In the growing trend of children's TV series-turned-animated features, Recess: School's Out fits somewhere in the middle. This pleasant and mildly diverting effort is not as witty or well conceived as Rugrats in Paris, but also not as overly frantic as The Rugrats Movie or as flatly executed as Doug's 1st Movie.

Based on characters from Disney's Recess, a popular TV cartoon that's been on the air since 1997, School's Out focuses on six 10-year-old friends who, led by the feisty T.J. Detweiler (voiced by Andy Lawrence), decide to bypass various summer camps in exchange for trying to stop a maniacal rogue teacher (James Woods) from altering the orbit of the moon and doing away with summer vacation, a.k.a. the ultimate recess.

It's all suitably ridiculous, well meaning and agreeable enough for the little ones, many of whom will find great amusement in running gags such as the group of kindergarteners who are basically paste-eating savages.

For parents, inside jokes and multigenerational pleasures are minimal, meaning that there is little in this weightless endeavor to keep them entertained, with one notable exception: an homage to the style and sound of "Green Tamborine" courtesy of none other than Robert Goulet.

Recommended: Yes