Sky High Review

Sky High

Release Date: 8th September 2005 - Australia

Production Companies

Walt Disney Pictures (presents)

Gunn Films

Max Stronghold Productions Inc.

Distribution

Walt Disney Studios Motion

Pictures Australia

Genre: Family/Comedy

Rating: PG

Runtime: 100 minutes

Budget: $35,000,000

Box Office Gross: $86,369,815 (Worldwide)

Plot Summary

Will Stronghold is attending high school in his first year and is the son of two superheroes. But this is no ordinary high school. It's a secret learning facility for children with superpowers called Sky High. Will gets branded as a sidekick because of his lack of powers. He must find his inner strength and set out to prove himself when a forgotten enemy returns to wreak his vengeance.

Cast

Michael Angarano - Will
Stronghold

Kurt Russell - Steve/The
Commander

Kelly Preston - Josie/
Jetstream

Danielle Panabaker - Layla

Kevin Heffernan - Ron Wilson Bus Driver

Dee Jay Daniels - Ethan

Kelly Vitz - Magneta

Loren Berman - Little Larry

Nicholas Braun - Zach

Malika Haqq - Penny

Khadijah Haqq - Penny

Jake Sandvig - Lash

Will Harris - Speed

Mary Elizabeth Winstead -
Gwen/Royal Pain

Lynda Carter - Principal Powers

Bruce Campbell - Coach Boomer

Dustin Ingram - Carbon Copy
Kid

Steven Strait - Warren Peace

Cloris Leachman - Nurse Spex

Jim Rash - Mr. Grayson/
Stitches

Dave Foley - Mr. Boy

Kevin McDonald - Mr. Medulla

Patrick Warburton - Royal
Pain (Voice)
Amy Brown - Twin
Kimmy Brown - Evil Twin
Zachry Rogers - Young Commander
Tom Kenny - Mr. Tinnerman
Jill Talley - Mrs. Tinnerman

Christopher Wynne - News Anchor

Nicole Malgarini - Freeze Girl (Uncredited)

Crew

Director - Mike Mitchell

Writers - Mark McCorkle,
Robert Schooley and Paul Hernandez

Executive Producers - Mario Iscovich

and Ann Marie Sanderlin

Producer - Andrew Gunn

Production Designer - Bruce Robert Hill

Illustrators - Daren Dochterman

and Paul Rudish

Art Director - William Hawkins

Assistant Art Directors - Desma Murphy and

Marshall Lee Toomey
Set Decorator - Robert Gould

Costume Designer - Michael Wilkinson

Assistant Costume Designer -

Christine Bieselin Clark

Makeup Department Head - Christina Smith

Special Makeup & Prosthetics Creator:

Medulla & Babies - Matthew W. Mungle

Director of Photography - Shelly Johnson

First Assistant Director - Justin Muller

First Assistant Director: Second Unit -

Nick Satriano

Second Assistant Director - John M. Morse

Location Manager - Jeremy Alter
Second Unit Director/Stunt Coordinator -

Scott Rogers

Assistant Stunt Coordinator - Chris O'Hara

Special Effects Supervisor - Al Broussard
Visual Effects Supervisors: Asylum -

Nathan McGuinness and Mitchell S. Drain

Visual Effects Supervisor: Furious FX -

David Lingenfelser

Visual Effects Consultant: Asylum -

Hoyt Yeatman

CG Supervisors: Asylum - Dottie Starling

and Sean Andrew Faden

3D Technical Supervisors: Asylum -

Anupam Das and Zachary Tucker

Editor - Peter Amundsen

Supervising Sound Editors - Donald J. Malouf

and Todd Toon

Sound Effects Editors - Adam Kopald,

Charles W. Ritter and David Kern

Re-Recording Mixers - Terry Porter

and Dean A. Zupancic

Music - Michael Giacchino

Music Supervisor - Lisa Brown

Review

Before the production company, Disney purchased Marvel and its characters. There was a time when the studio created its own original stories of superheroes on the silver screen. The only two successful features that came out during the superhero boom of the 2000s are The Incredibles and, to a lesser extent, SKY HIGH. Although the first film was an animated top dog of the previous year, the other is live-action. It's not as successful as Disney had hoped but is said to be one of the best and most likely underrated features to come out in the spring. After viewing SKY HIGH on Foxtel, I find it has a solid coming-of-age story that spoofed the traditional superhero clichés and blended well with a large dosage of teen comedy.

The men behind Kim Possible had written this film. It could have been a remarkable series for SKY HIGH if there had been three more chapters as if it had planned to continue the movie's characters in their high school years until graduation. The tongue-in-the-cheek humour fitted appropriately to the film, and the pacing was fresh and watchable. The young actors and actresses did very well in the ensemble cast of teenagers who worked well with Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston. It is good to see Kurt again team up with Disney after his long-running partnership with the multi-billion dollar company.

SKY HIGH is a lighthearted, well-paced high school movie that appeals mainly to adolescents. This movie would be good to re-watch as it has an interesting spin on superheroes from the perspective of high school life and mixes this element with engaging action sequences.

Star rating: (7/10) Good Movie

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