Sky High (2005) depicts a high school that trains the children of superheroes to become superheroes themselves or “hero support,” i.e. sidekicks, in the case of the less capable.
The film is filled with action and humor, and there are some surprising but effective casting choices, e.g., Kurt Russell as a superhero/father and an early Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a suspicious love interest. The film stresses the importance of independent thinking, such as embracing rational loyalty and eschewing irrational loyalty. Altruism as an alleged good is almost totally absent and, while the film does poke fun at the conventions of the superhero genre, it does take seriously the reality of values and virtues.
Sky High has a few minor flaws. The computer-generated animation is bad even by the standards of the time, though it is not frequent enough to be distracting. Parts of the plot are a little rushed, though this is in keeping with the child-friendly run-time. There is perhaps a little too much focus on romance to the discomfort of what is presumably the film’s target audience of pre-adolescent boys, though that does expand the film’s appeal.
/sb
