon), gentle giant Mikey Blumberg (Jason Davis), genius Gretchen Grundler (Ashley Johnson), and shy new kid Gus Griswald (Courtland Mead)—as they go about their daily lives in a highly clichéd school environment at Third Street Elementary School, where students have set up a microcosm of traditional human society complete with its own government, class system, and set of unwritten laws. They are ruled by a monarch, a sixth grader named King Bob, who has various enforcers to make sure his decrees are carried out. The society has a long list of rigid values and social norms that imposes a high expectation of conformity upon all the students. Some of these social norms being dress codes, behavior monitoring, ....(find more by rewatching some clips of the show and finding sources to prove it)...

Recess is illustrated to be a symbol of freedom—a time when children can express themselves and develop meaningful relationships. Most episodes involve one or more of the main six characters seeking a rational balance between individuality and social order. They are often defending their freedom against perceived threats by adults and school administration or social norms. The group's leader, T.J. Detweiler, tends to have the most complete vision of this struggle, though even he has times when he inadvertently leads the group too far toward an extreme of conformity or non-conformity, and needs to be drawn back to even ground by his loyal friends. (Bring in more information here about the other characters to flesh this out a little more...or see if there is a better spot for the info to go, but definitely talk about Ashley Spinelli here or there)...

The show's introductory music, art design and style often evoked the feel of prison escape movies such as The Great Escape, and the playground hierarchy and school administration were often depicted in ways that paid homage to common themes in such films. Additionally, many episodes parody classic films such as Cool Hand Luke, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Cast and Characters


 * Ashley Funicello Spinelli (voiced by Pamela Adlon): Spinelli, going    simply by her last name, is a wrestling     fan and is the tomboy of the group. Although     short in stature for her age, Spinelli maintains a tough-guy image, is     powerful and often tries to use violence to solve her problems. During the     gang's misadventures, Spinelli is the one who gets reluctant kids to talk,     usually by threatening or intimidating them during interrogation. With her     reputation, a lot of Spinelli's problems happen when she is shown to have     a weakness, as she prefers to be unflappable and strong-willed. While she     doesn't dislike her first name since she was named after her great aunt,     the first woman to win the Iditarod Sled Race, she kept it hidden because     she doesn't want to be associated with "The Ashleys", a clique     of snobby popular girls. She has a talent for art, though she claims she     "only does it to blow off steam". Her fiery and fearless     personality has gotten on the good side of Miss Finster multiple times.     Spinelli is Italian American. (androgyny mention. also look at the article again and see if it mentions the other characters too...)

'For instance, in the article, I Never Wanted to be an Ashley: Androcentrism and Gender Entitlement in Disney’s Recess, one character, Ashley Spinelli, is represented androgynously through the series Recess'' as a way of vehemently opposing the normative feminine representation of the group of girls known as “The Ashleys”. Ashley Spinelli’s character with her “scratchy voice” simply goes by Spinelli and dresses in a “leather jacket” unlike the Ashleys who dress in “knee length socks and skirts, cardigans or blouses, have shoulder length hair, and speak in obnoxious, mocking voices” (Chandler 148). Chandler argues that androcentric thinking “positions normative masculinity as the default mode of being…as morally superior. Normative femininity, by comparison, is positioned as an imposition, performed by people who either do not realize that they are inferior, or who are content to be inferior” (151-52). She recognizes these ideologies in Recess playing out on the playground and the social constructions the children have built within a power hierarchy of who has control on the playground, King Bob.'''

'''Chandler, Emily. "'I Never Wanted to be an Ashley!' Androcentrism and Gender Entitlement in Disney's Recess." Gender Issues.2 (2016): 148. Web.'''