Super Movies: The one set at a super hero high school

 

Title: Sky High

What Year?: 2005

Classification: Parody/ Runnerup/ Anachronistic Outlier

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

With this review, I’m taking a break from other projects for another superhero installment, and it’s yet another comedy/ parody. For anyone who has been with me from the beginning, it may feel surprising just how many movies I’ve covered fall in this category. For me, however, the surprise is that I haven’t done even more than I have. The underlying reality is that past the ‘80s and very early ‘90s, there wasn’t much room in the ecosystem for “straight” superhero movies that weren’t at least mid-range in budget and talent, in other words the kind of movie I usually respectfully set aside. With the Batman movies sucking in the big bucks, and the ‘80s Superman movies still casting a long shadow, the best chance of getting the money to try something new and different in the genre was to say you were making fun of it. Thus, there was a steady stream of purported satires through the ‘90s and finally into the new millennium. This time around, we’re looking at one of the later entries in that wave, which by coincidence or design happened to come out at the same time as another, far more prominent satire. Here is Sky High, the superhero comedy Disney developed and released at almost the same time as The Incredibles.

Our story begins with a quick introduction to a teenage boy named Will Stronghold whose parents are both superheroes. He tries to get along with his family, friends and potential romantic interest Layla, while hiding the fact that he doesn’t yet have any superpowers. His teen angst gets more complicated when he’s sent off to Sky High, a school run by and for superheroes. It soon proves to have the same bullies, cliques and outcasts as any high school, with those at the bottom of the totem pole being directed into a “sidekick” curriculum. In the process, he meets a girl with a talent for technology who seems into him and the son of his parents’ former enemies who is out to settle the score. Things start to look up when he finally gains super strength, but his new girlfriend is not what she seems. With the entire school in peril, it’s up to him to save the day, but first he must choose his real friends!

Sky High was a 2005 live-action film from Disney. The film was directed by Mike Mitchell from a script cowritten by Robert Schooley and Mark McCorkle, the creators of Disney’s Kim Possible animated series. The movie starred Michael Angarano as Will, with Danielle Panabaker and Mary Winstead as the dueling romantic interests. The supporting cast included Kurt Russell as Will’s father, ‘70s Wonder Woman Lynda Carter as the school principal and Bruce Campbell as Coach Boomer. The movie was released in July 2005, eight months after the late 2004 debut of The Incredibles. Contemporary reviews were mixed to positive, with some making further comparisons to The Incredibles both in message and overall quality. The movie was moderately successful, earning $86.4 million against a $35M budget, and received further notice as the last Disney live-action film released on both DVD and VHS. In more recent times, it remains available for streaming, but discs in circulation are likely to be older “full screen” DVDs.

For my personal experiences, this is a movie I remember being very much aware of at the time of release, but not quite caring about enough to see then or later. I finally watched it a few years back after getting it ludicrously cheap at a library sale (the same place and maybe the same time I got hold of Hancock). I was immediately impressed with the quality, and got a further jolt when I realized the soundtrack had the same song used for the space-saloon sequence in Heavy Metal. As I have continued to watch it, however, the lingering impression has been of a charming movie that doesn’t and really shouldn’t be expected to reach first rank. There has also been a less pleasant feeling of something simply not quite, and just out of reach of what I can easily define. With this review, I hope to finally get somewhere. I’m even giving myself longer than usual to write it down.

For the good points, the movie’s strengths are obvious off the bat. We have a genuinely fresh take on the superhero movie, which like Hancock doesn’t go too far to subvert or reject the underlying premises of the genre. Just as importantly, we have a good story, dialogue and acting across the board, both from the kids and the adults. There’s an amusing further irony that few if any characters come across as one-dimensional or entirely stupid, quite possibly despite significant efforts to the contrary per the lore. Even comic-relief authority figures (conspicuously a big-brained inventor) get nuanced performances and characterization that lift them at least a little above what they need to be. It’s worth further note that the intelligent and willfully overpowered female leads don’t really make the men look dumb or weak, making this still one of the more subtle and outright better examples of feminine empowerment to come out of the genre. The one easy potshot is the CGI effects, which literally look worse than movies from the middling ‘90s. However, this is clearly a case of intentional comic effect in the Dark Star tradition, and like that venerable gem, it still looks far better than it has a need or right to.

On the other side of the equation, what almost all the problems come back to is that the story never offers any real surprises. This is where I have already advocated moderation: A parody can work as well if not better with the moral values and ideals of the genre left largely untouched. But here, the feeling is of timidity rather than respect. It is also on this point that comparison with The Incredibles becomes direct and unfavorable, as it repeatedly pulls the punches that the earlier satire drove home.  By the final battle, every player’s loyalties are either clear or easily predictable, and nobody really changes sides, either from conscience or rational cowardice. Again, this is a good choice up to a point; we’ve long since seen Disney in particular run the “hidden villain” angle into the ground. The downside that there are also no surprise redemptions, no repentance or change of heart to show that even “bad guys” can improve themselves. The end result is a story that offers a very good message, but in the least interesting way.

That leaves the “one scene”, and it had to be Bruce Campbell playing the bullying gym teacher Sonic Boomer to the hilt assessing new students. As each new student is called on to demonstrate their abilities, he quickly calls out their assignment as hero or “sidekick” in a superhumanly amplified voice. It’s here that we get the strongest sense of the subversive fun that a superhero parody can and should offer. There’s further twists as the various superpowers are revealed, including an inevitable articulate protest from Layla, but what’s noteworthy is that Campbell shows his character in control, even when impressed or possibly frightened. There’s an extra surreal factor as he occasionally calls for a car to be dropped on a student, leading to an unsettling moment when Will is called on before his powers appear. For once, it would be more interesting and perhaps funnier to see just how and by whom this is done. As it is, it’s still a very satisfying touch, like something literally out of the cartoons of a certain rival to the Mouse.

With the full benefit of hindsight, what Sky High is first and foremost is a movie that feels like it “should” have been made a decade earlier than it was, in that sense the epitome of what I have termed an Anachronistic Outlier. The downgraded effects in particular give the proceedings the feel of a ‘90s TV pilot, which wasn’t a bad look even for a disaster like The Fantastic Four. It also has the less pleasant distinction of being “outdated” by the time it came out, partly because of its own notable flaws but far more so because bigger-budget, willfully trendy movies were about to start coming out in far greater numbers. It is therefore all the more striking that it still did perfectly well at the box office. Clearly, if movies like this were being left behind, it was not because audiences no longer wanted to watch them, but because studios no longer wanted to make them. It can therefore serve as one more reminder that the “latest thing” is not necessarily the best.