tek's rating:

Sky High (PG)
Disney Movies; Disney Wiki; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Disney+; Google Play; iTunes; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube

This came out in 2005, but I didn't see it until 2021. It's about a teenager named Will Stronghold, whose parents, Steve (Kurt Russell) and Josie (Kelly Preston), are actually the world's greatest superheroes, the Commander (super strength) and Jetstream (supersonic flight). So of course they expect great things from Will. However, he secretly hasn't yet gotten any super powers. The story starts on his first day at a high school called Sky High, which hovers above the clouds. Students get there via flying buses; Will's is driven by Ron Wilson, who is also the son of superheroes, but never obtained any powers of his own. Will is accompanied by his best friend, Layla (Danielle Panabaker), whose power is making plants grow, and another friend named Zach, whose power is glowing. When they first get to school they meet a couple of bullies named Speed and Lash, whose powers are, respectively, super speed and stretching. Then they meet the student body president, Gwen Grayson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), on whom Will instantly develops a crush. Unknown to him, Layla would like to be more than friends with him, so she's jealous, but she doesn't really show it.

All the freshmen are taken to the gym, where they meet Principal Powers (Lynda Carter). They then meet Coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell), who has each student demonstrate their powers so he can separate them as either heroes or sidekicks (aka "hero support"). Since Will has no powers, he's designated a sidekick, as is Zach. Layla could have been a hero, but refuses to show Boomer her powers, because she doesn't believe in the hero/sidekick dichotomy, so he also makes her a sidekick. The three of them make a couple other friends in their hero support class, Ethan (who can melt himself) and Magenta (who can shapeshift into a guinea pig). The class is taught by the Commander's former sidekick, All-American Boy, now simply known as Mr. Boy (Dave Foley). At lunch, Will learns that he already has a nemesis: Warren Peace, whose power is throwing fireballs. His mother is a superhero and his father a supervillain; he bears a grudge against Will because the Commander defeated his father and sent him to prison.

Eventually Will does gain super strength, and is transferred from hero support classes to superhero classes, including "mad science", which is taught by Professor Medulla (Kevin McDonald, from Kids in the Hall). Will gets to sit at the popular table at lunch, and invites his sidekick friends to join him there, but a friend of Gwen's named Penny who can duplicate herself does so to take up all the empty seats so Will's friends can't sit there. Anyway... a bunch of stuff happens that I don't want to spoil. But it all culminates in a homecoming dance, where a supervillain attacks, and it's up to Will and his friends to stop her and her allies.

I guess that's all I want to say, except that it's a reasonably fun and funny movie.


family index