Recess: All Growed Down

"The Kindergarten Years."

―Tagline.

Recess: All Growed Down

Format	Direct-to-video film
Network	N/A (Film)
Run	61 minutes
Broadcast Infomation
Seasons	N/A (Film)
Episode #	N/A (Film)
Status	Both at VHS and DVD are out of print Now on Disney+
Related	Recess Recess: School's Out Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade

Recess: All Growed Down is a direct-to-video animated film released on December 9, 2003. The film is based on the television series, Recess, and is the final direct-to-video film based on the series.

It was released simultaneously with another direct-to-video Recess film, Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade.

Plot[]

Spoiler Warning: Plot twists, ending details, etc. are included in the plot. You have been warned.

In this movie, The Recess Gang remembers how they all met back in kindergarten. It begins with T.J. four of his gang looking forward to starting a game of croquet with Mikey's new set, but they needed an empty space to do so. They find a nice quiet piece of ground and are about to set up when they are abruptly captured by Kindergartners. are surprised that they seem to no longer like the gang. The reason is that they have a new leader called Chief Stinky who despises Big Kids and because of being bigger orders the other Kindergartners around and forces them to hold the gang as prisoners.

Desperate to be released, the gang starts telling stories of past episodes to make the Kindergartners remember how well they used to get along. T.J. tells the first story about when he encountered the Kindergartners which is from the episode "The Legend of Big Kid". After that Gretchen tells them the story about the "pee wee pals" from the episode "Wild Child". After that Mikey asks Tubby to remember how the two became friends in the episode "Kindergarten Derby". But despite all three stories being told, the Kindergartners are still too afraid of Chief Stinky to admit that they remember.

After a while Gus comes outside from the nurse's office and starts looking for the gang, only to get captured as well. To convince Hector (the Kindergartner in pajamas) about how he was his "safety man", he tells a story about when he first went to kindergarten. At first the other gang members remind him that he did not come to the school until the gang was in 4th grade (an allusion to their memories in the episode "The New Kid"), and besides, none of them even want to think about when they were savage Kindergartners. But Gus points out that long before, he briefly had been a Kindergarten student.

In his story, his parents bring him to Third Street School. Gus is a wild child and thinks that the other students he meets will be just like him, but to his surprise, everyone is acting well behaved in class, and Miss Finster reads them a story. When recess begins all the children are quiet and nobody acts like they do in the future. Gus notices Gretchen just reads and never gives anyone ideas, Vince just runs around quietly, the Diggers just play in a sandbox, Swinger Girl and Upside-Down Girl do not swing roughly or hang upside down, and Spinelli is a timid little girl with a doll. Gus then meets one little boy with a red cap whose name is Theodore Jasper Detweiler. Gus befriends him and gives him his nickname: T.J..

Shortly afterward, Gus realizes that everyone is being neat and behaved because they are afraid of Mikey who acts as a monstrous bully, and Randall is the one who takes him. Gus is enraged and he later reveals the reason that Mikey acted like a monster is because Randall told him lies and said he was his only friend. Mikey is actually friendly and explains that Randall was behind everything because he wanted to take control of the whole grade and have everything belong to him.

Then Gus convinces all the Kindergartners that they should be like him and be wild like a normal Kindergartner, then all the kid begins to act like their future selves, Vince becomes more active, Gretchen starts passing her theories to other kids, Spinelli realizes that she is a very tough girl, and T.J. becomes brave and adventurous. Randall is horrified and quickly tells Miss Finster that everyone is all messy. Miss Finster is furious and demands to know who did this. When she finds that it was Gus, she takes him to Principal Prickly's office. However, T.J. and the gang form a plan and rescue, Gus, leaving Spinelli's doll in the chair he was sitting in. Gus is forced to leave the school the next day.

After he finishes his story, Gus tells Hector that he and all the other Kindergartners should stand up to Stinky. So, Hector trips Stinky, making him cry and as the others rejoice, Captain Sticky makes Hector the leader. The Recess Gang is then released. T.J. and the gang tell Gus that he was very clever to make up such a story, Gus agrees that he just imagined it all and then the gang starts to spend the rest of the recess having fun together.

However, Miss Finster who is watching, tells Randall to keep an eye on Gus, and then vows that someday she will get revenge, hinting that Gus' story was true, after all.

Episodes[]

"The Legend of Big Kid" (flashback 1; introduced by T.J.)
"Wild Child" (flashback 2; introduced by Gretchen)
"Kindergarten Derby" (flashback 3; introduced by Mikey)
"All Growed Down"

DVD Bonus episodes[]

On the DVD, three episodes were included as a bonus, marked as "Fan Favorite Episodes".

Goofs[]

Crediting/grammar error: Sunwoo Animation Co., Inc. is incorrectly credited as "Sunwoo An imation Co., Inc.".

Trivia[]

Regular[]

It is revealed in this movie that Gus was in kindergarten with the rest of the gang for a brief period of time before having to move away again after only one day of Kindergarten at Third Street School- unremembered by the other five children. The incongruence of this timeline is deemed foolish by the characters.
- However, several other episodes seem to contradict this. In "The New Kid", Gus does not mention that he was there for a brief time, nor does Miss Finster ever mention he was a troublemaker. He should have been able to remember the gang. Also, in "The Great Jungle Gym Standoff", T.J. has a flashback to when the gang (excluding Gus) met as Kindergartners on Old Rusty- and they are all in the typical Kindergartner style. However, given their extremely young age at the time, it is likely that the gang were unable to accurately recall the events in this movie.
- It is also very strange his parents would go through all the paperwork and trouble to enroll Gus in possibly the middle of the semester, just to have him there for one day and then suddenly move again.
- It is possible that Miss Finster does not remember either and just assumes Gus was telling the truth.
Due to adolescence, Mikey, Gus, and Randall all sound noticeably different, despite being voiced by their original actors.
Certain stores sold this movie and Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade as a two-pack set. There was no fancy packaging; the two DVDs were both shrink-wrapped together instead.
The opening previews from this VHS are the same previews as "Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade".

Continuity[]

This movie marks the first time where Myles Jeffrey voices T.J. (due to the compilation taking from older episodes, T.J. has a total of 3 voices that can be heard. He is the only character of the gang with the most voice differences, not counting background characters)