| “ | 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. Benedict's true plan. |
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 archenemy of Prickly, Finster and T.J. Detweiler.
He was voiced by James Woods.
What Makes Him Pathetic?[]
- He only got into the hippie subculture back in the 60s as a way to 'pick up chicks', unlike Prickly and Finster who were genuine believers of the subculture's peaceful ideals.
- His first act as principal of Third Street Elementary was to abolish recess in a misguided attempt to make test scores go up.
- When the parents protest over such a radical move (which the show itself proves only makes kids miserable), he smugly tells them that he can do what he wants with the school.
- When he gets fired by the superintendent and replaced by Prickly, he blames his former friend for betraying him and taking over his job, and bows he'll get revenge on him someday. Even though Prickly was only genuinely concerned for the kids and had no intention of taking over his job.
- He quit his job as a teacher and got into politics. He became U.S. Secretary of Education, until he was fired for trying to use his position to abolish recess once again, only this time nation-wide.
- He and his henchmen broke into a U.S. military base and stole a tractor beam, having his henchman Kojak (the Bald Ugly Guy) tase two innocent military officers into unconsciousness.
- After the school's closure the closure of Third Street Elementary for the summer, he took over the school, claiming Prickly's office as his own, and having his men turn the school's auditorium into a laboratory to perform tests with the tractor beam with the moon.
- 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.
- Is incredibly abusive towards his own henchmen. Yelling at his scientist when they try to suggest a better base of operations, and punishing them for the slightests mistakes. He can't even get the name of his right-hand man Fenwick right.
- When his former head scientist, Dr. Rosenthal, failed to successfully move the moon, he had him taken to 'detention', which clearly horrifies the poor man. And we never see him again.
- He sends his men to capture T.J. and his friends for eavesdropping on his scheme, and even has T.J. captured and trapped inside the same room he's keeping Prickly hostage in, showing that for all his claims to "detest violence", he has no qualms about harming children if it's necessary for him.
- Reveals to Prickly and T.J. that he plans to alter the Moon's orbit to affect the Earth's weather patterns, essentially creating a new Ice Age, all in order to get rid of 'the biggest of all recesses': summer vacation.
- When Muriel and the other teachers come to aid the kids in stopping his plans, he sends his men to kill all of them, even his own ex-girlfriend Muriel, showing that he never really cared for her.
- Despite his claims to be doing all this for the kids' benefit, it's made clear that he cares nothing for them, and is only interested in furthering his career and satisfy his own ego.
What Makes Him A Pinhead?[]
- Nobody in-universe, aside from his own minions (and even that's debatable), supports his radical ideas, to the point where he got fired from his two jobs because of it. So contrary to what he thinks, nobody would support his plan to get rid of summer even if he actually succeeded.
- He genuinely expected his ex-girlfriend, Muriel Fisnter, to be on his side, and blames Prickly for her decision to break up with him. Never considering that Muriel is a recess monitor, and that his plan to get rid of recess would leave her out of a job.
- Despite being a professional educator, he never seems to realize the clear flaws with his plans:
- His plan to create a new Ice Age would only result in the extinction of all wildlife, plant-life and humanity as a whole.
- If he did cause the Earth to be on a state of eternal winter, the entire northernm emisphere's soil would become infertile, causing rampant starvation and quite possibly the worst economic crisis in human history.
- Even if he did manage to make kids stay home, the entire education system would collapse, and test scores would become the least of people's concerns.
- And worst of all, he expects people to see him as a hero for this (even believing people would want to make him President of the United States), when all it would do is cause people to see him as a genocidal madman.
- Even if the results of his plans weren't that catastrophic, he never seems to realize that the existence of a long vacation is not dependant of the seasons, and even T.J. points out to him that kids would quickly adapt to the weather change and still enjoy their summer vacation.
- Not to mention that he never seems to consider that other forms of "recess" exist (such as winter vacation, spring break, suspensions of classes for whatever reasons, and even holidays).
- Even by the show's own logic, getting rid of recess is a flawed plan. As there was an entire episode where the government tested out the idea of abolishing recess, which only resulted in the kids becoming miserable and their academic performance to become worse, meaning that his plan was doomed to fail no matter what.
Trivia[]
- He's the only Recess character to be a Pathetic Pinhead.
- Because of the catastrophic consequences his plan could've lead to, he could be considered one of the most dangerous Pathetic Pinheads in Wesstern Animation.
External links[]
- Dr. Phillium Benedict at the Villains wiki
- Dr. Phillium Benedict at the Near Pure Evil wiki
- Dr. Phillium Benedict at the Recess wiki
- Dr. Phillium Benedict at the Disney wiki
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Pathetic Pinheads who are from the Disney company