Sky High (2005 film)

Sky High
Directed by	Mike Mitchell (director)
Written by	Paul Hernandez Robert Schooley Mark McCorkle
Produced by	Andrew Gunn
Starring	Michael Angarano Kurt Russell Kelly Preston Danielle Panabaker Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Cinematography	Shelly Johnson
Edited by	Peter Amundson
Music by	Michael Giacchino
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	July 29th, 2005
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35 million

Sky High is a superhero film from Walt Disney Pictures that opened in the United States on July 29, 2005. It was directed by Mike Mitchell and was written by Paul Hernandez, Robert Schooley, and Mark McCorkle.

Plot

Template:Spoilers Sky High is the story of fourteen-year-old William Theodore Stronghold (Michael Angarano), the son of two famous superheroes: the incredibly strong, nearly-invulnerable Commander (Kurt Russell) and the super fast flying Jetstream (Kelly Preston). He and his best friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker) are facing their first day of high school, which is even more daunting for Will since he will attend his parents' alma mater, a school for superheroes called Sky High. Along with other super-powered teenagers, the two are driven to school in a flying schoolbus piloted by a man named Ron Wilson (also the son of two heroes, but who never developed any powers.) When the kids arrive, they're accosted by two bullies, Speed (Will Harris) and Lash (Jake Sandvig) but are saved by the interference of School Commitee President Gwen Grayson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her friend Penny (Malika and Khadijah Haqq); Will immediatelly gets a crush on Gwen. Meanwhile, Will's parents defeat a giant robot, and his father takes its eye as a trophy.

After a welcome speech by Principal Powers (Lynda Carter), Coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell) forces the kids to demonstrate their powers in public. It turns out that Will does not have any superpowers (a fact he had kept hidden from his parents) and almost gets hurt during the test; the school's nurse, Nurse Spex (Cloris Leachman) explains to him his powers may be latent, or they may never surface. Will is relegated to the school's "sidekick program" (or, as it is called, "Hero Support") which happens to be taught by his father's old sidekick, All-American Boy (Dave Foley). Layla refuses to have her powers tested and is relegated to the same class. There, the two befriend other kids with seemingly useless powers: Zack (Nicholas Braun), who glows in the dark; Magenta (Kelly Vitz) who can transform into a guinea pig, and Ethan (Dee Jay Daniels), who can melt into a puddle. They also meet the 'Mad Science' teacher, Mr. Medula (Kevin McDonald), after an accidental lab explosion.

Coming home, Will doesn't dare to tell his parents what happened. Steve gives him access to his "Secret Sanctum" below their house, where he shows off his trophy collection, especially a weapon known as The Pacifier, once wielded by his enemy, the armored villain Royal Pain. The weapon broke during the fight, seemingly disintegrating the villain. The Commander never figured out what the weapon could do. Unknown to the two of them, they're being spied on by two mysterious villains through the giant robot eye.

When Steve disapproves of his son's new friends, Will confesses the truth about his lack of powers to his parents; they try to be supportive, but are still disappointed.

At school, the sidekicks dodge taunts and jeers by their "hero" colleagues. Matters worsen when Will is knocked onto pyrokinetic Warren Peace (Steven Strait), whose villain father (Baron Battle) was imprisoned by the Commander ("quadruple life sentence, no hope of parole till after his third life"). The two fight; during the fight Will suddenly gains his father's super strength. Afterwards they're both given detention in a room that neutralizes all superpowers.

Now that he has a good power, Will is promoted to hero class. Gwen starts pursuing him romantically, causing Layla to become jealous. She also meets his parents and invites them to receive a special award at the homecoming dance. She also gets Will to take her as his date to the dance. Unfortunately, this causes Will to forget a date he had with Layla, who ends stood up at a restaurant. There she meets Warren, who works there, and he advises her to tell Will the truth of her feelings for him. She tries to do so the next day but changes her mind when Will tells her about his homecoming date. She decides to ask Warren to be her date to the dance, just to try to get back at Will, and Warren agrees.

One night, while his parents were out on a mission, Gwen persuades Will to invite the homecoming committee to his house which ends up becoming a party when she invites the whole Hero class. She convinces him to take her to the Sanctum to make out, and he doesn't notice it when the Pacifier disappears, it turns out it was actually Speed moving so fast that he's just a blur. When Layla arrives at the party, Gwen tells her that Will doesn't care for her anymore, and she leaves. But when Will finds out what happened, he breaks up with Gwen and tries to end the party, but is caught by his parents. Will decides not to go to the homecoming at all.

When homecoming night arrives, Will entertains himself by checking out his parent's old classbook, and realizes that Gwen looks just like an old yearmate of his parents. Noticing that the Pacifier is gone, he comes to a sudden realization, and he calls Ron to take him to the school. Before they arrive, Gwen reveals to the people at the dance that she is Royal Pain. The Pacifier is a device that turns adults into babies, and its explosion had actually transformed her into one, who was rescued by her sidekick, Stitches (Jim Rash). Raised by him, she took the Gwen identity to infiltrate the school once she was old enough again. She then uses the Pacifier to turn all the adults at the party into babies, with help from Penny, Lash and Speed, who were her partners from the start. Her plan is to raise all the babies to be supervillains. Layla, Warren, Ethan, Zack and Magenta escape and meet Will. They send him to battle Royal Pain while they deal with the super-bullies. They defeat them, and find out that the school will fall from the sky in ten minutes due to a device Gwen had planted. They send Magenta down a tiny corridor in Guinea Pig form to find and disarm the device. Meanwhile, Will gets knocked out of the school by Gwen wearing her Royal Pain power armor, but he discovers he can fly and returns to defeat her. She activates the device and the school almost crashes to the ground before Magenta gnaws its wires off.

Afterwards, Medula, who is still superintelligent in baby form, helps reverse the Pacifier and everyone is turned back into adults. The Commander gives his award to the sidekicks, finally admitting they're heroes too. Then the homecoming dance continues, and Will and Layla dance and kiss in the sky.

In the end, Layla and Will become a couple, and Warren becomes his best friend. After being imprisioned in the detention room, the villains are sent to jail.

Cast and characters

Students

Similar to the Super Sentai series, the students' civilian clothing throughout the film consistently matches particular color schemes, perhaps foreshadowing their future hero costumes.

• Michael Angarano as Will Stronghold: Will is a freshman at Sky High. His parents are the two most famous superheroes of the day, the Commander and Jetstream. He is anxious because he has no superpowers yet, a fact which changes when he firstly develops super-strength and then flight. Towards the end of the film when a few other characters battle each other, Will picks a fight with Gwen Grayson/Sue Tenny/Royal Pain and wins. His clothes are primarily red, white, and blue.
• Danielle Panabaker as Layla Williams: Will and Layla have known each other since first grade, when she told him that she could control (and speak to) plants; they have been best friends ever since. She is a pacifist and a vegan. Secretly, she also has a crush on Will. Layla does not believe in using her plant manipulating power unless the situation demands it (although this seems to conflict with her casual use of her powers at the beginning of the movie, and later when she made a flower droop in the Paper Lantern). Her clothes are primarily green and light green.
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Gwen Grayson (Royal Pain): A senior on whom Will has a crush. Her true name is Sue Tenny. She is a straight-A student and a technopath, and she shows a mean streak towards Will's friends. However, she is in fact the Stronghold family's nemesis, who was laughed off a generation ago as the prototypical school geek despite her skills as a technopath. During a fight with the Commander and Jetstream, her signature weapon, the Pacifier, malfunctioned and exploded, causing her to revert to a baby. Taken in and re-raised by her own sidekick, she creates a new identity as Gwen Grayson, to finally put her nefarious scheme to create an evil academy into action, as revenge against the Commander and Jetstream. Her clothes are primarily pink, purple and gray. The name Gwen Grayson may be a play on the names Dick Grayson and Gwen Stacy. While wearing her Royal Pain armor, Gwen's voice is heavily distorted into a bass tone (performed by Patrick Warburton) similar to Anakin Skywalker wearing his Darth Vader armor.
• Steven Strait as Warren Peace: Warren is the son of a superheroine and a supervillain known as Baron Battle (whom the Commander put in prison; he therefore considers Will his archenemy). Warren is the quintessential rebel and a pyrokinetic. He eventually becomes good friends with Will and his friends. He works at the Paper Lantern Chinese Restaurant, and is fluent in Cantonese. His name is obviously a play on War and Peace. Warren fights Speed toward the end of the film and wins. His clothes are primarily black, with hints of red.
• Dee Jay Daniels as Ethan: A Hero Support who is friends with Will, he can melt into a small puddle (which earned him the nickname "Popsicle"). He is often the butt of practical jokes, like getting his head dunked in the toilet by the school bullies, Lash and Speed, although he does get to fight Lash and suprisingly wins. His clothes are primarily orange.
• Kelly Vitz as Magenta: Will's friend whose ability is to shapeshift into a guinea pig complete with purple highlights/streaks in her fur- she has purple hilights in her hair normally. She does not like to be pushed around. Her clothes, as well as her guinea pig form, are primarily purple and black.
• Nicholas Braun as Zach: Will's spacey friend, who has the ability to glow. He has a crush on Magenta. His clothes are primarily white and yellow neon.
• Malika and Khadijah Haqq as Penny: Gwen's best friend who can replicate herself and is therefore the entire cheerleading team. She, along with Lash and Speed, eventually were a part of Gwen Grayson/Sue Tenny/Royal Pain's plan. At the end, she and Layla had to fight and she lost. She and Royal Pain, Lash, and Speed went to the detention center. Her clothes are primarily orange and blue. Even throughout the film, they resemble cheerleading uniforms.
• Jake Sandvig as Lash: One of the resident bullies at Sky High. He and best friend Speed love tormenting the sidekicks and anyone else with no apparent powers. His superpower is his elasticity and is therefore champion of the game Save the Citizen, along with Speed, until Will and Warren break the records. His clothes consistently feature black and white striped arms.
• Will Harris as Speed: Lash's best friend, who joins him in his bullying and the game Save the Citizen. He, despite being heavyset, has super-speed. His clothes consistently feature black and white, similar to Lash.

Adults

• Kurt Russell as Steve Stronghold/The Commander: Will's father Steve Stronghold and his wife Josie run the most successful real estate agency in the city of Maxville. As the Commander, he is one of the world's strongest superheroes, displaying super-strength and invulnerability. He is sometimes blinded by his own ego, but when it comes to his family, Steve is always there to support his son. As Steve, he wears glasses to hide his identity (a play on Superman); as the Commander, he wears a red, white, and blue costume. The castle logo on his chest presumably represents a stronghold, in reference to his real name.
• Kelly Preston as Josie Stronghold/Jetstream: Will's mother Josie Stronghold and her husband Steve are successful real estate agents. As Jetstream, she can fly and is touted as being an expert in hand-to-hand combat. In addition, she is the classic motherly figure, which Will often finds embarrassing. Just like her husband, she wears glasses as Josie and a red, white, and blue costume as Jetstream to hide her identity.
• Lynda Carter as Principal Powers: The Sky High principal. (Note: At one point in the movie, Principal Powers states "I'm not Wonder Woman, ya know" – a little in-joke to Lynda Carter's role as Wonder Woman in the 1970s.). According to Carter, Powers "is a comet."
• Bruce Campbell as Coach Boomer/Sonic Boom: The gym teacher at Sky High, also known as ultra-sound wielder Sonic Boom. He is in charge of Power Placement and supervises "Save the Citizen." He will not hesitate to put his least favorite students in sidekick class. He is mentioned by the Commander as having never "made the big time" as a superhero, which would explain his bad temper.
• Kevin Heffernan as Ron Wilson - Bus Driver : The Sky High bus driver. Ron is the son of two superheroes, but he does not have any powers. He feels a great sense of pride in driving the "superheroes of tomorrow" to school. At the end of the film, it is stated that he falls into a vat of toxic waste and gains powers (apparently the ability to grow, like Giant-Man) and begins working for the mayor.
• Cloris Leachman as Nurse Spex: A kind and eccentric elderly lady with the ability of X-ray vision. She explains to Will that he may not get any powers at all.
• Jim Rash as Mr. Grayson/Stitches: Royal Pain's sidekick, and Gwen Grayson/Sue Tenney's "father", who raised her after she was turned into a baby.
• Dave Foley as All American Boy / Mr. Boy: The Commander's old Hero Support. He now works as Hero Support teacher at Sky High. Although he takes pride in educating the Hero Support of tomorrow, he always seems depressed that his greatest accomplishment is just being the Commander's sidekick. He also harbors a long-standing crush on Jetstream.
• Kevin McDonald as Mr. Medulla: The Mad Science teacher, with super brainpower – so much that he is still smarter than the average man as a baby. That allows him to help the young students to restore himself and the promgoers to their proper ages.

Setting

Sky High, the school in which the film is set, is a high school campus (complete with gymnasium and other buildings) that is placed on a flying island. The school's hull is equipped with anti-gravity technology that allows it to hover above the city, at an altitude above the cloud layer so it cannot be seen from the ground. The school keeps changing position, and the location is only known by a few individuals, including the school bus driver, Ron Wilson.

The curriculum at Sky High is strictly for heroes and sidekicks. One's course path is determined by a test that all new students must take. Depending on powers, students are placed as heroes or sidekicks. Heroes take more action-oriented courses like "Foundations of Mad Science" while sidekicks take classes such as "Motorcycle Sidecar Basics" and "Grammar for Sidekicks". Heroes and sidekicks both attend the gym class, which resembles more of an American Gladiators deathmatch than a real gym class.

The school is biased toward the heroes, giving them nicer-looking classrooms higher up in the school, whereas the sidekicks' classrooms are apparently in the basement levels, with little light. Apparently after the sidekicks saved the school in spectacular fashion, there will be reforms for more equitable treatment.

Sky High has extracurricular activities and clubs like regular schools (the yearbook shows that Gwen was a member of the science club). "Save the Citizen" is a traditional match played with two heroes and two villains. Two are chosen to save a doll-citizen while the other two are to keep them from achieving the said goal. The doll-citizen is hung over a large machine that consists of a number of whirling serrated blades. The rope descends every five seconds for three minutes, at which point the citizen will be destroyed by the machine. At one time, Mr. Boy remembers, with a half-serious glee, the days when they used 'real citizens' for the contest.

Filming locations

File:Oviatt-library-small.jpg

Oviatt Library at CSU Northridge

• Exterior shots of the Sky High school were filmed at the Oviatt Library at California State University in Northridge.

Reception and box office figures

Sky High was reviewed favorably in general. On IMDb, Sky High currently has a user rating of 6.8 of 10, and on RottenTomatoes, it earned a "fresh" rating of 72% positive reviews (81 positive, 33 negative). Critics on this website were generally favorable on the firmly tongue-in-cheek nature of the film, which knowingly spoofed comic clichés, but others found it too cheesy. Commercially, on an estimated budget of $35 million USD, it earned just under $64 million in the USA alone.

Television Series

As part of their contracts, the entire cast of the film, with the exception of the actors portraying the protagonist's parents, signed an option to reprise their roles as the principle cast of a live-action "Sky High" TV series on The Disney Channel, if the movie proved popular enough to warrant such a series. Even though the movie did turn out to be a popular success, Disney decided not to produce a series, and all the young actors' options have since expired.

Soundtrack

Sky High Original Soundtrack is composed of covers of songs from the 1980s. Track listing for the Sky High Original Soundtrack:

1. "I Melt With You" – Bowling for Soup. (Originally by: Modern English)
2. "Through Being Cool" – They Might Be Giants. (Originally by: Devo)
3. "Save It For Later" – Flashlight Brown. (Originally by: The Beat)
4. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" – Christian Burns. (Originally by: Tears for Fears)
5. "One Thing Leads To Another" – Steven Strait. (Originally by: The Fixx)
6. "Lies" – The Click Five. (Originally by: Thompson Twins)
7. "Voices Carry" – Vitamin C. (Originally by: 'Til Tuesday)
8. "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" – Elefant. (Originally by: The Smiths)
9. "True" – Cary Brothers. (Originally by: Spandau Ballet)
10. "Just What I Needed" – Caleigh Peters. (Originally by: The Cars)
11. "Can't Stop The World" – Ginger Sling. (Originally by: The Go-Go's)
12. "And She Was" – Keaton Simons. (Originally by: Talking Heads)
13. "Twist And Crawl" – Skindred. (Originally by: The Beat)

Trivia

• Mr. Grayson, the sidekick, gets his name from Robin aka Dick Grayson, Batman's sidekick.

• Cloris Leachman, who plays Nurse Spex, played Wonder Woman's (Lynda Carter) mother in the 1970s television series.

• It is hinted that Warren Peace's dad, Baron Battle, has the power of resurrection, as Ethan said that Baron Battle has a quadruple-life sentence, and would not be eligible for parole until after his third life.

• The character Warren's name is clearly intended to be a humorous pun - Warren's father was a villain, and his mother was a hero, hence the joke; Warren (phonetically "War-An'") Peace - War and Peace.

• The comic book series PS238 explores the same premise at an elementary school; the comic book series Hero Camp explores it at a summer camp.

• The 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie Up, Up, and Away has a strikingly similar plot and premise.

• In the character Will's room, there are several posters advertising The Aquabats, a band where the members dress up as superheroes, as well as a poster of the band Weezer showing two female superheroes.

• When the character Layla is waiting for Will at the Paper Lantern, she has in front of her a plate of "meat" Chinese food, even though she clearly states at the start that she is a vegan when she declines the bacon and eggs offered by Jetstream. It is also possible that the "meat" is vegetarian "mock meat", which is available in many conscientious chinese restaurants.

• Jonathan Ke Quan was chosen to be stunt choreographer but after his injury he was later replaced by Elter Bartolaba.

• In the scene where Will's father Steve Stronghold is warning him not to brag about his parentage, he says "Most students have only one super hero parent," but he holds up two fingers. Then he proceeds to say, "Not two," and holds up only one finger.

• A notable portion of the production crew were Thai, and the name "(Mr. Uon. Vancable)" was chosen because it sounds like how one with a Thai accent would say the word "Invincible."

• In the scene where Lynda Carter's character exits the detention room where all the villians are, she replies to a comment saying : "I'm not Wonder Woman you know" (a reference to her character as Wonder Woman).

• In the movie, Mrs. Stronghold/Josie Jetstream says that Layla and Will have been friends since they were toddlers, but Layla tells Warren Peace at the Paper Lantern that they have been best friends since they were in third grade, finally, Will tells Gwen at the unplanned Heroes party that he and Layla have been friends since the first grade.

External links

• Sky High at IMDb
• Disney's official Sky High site