Sky High (2005)
comedy
directed by : Mike Mitchell
featuring : Michael Angarano - Kurt Russell - Kelly Preston - Kevin Heffernan
running time : 1 hour 40 minutes
An ordinary teenager finds out he's not so ordinary after all in this comedy-adventure. Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) has his share of anxieties about starting high school, but once he arrives on campus, he discovers he's attending Sky High, a special learning facility for the children of superheroes. Will realizes his father is actually super-human crime fighter Captain Stronghold (Kurt Russell), while his mom is fellow champion Josie Jetstream (Kelly Preston). However, in Will's first few days at school, Coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell) is unable to discover any superior abilities in him, meaning that instead of joining the school's budding heroes, he's been relegated to the ranks of the lowly sidekicks. In time, Will discovers he happens to have super strength after all, but will he learn to hone his new gifts in time to fend off the bullies at school, get the girl of his dreams, and save his folks from a longtime nemesis? Sky High also features Lynda Carter, Dave Foley, and Kevin McDonald.

Despite it's obvious ode to The Incredibles and The Harry Potter series, Sky High is a wildly entertaining time at the movies that parents and kids will flip for. With an inspired supporting cast that includes Russell, Campbell, Carter, and two Kids In The Hall alumni, McDonald and Foley, the movie surrounds its fledgling teen stars with scene-chewing veterans who delight in a chance to play with superhero molds of old. Angarano and Daniel Panabaker make a splash as the teenage leads, lending the kind of naïve charm to their roles that Disney has thrived on. What makes the flick really work is how the filmmakers took the notion of a superhero school and molded it into a John Hughes-ish type of teen comedy. In fact, though it has grand doses of larger-than-life comic book action, some of the strongest elements are when the movie sets its sights squarely on the genre's oldest conventions. This kind of twist rarely pays off on the big screen, but this one does thanks to its sweet nature and the fun it exudes from the first moment to the last.