The last super hero movie of summer 2005, and maybe the last kids movie too, is Disney’s SKY HIGH. It’s directed by Mike Mitchell (DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO), with a script originated in the ‘90s by Paul Hernandez, later rewritten by Bob Schooley & Mark McCorkle (creators of the cartoon Kim Possible, plus they wrote 7 episodes of the New Kids on the Block cartoon).

It’s a play on comic book super heroes, but not based on any existing ones, so it’s your basic dollar store super heroes with standard abilities, generic names and no real origins, they just genetically inherited powers. It’s the kind of comic book movie where the opening credits have to be in comic book font and there are drawings that do not look worthy of a comic book that dissolve into the live action shots. You know – like a comic book! Have you seen these? A bunch of little squares with stuff drawn in them.

Michael Angarano (last seen in LORDS OF DOGTOWN) stars as Will Stronghold, a kid whose parents are the world’s most famous super heroes, The Commander (Kurt Russell, last seen [briefly] in JIMINY GLICK IN LALAWOOD) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME). He’s about to start attending Sky High, a secret school floating in the sky for the children of super heroes. But he’s kinda terrified because he hasn’t developed super powers, which seem to be related to and/or a symbol for puberty. So he’s very self conscious.

Some of the other kids in the movie are his best friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker, MOM AT SIXTEEN), who has a crush on him and plant powers and doesn’t really believe in super heroing; his buddy Zach (Nicholas Braun, later in RED STATE), who swears his power is glowing but nobody believes him because it doesn’t show up in the daylight; Magenta (Kelly Vitz, later in SIMON SAYS) who has cool purple hair and boots and is a shapeshifter but  can only turn into a hedgehog; Ethan (Dee Jay Daniels, The Hughleys), a nerd who can give exposition and melt into a puddle; and Warren Peace (Steven Strait, later in 10,000 BC), a guy with fire powers who hates Will because The Commander put his dad in prison.

On the first day of school the kids have to go to the gym and show their powers to Coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell, whose other 2005 releases were ALIEN APOCALYPSE, MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN and the video game Evil Dead: Regeneration) so he can sort them into heroes and sidekicks, also called “hero support.” All of the kids I just listed except for Warren are sent to sidekick class, taught by Mr. Boy, formerly All-American Boy (Dave Foley, MONKEYBONE). Will sort of gets a preview for how the world treats sidekicks when he finds out Mr. Boy was his dad’s sidekick but neither of his parents ever mentioned him.

So there’s some teen drama from Will having to admit to his disappointed dad that he doesn’t have powers, and become comfortable with the idea of being “hero support.” Him and his friends are underdogs sticking together to deal with bullies and what not. But when he ends up in a fight with Warren in the cafeteria he suddenly unlocks super strength. This causes him to be transferred away from his friends into the hero class, which he’s sad about but also it’s amazing because the t.a. Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, THE RING TWO) offers to become his private tutor and then he has lunch with her and he’s uncomfortable about his friends not being able to sit with him but on the other hand he’s sitting next to Gwen.

Of course there is also a secret super villain plot which involves luring Sky High alumnus The Commander and Jetstream to the homecoming dance by giving them an award. When the generic sitcom thing happens of Will inviting Layla to her favorite Chinese restaurant and then forgetting about it because he’s with Gwen it turns into a nice subplot about how Warren works at the restaurant and turns out to be a nice guy and she goes to the dance with him to try to make Will jealous but it doesn’t turn into a competition, Warren actually becomes a good friend to both of them. It’s obvious but I liked it. I like a face turn.

It’s pretty clever about ways to do all the high school movie tropes in a world of super heroes. It does what it says it’s gonna do. Where does that fit into the 2005 state of comic book movies? I guess if you can make the very serious take like BATMAN BEGINS it’s also time to do the Disney movie for pre-teens. It’s obviously for people vaguely familiar with the concept of super heroes, it does not show the same concern for what comic book fans will think. The closest thing to a “one for the fans” is having Lynda Carter play the principal, Principal Powers. It’s really more interested in fitting in lots of comedy people (Kevin Heffernan from Broken Lizard, Foley and Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall, Tom Kenny and Jill Talley from Mr. Show, Jim Rash but before Community).

This was four years before the WATCHMEN movie but it’s got the same thing of feeling like a commentary on super hero tropes but it’s stuff that hadn’t really made it to movies yet. Or maybe this was just in time since it came out right after FANTASTIC FOUR. I thought of that movie because there’s a kid with stretch powers, there’s a kid who turns into a rock monster (animated), and Warren basically has the same powers as Johnny Storm except he can’t fly and you know he’s a bad boy because he has long hair. He’s a little like Jacob in the TWILIGHT movies, actually, but not as awkward. The digital FX are very cartoony looking – it reminded me of the end of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY when the kids are walking away all stretched out. There’s a charm to how that look has dated.

I don’t really have anything bad to say about this one except that it didn’t do much for me. It was kinda cute, definitely painless, and I can see how it was probly pretty enjoyable if you were the target age. I think it was Winstead’s first time playing a boy’s ultimate crush, and obviously she does well with that, plus (spoiler) gets to have fun being evil at the end. The villains are really way more Power Rangers than comic book, but that’s fine.

Panabaker is also good as the charming best friend who Will should obviously pay more attention to but boys are dumb. Come to think of it it’s pretty wholesome – the unpopular nerds and weirdos get their glory, but it’s more about them being there for each other, the main boy makes up for his dumb boy mistakes and doesn’t have to turn into some macho dude now that he has been acknowledged for his super strength (and flying).

I know I knew SKY HIGH existed at the time, wondered if it was worth watching for Russell, did not as far as I remember know Campbell was in it – and he’s pretty well used. Obviously he knows how to play a comical asshole gym teacher whose super power is yelling. I vaguely remember hearing kind of good things about this movie from talkbackers or someone, but it didn’t really cross over much into the world of adults without children. It does seem to have been profitable, but not hugely so.

I guess the closest summer of 2005 comparison is THE ADVENTURES OF SHARKBOY AND LAVAGIRL IN 3-D, which I would say was more creative in its invention of super heroes, but inferior in every other aspect, from production value to actually being able to sit through without questioning the choices I’ve made in my life to end up being a guy who purposely watches these things. Since I’ve learned that quite a few people who grew up with SHARKBOY are still fond of it, I gotta assume there’s a following for SKY HIGH too. A decade-plus later there were reports of a sequel set in super-college, and then it was gonna be a TV series with all the younger characters reprising their roles, but none of that happened. I guess it’s none of my business if it ever does or not.

NOTES:

2005 shit:

The soundtrack is all ‘80s songs covered by current-to-2005 bands, for example the end credits are a band called Bowling for Soup doing a pop-punk version of “I Melt with You.”