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Sky High Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG (for action violence and some mild language) Genre: Action, Children, Comedy, Family Theater release: July 29, 2005 by Walt Disney Pictures Directed by: Mike Mitchell Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes Cast: Michael Anganaro (Will Stronghold), Kurt Russell (Steve/The Commander), Kelly Preston (Josie/Jetstream), Danielle Panabaker (Layla), Steven Strait (Warren Peace), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Gwen Grayson) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

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One of my favorite moments in the first Harry Potter book—and it wasn't in the film—concerns a bit of casual, low-key bullying and camaraderie among the young wizards. Poor, hapless Neville Longbottom hops into a room because Draco Malfoy has magically bound his legs together, and Hermione Granger, the brainy know-it-all, immediately seizes the opportunity to show that she can undo the curse and set Neville's legs free. I grinned when I read that, because it seemed exactly like how children with those powers would behave.

Kurt Russell is the superhero dad, Michael Angarano the not-yet-super son

Replace the magic with superpowers, and you've got the essence of Sky High—a movie about a high school for superheroes, where the guy who can stretch his arms is more likely to reach across the room and trip you than to lend you a helping hand. We've seen superheroes go to school before, in the X-Men movies, but those films were more about the grown-up battles, and they got a little grim, besides. Sky High is more adolescent, in the best, age-appropriate sense of the word; it's like a John Hughes movie, but for tweens. It's got a boy who falls in love with the most popular girl at school, even though we all know he ought to be with the girl next door who is also his best friend; it's also got loads of '80s music or covers thereof, including hits by the likes of The Cars, 'Til Tuesday and Tears for Fears. But it is also free of the sex and profanity that mar many movies for teens.

The boy is Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano), the son of two superheroes who are known to the world as The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston), and who moonlight as real-estate agents to keep their identities secret. For them, saving the world is all in a day's work, but what really gives them a thrill is the thought of closing a sale and celebrating on a beach in Hawaii with no exploding volcanoes in the vicinity. And like all superhero parents, they have great expectations for their son—expectations that Will fears he may never meet, since it's the first day of high school and he still hasn't discovered his powers yet. (In one of many amusingly oblivious proud-papa moments, The Commander throws a weight to his son like it was a Frisbee, and Will falls back on his bed, which collapses.)

Kelly Preston as Jetstream and Kurt Russell as The Commander

Every school has its cliques, and at Sky High—so named because it is stationed on an anti-gravity platform up above the clouds, to keep it safe from evildoers—these social divisions have been formally recognized as part of the school curriculum. Those with impressive powers are sent to "hero" classes, while those whose powers are not so impressive are sent to "sidekick" classes—or, to use the more politically correct term, "hero support." Due to his lack of powers, Will is designated a "sidekick," and he finds this so shameful that he debates whether to tell his parents. Will's best friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker), who can make plants grow at will, encourages him to be honest with them; what's more, she openly identifies with the "sidekicks" as a way to protest the social barriers at school.

Will (right) gets bullied by a jock played by Steven Strait

Meanwhile, Will has to deal with the bullies. A few taunt him simply because he's easy prey. And then there is Warren Peace (Steven Strait), the sullen, dark-haired, scowling guy who can throw fireballs from his fists; his father is a supervillain who was put behind bars by The Commander—so he has a special reason for wanting to pick on Will. Meanwhile, as Will finds his way through these new social dynamics, he also falls head over heels for Gwen Grayson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), one of the most popular girls in school, and a "technopath" who can manipulate machinery with her mind. (When Will brings her home from a date, her father glares and asks, "You're not that boy with the six arms, are you?")

Lurking behind all these school-set shenanigans, of course, is a supervillain with a nefarious plan to wreak revenge against Will's parents. This is perhaps the weakest part of the film. The fact that it is somewhat predictable isn't a problem; part of the whole point of a hybrid film like this, which is part teen movie and part superhero movie, is to see how the clichés of one genre can give new dimension to the clichés of another genre. It just isn't very convincing, interesting, appealing, or funny; and the humor at the expense of villains who tend to "monologue" was handled much more wittily in The Incredibles.

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