| “ | Dr. Philium Benedict: This time, Pete, I'm gonna humiliate you! This time, I'm gonna prove to the world that you were wrong and I was right! Principal Prickly: About what?! Dr. Phillium Benedict: ABOUT RECESS, ABOUT FREEDOM, ABOUT TEST SCORES!! I found a way to prove my theory. I'm gonna get rid of the biggest recess of them all: I AM GONNA GET RID OF SUMMER VACATION!!! |
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| ~ Benedict ranting out his true plan to Prickly and T.J. |
Dr. Phillium Benedict is the main antagonist of the 2001 Disney animated film Recess: School's Out, based on the 1997 TV series Recess.
He was the former principal of Third Street Elementary School and former U.S. Secretary of Education. He was also the former best friend of current principal Peter Prickly, the ex-boyfriend of current groundskeeper Muriel Finster, and the founder and head of the Anti-Recess Legion. He is also the arch-nemesis of Prickly, Finster and T.J. Detweiler.
He was voiced by James Woods.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Benedict got himself into the hippie subculture in the past alongside Prickly and Finster, but unlike the two (who were sincere believers of the subculture), Benedict only used it as a way to 'pick up chicks', implying that he was using the peaceful subculture to engage in relationships with women.
- As his first act as Principal of Third Street Elementary, he abolished recess in a misguided attempt to raise test scores. which has caused a lot of misery to the students, thus resulting low test scores. And even when being confronted by the parents during a protest against his pathetic policy, Benedict refused to back down by claiming that he's free to do what he wants with the school.
- After Benedict gets fired by the Superintendent for his refusal to back down while Prickly becomes the new Principal, Benedict believed that Prickly sold him out to the Superintendent out of spite in order to get the job and broke his friendship with him; despite Prickly truthfully telling otherwise as his intentions were far from being malicious.
- He even blamed Prickly for destroying his own relationship with Finster, when it was Benedict's own decision of banning recess that caused Finster to break up with him (as she supports recess and that Benedict's anti-recess policy would cost her job as school groundskeeper). Even after tripping on the stairs, Benedict refused any help from a concerned Prickly and Finster and instead vows revenge on Prickly.
- After quitting his job as a teacher, Benedict went into politics and rose to become the Secretary of Education. However, still sticking to his pathetic beliefs toward recess, he would later exploit his job as Secretary of Education in an attempt to abolish recess on a nationwide scale, but was foiled and fired by the President.
- Upon being fired by the President, Benedict founded a radical organization called the Anti-Recess Legion, gathering up several scientists, agents, and even murderous ninjas to join in his cause. With this new organization, he formed up a new plot to create a permanent winter on Earth so he could get rid of summer vacation by moving the moon into a different orbit, which could have killed all of Earth's population, just so that kids would stay inside studying, hoping it would raise test scores; he even believes that this would allow him to be elected as the new President of the United States, implying that he's very bitter about his dismissal as Secretary of Education.
- As part of this plot, he and his men broke into a U.S. military base and stole a tractor beam, even having one of his henchmen (the Ugly Bald Guy) to tase two of the military officers to unconsciousness.
- Following the closure of Third Street Elementary for the summer, Benedict claimed it as his new base; even stealing Prickly's main office by claiming it as his own. He even had his men to transform the auditorium into a laboratory so that he can have his scientists perform tests with the tractor beam on the moon. He even had the school's phone lines to be cut off so that no one would ever contact the authorities; he even riggs the school's front doors to dematerialize anyone carrying the school's keys in case anyone tries to investigate.
- He kidnapped Prickly by dematerializing him into the school and having him tied up to a chair when the latter tries to investigate; he even burned Prickly's golf shoes and threw away Prickly's pants, all nothing more than just means of humiliating Prickly. He even gets the Ugly Bald Guy to pose as Prickly outside the school property, all just to draw the authorities' attention away from the school.
- He mistreats his scientists by yelling at them whenever they try to point out several flaws to his scheme; he even punished one of them (Dr. Rosenthal) for failing the experiment on the first test when moving the moon, as Rosenthal was last shown being dragged out of the room with the implication that he was never seen again, implying that either he was put in solitary confinement or executed by Benedict's men. Even after promoting Rosenthal's assistant to fill in for the dismissed Rosenthal, Benedict furiously demands the assistant to have the tractor beam machine fully operated by next morning, implying that he will have the assistant punished as well if he fails.
- Upon learning that T.J. and his friends were eavesdropping on his scheme, Benedict angrily orders for them to be captured, though he succeeds in capturing T.J. and having him confined alongside Prickly in the storage room. Even for his earlier claims that he hates violence, Benedict has no qualms of letting his men either harm or kill the children; he doesn't seem to have a problem with his ninjas throwing deadly shurikens at the kids and chasing them down with nunchucks, thus proving himself to be a hypocrite; even Finster and Randall themselves are horrified to witness T.J.'s friends being chased off by the murderous ninjas.
- When T.J. and Prickly freed themselves and rallied all of the students to confront Benedict, he summons more guards to stop them. Even when Gretchen manages to shut down the school's electrical system earlier to turn off the tractor beam, Benedict counters this by having his scientists to use a back-up power generator to turn the machine back on. Even when being told by T.J. about the flaws of his plot, Benedict refused to care by saying that he can still try to accomplish it, all just to spite Prickly and the students.
- When Finster arrives to the rescue by gathering up the teachers to help Prickly and the students, Benedict tries to win her back, still believing that Finster has feelings for him despite their breakup. However, Finster angrily declared that she already abandoned whatever feelings she had for Benedict due to his heinous actions and that she would rather help Prickly, the students, and the teachers in stopping him. This drove an angry Benedict to completely drop any amount of care he had for Finster and orders his men to attack all the students and teachers (including Prickly and Finster). This implies that Benedict has willingly abandoned whatever good times he had with Prickly and Finster for his sake of his selfish ego; and that he doesn't care if his men would hurt and/or kill Prickly and Finster as long as it suits his goal.
- In a last-minute attempt to succeed his goal, Benedict pushes his assistant scientist away from the controls as he personally attempts to fire the beam into the moon himself; even threatening to tase Prickly when the latter tries to stop him. Even when being punched in the face by Prickly, he manages to fire the beam to the moon before having the controls jammed to ensure that it won't be reversed; even taunting Prickly when the latter tries to shut down the beam in vain. Fortunately, T.J. foils this by having Vince to throw a baseball at the photon channeler, destroying the tractor beam and foiling Benedict's plot for good.
- In the end, as he and his conspirators are being arrested and taken into custody, Benedict angrily insulted the arresting policeman by calling the latter a 'classless feeb' while demanding that he be released as he was a former Secretary of Education, only for the policeman to angrily refuse by sarcastically claiming that he was the 'former princess of Morocco'.
- He has some comedic moments, such as him saying "somebody better say excuse me" when Mikey burped out loud, and him dramatically saying Miss Finster was the only woman he ever loved before TJ points out how disgusting that was, and when Prickly claiming there was a spot on his tie only for him to get punched. However, these comedic moments don't retract from his actions as he is still taken seriously in-universe.
- Unlike most Recess antagonists/villains who are either jerks (such as Randall and the Ashleys), bullies (such as Lawson, Gelman, and Kurst), stern authority figures (such as Prickly and Finster), one-time criminals (such as Earl Raymond and DeSilvo), or even corrupt officials (such as Mayor Fitzhugh, Tad White, James Stone, Dr. Slicer, Gilda and SAL 3000), Benedict is easily the show's most evil character and is played seriously as all of the other antagonists/villains are standard by comparison (with the exception of Dr. Slicer).
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He suffers from Fridge Horror as while it is made explicit that his plan would cause a new Ice Age, the fact that it would end all life on Earth is glossed over as the work does not bring up the potential threat to life.
External Links[]
- Dr. Phillium Benedict on the Villains Wiki
- Dr. Phillium Benedict on the Disney Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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