Sky High (2005)

Sky High (2005)

6/10

Starring

Kelly Preston

Michael Angarano

Danielle Panabaker

Kurt Russell

Directed by Mike Mitchell

If you haven’t been blessed to see Sky High, I beg you to do so. The movie isn’t spectacular, nor is it some groundbreaking masterpiece, but the idea of superheroes having a superhero school? Great. Then you have heroes getting married, having super kids, and those kids going to superhero school? Ah!!! You have to see it.

It reminds me of something we all love: The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018). Sky High came out after The Incredibles (2004), and both are from the Mouse House (Disney). The movie plays with many dynamics and flaunts girl power way back in 2005. We have a character named Layla, who is all about girl power, vegetarianism, and pacifism.

Then there’s Will, the son of the superhero duo The Commander and Jetstream. Will is something of a regular guy who’s lying to his parents about having powers so they can be proud of him. The only person who knows the truth about Will’s lack of powers is his best friend, Layla.

It’s time for Will to go to high school, and children of heroes attend a special high school hidden in the sky called Sky High. There, the kids are grouped by their powers into Heroes or Sidekicks. It’s at this point we learn the truth about Will’s superpowers—he doesn’t have any. Even though his parents are the most popular heroes in the world, their son has no powers. He’s relegated to sidekick duty, along with his best friend, Layla.

Will also has eyes for a girl at school, Gwen. Without spoiling the whole movie, things don’t go as Will planned for his high school life as a sidekick. When he’s attacked by an arch-enemy he didn’t even know he had, Will has to develop quickly to protect himself. Along the way, he makes friends with the sidekicks, but as the movie progresses, we see him mess things up and put his relationship with Layla on the line. We also get to see Daddy’s demons come back to haunt him.

The young cast honestly outshines the adults, carrying the movie surprisingly well. But that’s not my only issue—it leans way too hard on predictable tropes, making the story feel pretty formulaic. The characters are fun but mostly just high school stereotypes, and the villain’s plan is as generic as it gets. On top of that, it never really tries to do anything new as a superhero movie, just playing it safe instead.

Sky High is a cool film, and it’s a huge surprise that it didn’t spawn a sequel. It seems like there were so many threads the writers could’ve pulled to make tons of movies and spinoffs. Well, we know Disney—they’ll probably remember this gem in their archive one day and turn it into an animation or a TV series. Until then, Sky High is always a joy to watch.