Sky High (2005 film)
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| Sky High | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Mike Mitchell |
| Produced by | Andrew Gunn |
| Written by | Mark McCorkle |
| Starring | Michael Angarano Danielle Panabaker Kurt Russell Kelly Preston Steven Strait Mary Elizabeth Winstead |
| Music by | Michael Giacchino |
| Cinematography | Shelly Johnson |
| Editing by | Peter Amundson |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 29, 2005 |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English Cantonese |
| Budget | $35 million |
| Gross revenue | $86,369,815 |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Sky High is a 2005 superhero film from Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Mike Mitchell and was written by Paul Hernandez, Robert Schooley, and Mark McCorkle.
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[edit] Plot summary
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The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
Sky High is the story of fourteen-year-old Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano), the son of two famous superheroes: Steve and Josie Stronghold (Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston), a.k.a. the incredibly strong, seemingly invulnerable Commander, and the high-speed flying Jetstream. Will and his best friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker), who can manipulate plants, attend a school in the sky for superheroes called Sky High, despite the fact Will has no superpowers and is hiding this fact from his parents.
In "power placement" class, Will and Layla are deemed as sidekicks, though Will still dosn't admit it to his parents. The next day, Will discovers his powers in a fight with Warren Peace. That night, Will is introduced to the secret sanctum, where the evil Royal Pain spys on them through a hidden camera. After the fight with Warren, Will is switched to "Heroes" class, where he is partnered with Gwen Grayson, a technopath, who controls technology with her mind.Will quickly starts to fall for Gwen, hanging out with her friends and having her tutor him. Meanwhile, in P.E., Will teams up with Warren Peace to defeat the bullies in the infamous " save the citizen" game. Will wins, something that has never happened to a freshmen in Sky High history. That night, Will asks Gwen to the Homecoming Dance. The next morning, Will tells Layla the good news (he was supposed to meet her at the Paper Lantern, her favorite resturant, but she seems to have forgiven him). Layla secretly has a crush on Will, But lies and says she is going with Warren, to make Will jealous. Soon, Will shows Gwen the secret Sanctum, where the pacifier (a weapon retrived from Royal Pain ten years ago by The Commander) is mysteriously stolen. Layla arrives at Will's house, only to be trash-talked by Gwen. Layla storms away, leaving Will dumping Gwen. The Commander and Jetstream are invited to the homecoming dance to recive an award. At home, Will stumbles over an old Sky High yearbook, noticing Gwen in it and realizing the pacifier has been stolen. At the dance, Gwen reveals herself as Royal Pain, and that she was turned into a baby by the pacifier and raised again by her henchman. She begins turning innocent people into babies, ploting to raise them as villians. Will arrives at Sky High with his bus driver, Ron Wilson, and goes to stop Gwen. The gravitational device that is keeping the school floating is turned off by Royal Pain, and the school begins to fall. Will luckily finds out that he can fly, catching the school and saving it from destruction. Gwen is put into a lifetime of detention, Will and Layla start dating, and all of the sidekicks are deemed again as heroes, including Ron Wilson.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Students
- Michael Angarano as William "Will" Theodore Stronghold: Angarano portrays Will, a freshman at Sky High. His parents are the two most famous superheroes of the day, the Commander and Jetstream, but he himself has no powers, which worries him (later in the movie however he obtains the powers of super strength and flight. He wears red, white, and blue throughout the movie. Like other characters, this is the costume that defines him. On Will Stronghold, Angarano stated: "I love Will because I think he's the complete ‘average Joe' who goes to high school and it's really easy to relate to him and it's really easy to kind of envision him... Will has the greatest superheroes on the planet, maybe the history of the planet as parents and he doesn't even have a spec of superhero ability and so that stress he's going through, I can't even imagine it."[1] He related to the awkwardness Will experienced via his own experiences when he changed schools.[2] Angarano said it was his first big lead role, and it was vital to "have your head in every scene and just kind of take it play by play."[2] According to Angarano, if he could choose a superpower, it would be flight.[1]
- Danielle Panabaker as Layla Williams: Panabaker plays Layla, Will's best friend who can control (and speak to) plants; they have been best friends ever since. She is a pacifist and a vegan. Panabaker has stated: "I love Layla; she's such a great character. She doesn't follow the rules, she makes them. That's great to have that confidence to go into high school which is already such a ferocious place and she's very nurturing and she's a shoulder for Will to lean on and what he's going through."[1] She also admitted that she considers herself a classical "sidekick"[3] and the opposite of confident, assertive Layla: "I can be Layla who knows what it's all about; she knows she doesn't eat meat, she knows she loves Will, and she's got it figured out. I never know any of those things."[1] Early in the movie she mentions that her mother has the powers to talk to animals (who don't like to be eaten). She wears mostly green, connecting to the fact that she is very pro-earth.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Gwen Grayson (Royal Pain / Sue Tenny): Winstead portrays Gwen, a senior at Sky High; Will has a crush on her. However, she is, in fact, the Stronghold family's nemesis the Royal Pain, who was laughed off a generation ago as the prototypical school geek despite her skills as a technopath. As Royal Pain, her clothes are primarily pink, purple and gray. 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. Winstead also "loved the script" and liked to be a villain: "love my character's transformation. She's the good girl/bad girl. I was neither a sidekick or hero in school. I bounced around. I was the hero of the sidekicks or the sidekick to the heroes."[3]
- Steven Strait as Warren Peace: (name is a play on the book War and Peace) Strait portrays Warren, the son of an unnamed superheroine and a supervillain known as Baron Battle. He has the ability to conjure fire. According to the DVD track, it was his first big-screen appearance, and Strait was noted by Angarano for his powerful, menacing physique.[4] Director Mike Mitchell added that Strait was not only tough, but had smile which made all the girls on set swoon when Strait (as Warren) was soothing Layla (Panabaker).[4] In an interview, he said "I read the script and really liked it", but at first had to get used to the fact that he had to play a character who was shown to be burning all the time: "I was always aware that I was throwing flames out of my arms, and there was nothing there, obviously. It was something I had to get used to, flailing your arms and nothing is there. It was odd." He is nick-named 'Hot-head' by Coach Boomer. [3]
- 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 quiet and often the butt of practical jokes. His clothes are primarily orange. On the DVD, Daniels was described as the "total opposite" of Ethan, very lively and often playing practical jokes himself on others.[4]
- Kelly Vitz as Magenta/Maj: Vitz plays Magenta, Will's friend whose ability is to shapeshift into a guinea pig complete with purple highlights/streaks in her fur. 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 Braun/Zack Attack: Will's spacey friend, who has the ability to glow in the dark. He has a crush on Magenta. His clothes are primarily white and yellow.
- Malika and Khadijah Haqq as Penny: the two Haqq twins play Gwen's best friend, who can replicate herself and is therefore the entire cheerleading team. Her clothes are primarily orange and blue and resemble cheerleading uniforms. The twins proclaimed, very tongue-in-cheek, that they possessed the ultimate superpower, namely to make the extras in the Sky High bleachers scream and be quiet at the gesture of their arms.[4]
- Jake Sandvig as Lash and Will Harris as Speed: Sandvig and Harris portray Lash and Speed, the resident bullies at Sky High. Their superpowers are elasticity and superspeed respectively. Their clothes consistently feature black and white striped arms. According to the DVD, Sandvig and Harris also regularly hung out together off set.[4]
[edit] Adults
- Kurt Russell as Steve Stronghold/The Commander: Russell portrays Will's father. As the Commander, he is one of the world's strongest superheroes, displaying super-strength and durability, and a successful businessman in his secret identity. 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. Russell stated that he liked the script, thought it "had the potential to be a sleeper" and be funny for children, teens and adults alike.[5] According to Russell, the issue about Steve was that he was arrogant and egotistic, but yet a loving and good father, and also believable as a real character: "To me he's a buffoon who loves his son so much and loves his wife so much and he's just such a good man, and he's so proud of himself that the only difficulty in his life is the constant awareness of trying to remain humble... What's fun about this character is that he's real. He's not a comic book character."[5]
- Kelly Preston as Josie Stronghold/Jetstream: Preston portrays Will's mother, Josie Stronghold, a successful real estate agent. As Jetstream, she can fly and is touted as being an expert in hand-to-hand combat. She wears glasses as Josie and a red, white, and blue costume as Jetstream. What Preston liked about the film most was its "unique concept", namely "to play parents who happen to be super heroes and have a son who is going through puberty and starting high school. I thought that the messages in this movie were so great... We experienced the cliques, the attempts to make the right decisions, how to keep our integrity. The film examines friendship... One of the messages is that anybody can be a hero and this film is full of great messages... and I think that just adds so much to the entertainment, is fun and it is light and is upbeat."[6] She admitted that the Jetstream costume was "a guilty pleasure": "It was definitely a lot of fun to step into the boots and costume, put on the cape, and then also get to fly." "[7]
- Lynda Carter as Principal Powers: Carter, once the quintessential female TV superhero as Wonder Woman, portrays the principal of Sky High. She appears to have the power to transform into a comet and back at will, (Her actress comments that "Powers is a comet".) Acknowledging that she is typecast as Wonder Woman,[8] Carter lets Powers state "I'm not Wonder Woman, ya know" - a little in-joke to Lynda Carter's role as Wonder Woman in the 1970's TV Show). Her primary colors are light blue and white, though she is only seen in her suits and never in her costume.[9] Carter herself was grateful for being spared, and often poked fun of Preston and Russell when they had to wear their uncomfortable super hero suits.[3]
- Bruce Campbell as Coach Boomer/Sonic Boom: Campbell portrays the gym teacher at Sky High, also known as Sonic Boom due to his ability to release sonic waves from his vocal cords, which he conveniently uses to bark at any student who doesn't live up to his expectations.
- Kevin Heffernan as Ron Wilson - Bus Driver: Heffernan plays The Sky High bus driver/pilot. Ron is the son of two superheroes who 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, gains powers (it appears that his power is either being giant or becoming giant) and begins working for the mayor to save the city from giant robots.
- Cloris Leachman as Nurse Spex: Leachman portrays Nurse Spex, a kind and eccentric elderly lady that serves as Sky High's single known nurse, with the ability of X ray vision. According to Mitchell, Leachman's performances were "absolutely hilarious".[4]
- Jim Rash as Mr. Grayson/Stitches: Rash portrays Royal Pain's bumbling sidekick, and Gwen Grayson/Sue Tenney's "father", who raised her as his own after she turned into a baby. He wears a jester's outfit.
- Dave Foley as All American Boy/Mr. Boy: The Commander's old Hero Support. He now works as Hero Support teacher at Sky High. He always seems depressed that his greatest accomplishment is just being Commander's sidekick. He also harbors a long-standing crush on Jetstream. His power seems to be super jumping. (Example: when he jumps to catch baby Jetstream, when he jumps to the pipe in the ceiling while the mad science lab misfires.)
- Kevin McDonald as Mr. Medulla: McDonald plays the Mad Science teacher, with super brainpower – so much that he is still smarter than the average adult as a baby. Both McDonald and Foley (above) come from sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.
[edit] Production
According to scifi.com, Disney was attracted by the "original concept" of "children of superheroes going to high school.", originally conceived by screenwriter Paul Hernandez in the 1990s.[3] After recruiting comedy writers Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley for polishing Hernandez's script, Disney hired several comedians like Kevin McDonald, Dave Foley and Kevin Heffernan for supporting roles.[3] For the main roles, the casting was a mix of established and new teenager actors: while Michael Angarano and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were already successful, Danielle Panabaker was little-known and Steven Strait (a former model) was hired after his first rehearsal ever.[3]
Producer Mike Mitchell said that Sky High functions on two premises: "the adults are all insane" and "the girls are smarter than the boys":[4] Therefore, all the adults portrayed in the film tend to be caricatured, while the teenage girls are written as more assertive and powerful than the boys. For the treatment of the teenage actors, Mitchell also stated that the actors all had their own trailer and were generally kept separated, because "we did not want them to date after the second week and break up after the fourth", which would have made filming difficult.[4]
Finally, science fiction fan Mitchell admitted that this project "was a dream", because it brought him together with four of his favorite SF cult heroes: namely Wonder Woman (popularised in the eponymous 1970s series by actress Lynda Carter), Snake Plissken (portrayed by Kurt Russell), Ash Williams (from Evil Dead, played by Bruce Campbell) and Cloris Leachman, who earned fame as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein.[3]
[edit] 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 metal island. The island 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 constantly changes position, and the location is only known by faculty.
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 death match arena 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 were to 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 mulched by the machine. At one time, Mr. Boy remembers with a half-serious glee, the days when they used "real citizens" for the contest.
[edit] Filming locations
Exterior shots of the Sky High school were filmed at the Oviatt Library[10] at California State University in Northridge.[11]
[edit] Reception and box office figures
Sky High was reviewed favorably in general. On RottenTomatoes,[12] it earned a "fresh" rating of 72% positive reviews (85 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.[citation needed] Commercially, on an estimated budget of $35 million USD, it earned just under $64 million in the USA alone.[13]
[edit] DVD, PSP and Blu-ray Disc release
DVD and PSP UMD were released on 29 November 2005, while the high definition version was released exclusively on Blu-ray Disc format on 21 November 2006[14].
[edit] Sequel
Sky High 2: The New Superhero is due to come out in 2012/2013.
(Is this real?)
(Let's hope not...)
[edit] Soundtrack
Sky High Original Soundtrack is composed of covers of songs from the 1980s. Track listing for the Sky High Original Soundtrack:
- "I Melt with You" – Bowling for Soup. (Originally by: Modern English)
- "Through Being Cool" – They Might Be Giants. (Originally by: Devo)
- "Save It For Later" – Flashlight Brown. (Originally by: The Beat)
- "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" – Christian Burns. (Originally by: Tears for Fears)
- "One Thing Leads To Another" – Steven Strait. (Originally by: The Fixx)
- "Lies" – The Click Five. (Originally by: Thompson Twins)
- "Voices Carry" – Vitamin C. (Originally by: 'Til Tuesday)
- "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" – Elefant. (Originally by: The Smiths)
- "True" – Cary Brothers. (Originally by: Spandau Ballet)
- "Just What I Needed" – Caleigh Peters. (Originally by: The Cars)
- "Can't Stop The World" – Ginger Sling. (Originally by: The Go-Go's)
- "And She Was" – Keaton Simons. (Originally by: Talking Heads)
- "Twist And Crawl" – Skindred. (Originally by: The Beat)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d INTERVIEW: Michael Angarano and Danielle Panabaker Talk Sky High
- ^ a b Michael Angarano Interview
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kurt Russell and company go back to high school to learn what it means to be super in Sky High
- ^ a b c d e f g h Sky High DVD extras
- ^ a b Kurt Russell Flies High Again for Disney
- ^ SKY HIGH Q&A with KELLY PRESTON
- ^ Interview: Kelly Preston for "Sky High"
- ^ Lynda Carter for "Sky High" and "The Dukes of Hazzard"
- ^ "Wonder Woman Linda [sic] Carter Is Principal Powers in Sky High", Softpedia News, July 29, 2005, retrieved September 6, 2006
- ^ Oviatt Library
- ^ CSUN Licensing - Facilities Use
- ^ rottentomatoes.com
- ^ Sky High (2005) - Box office / business
- ^ Sky High (2005) - DVD details for
[edit] External links
