Saturday, February 26, 2005

Cartoon Chronicle: Recess

I gave Mike D. (not the Beastie Boy; the one a few blocks away) a hand in filming his video project for... um... whichever class that was. I played a perverted Englishman (my accent isn't even that convincing. The BBC America has done nothing for me), and provided voices for 3 or 4 of the Invisible Ninjas. Apparently, one of my ninjas is a cross between Super Milk Chan and Rush Hour's Chris Tucker. I'd like to make a public statement about why I refuse to buy an iPod. They cost too damn much! I could spend a couple hundred dollars on an iPod, but then I could also buy a portable CD player with an mp3-CD function, buy a pack of blank CDs, and still have several hundred dollars left over. The iPod Mini makes about as much sense as M&M Minis; apparently, the original was just too damn BIG for some stoner to fit in their 'huge hands', so the rest of us must suffer by being sold a miniature substitute with no recognizable size difference to the naked eye. Bring out your dead! It's time for a new Cartoon Chronicle... Recess It's everything you remember about grade school-- politics and all. Admit it. When you were in elementary school, half of the kids on the playground were identified purely on what they did during recess. Such is the case of Disney's Recess, where all of the playground archtypes are clearly labeled. I mean clearly. Meet TJ Henderson, the popular kid who gets along with everybody. His friends? Gretchen, the smart girl who burries herself in books; Vince, the token black guy who's goal is to be a pro athlete; Mikey, the huge kid with a poetic heart of gold; Spinelli, the tomboy who can kick everyone's ass on the playground; and Gus, the new kid from the traveling military family. Together, their goal is to make it through recess everyday at school. There's also a large ensemble of supporting characters who are known only by their playground occupations: Digger Dan and Digger Dave, the kids who spend every recess playing in the dirt; Swinger Girl, the kid on the swing set whose goal is to swing over the bar; the Ashleys, the girls who hang out simply because they have the same first name; Cornchip Girl, who eats Fritos all day; and King Bob, the 6th grader who runs the joint. The interesting part about this show was that, while most kids only imagine the faculty is out to get them, the faculty really was out to get the main characters. The principal and one of the teachers actually went out of their way to set TJ up for a major fall. The principal got so desperate to watch over the children, he resorted to a 2001 Hal parody. Often times, his plans were so ridiculous, he would end up getting humiliated when he tried to take TJ and his friends to court... and lost... twice. Would I recommend it? It's good fun, and it was great to watch back when it used to come on Saturday mornings. It wasn't particularly laugh-out-loud funny, but it was still very entertaining in other ways. The characters were there, and they carried the show more than the stories they told... except for Butch, the kid who tells all of the local urban legends and myths. Much Love

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