Full disclosure before we start. I didn’t really get into Disney’s Recess. I’ve seen a few episodes and I know the basic premise: a group of kids try to have fun despite the strict rules of the principal and one of the teachers. Both sides at times have a good point. The playground at recess, where most of the show takes place, has a silly assortment of cliques from the supposed king, to the kids who like to dig, to the “feral” kindergarteners. The show aired on ABC for six seasons, as part of both Disney’s “One Saturday Morning” block (as well as UPN’s “One Two” block) and ABC Kids. I thought it was okay, but not really my thing.
Still, the adventures of TJ, Spinelli, Vince, Gus, Gretchen, and Mikey were quite popular. Six is a lot of seasons for Saturday morning shows, and it had fans internationally. So it’s not surprising that series creators Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere (apparently that IS his last name) would want to do a “next generation” type show. It worked for Star Trek and Saved By The Bell, so why not? Lost Media Busters on X-Twitter apparently found the pitch bible for Recess: Next Bell, and while the original post appears to be taken down for whatever reason, I don’t see any notations that they learned it was fake, so at least for now we’re going on the assumption that this was a real attempt to go back to Third Street School for new adventures with new kids. Even if it isn’t, everything wrong with modern Disney kids shows and writing in general even among acquired properties like Star Wars and Marvel is on display in this pitch, and I’m kind of surprised the same creators worked on it, because my limited exposure says this doesn’t make any sense. I’m hoping any big Recess fans in the readership can explain some of this since this does not look like a good showing for these characters or their replacements.
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For the record, I’d be ignoring this bit of culture war nonsense if they weren’t making and planning fictional works based on this little known historic figure, a trivia footnote in the history of the samurai. This is happening for cultural reasons rather than historic accuracy or good story reasons, so the end product is destined to fail based on recent media failings. It is funny watching the people who complain about cultural appropriation (like in the recent Daily Video where a black girl in a kimono using the word “kawaii” bothered everyone except the Japanese) are now guilty of it with something that actually matters to the Japanese. Apparently they learned nothing from the “black Cleopatra” debacle.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on June 4, 2024 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged commentary, gaming versus history, Hollywood versus history, Yasuke.
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