Sky High - Diese Highschool hebt ab!

I saw the advance screening of this movie last night and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised! I went into this movie expecting a cheesy kiddy movie and ended up spending the next hour and a half being seriously entertained. The story is about a group of freshmen in their first few months at a super hero high school named "Sky High." There are all the familiar struggles of high school, such as fitting in, finding a date, and choosing between the friends you have known and loved your whole life and the new popular crowd. These high school newbies have the additional dilemma of learning to use their powers and live up to the reputations that their parents have established as super heroes. The movie is sweet without sending the viewers into a diabetic coma, and has a great message. The theater I was in was also full of little ones, who I never heard a peep out of! The movie is a great treat for the entire family and will make a great break from the heat or a rainy day activity!

Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) is a regular teen except his parents are two of the greatest superheroes around; Steve Stronghold / The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Josie Stronghold / Jetstream (Kelly Preston). Along with kids of other superheroes, he starts Sky High except he doesn't seem to have a superpower. He's relegated to study being the sidekick with his lifelong friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker). He is embarrassed at his lack of power and sheepishly lies to his parents who have great expectations. Gwen Grayson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is the popular girl on campus. Student Warren Peace (Steven Strait) is angry with Will for The Commander putting Warren's father in prison.

This is a harmless little family movie. It could have been edgier. There are a lot of high school drama being played out but the movie never really pushes it. It's strictly a Disney teen movie or a simplified John Hughes movie. With the cartoon color style, this is more silly than compelling. Although it's not silly enough to be actually funny. Angarano is fine but he doesn't really stand out. For the lead, he needs to be much more charismatic. The character can be nerdy but he needs to be a charismatic nerd. Panabaker is adorable enough for the puppy love story. Generally this is like a well-made movie on one of the those kids TV channels.

I saw "Sky High" at a preview screening tonight, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised! A lot of laughs for kids and grownups, a couple of good plot twists, and a nice message for the youngsters. Kurt Russell steals the show as an over-the-top super hero, who wants nothing more than for his son to follow in the family business. Kelly Preston looks amazing as his flying super hero wife. A great group of kids play the Sky High students, with cool effects to help them into their roles... and some nice parables about life in high school. I expected lots of eye rolling and lame super hero humor... but there was no lameness, no eye rolls, but plenty of good laughs and sweet moments. Parents, feel free to go with your kids to this one!

Well, I must say that this movie was surprisingly good for it being a Disney Kid Movie. Now it won't win any Oscars, but it really kept up the Disney Tradition for being a clean and fun film. It was wonderful to see Kurt Russell on the screen again with Disney. The acting, again, not an Oscar performance out of anyone, was clean and sincere, very believable. The sets and special effects were, well, good. The diversity and conflict between students of the school, once again... good. There were some very witty and dry remarks about high school life as well. Good writing. I say the most surprising thing about this film was that it was just plain old fun! It had the patrons laughing as well as I. My 7 year old and my 3 year old loved it and it was still adult enough with a strong enough plot to keep the parents interested as well. All in all, it made for a fun afternoon.

I think Disney misfired with the very poor The Pacifier and had higher expectations from the Herbie movie. But they'll do surprisingly well with this kids flick, I think. Perhaps we even have a sleeper here.

When I saw the Sky High trailer I thought I was going to see the next installment of Spy Kids. Okay, there are a lot of crazy special effects in this movie, but the story is actually driven by the nice performances by almost all the actors instead of lots of SFX.

The film is about young Will Stronghold (charming performance by Michael Angarano), son of the two most popular and successful superheroes in the world, The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston). Will is about to go to Sky High, a school especially founded for superheroes, but there's one problem: he doesn't own any superpower. Instead of being a superhero, his highest goal seems to be the one of sidekick. So how can he survive at school being the son of the world most famous super duo? And how will his parents react when they hear the bad news?

Sky High is a very entertaining family movie with lots of good hearted humor. Early in the movie Bruce Campbell (oh yeah!) steals the show as (ex-hero, now teacher) Sonic Boomer, who has a 'Sorting Hat' scene in which he determines which student will go to hero class and which ones will study for sidekick. Kurt Russell gives a great tongue-in-cheek performance as proud daddy who thinks it's great that his son defeats all the bullies at school but has to condemn it in front of his wife. And that's the opinion of a someone who isn't actually a fan of the actor himself. The original little ideas dry out after the first half of the movie, but who said that all family movies should have Oscar power?

Sky High is a movie about friendship, falling in love with the wrong girl, falling in love with the right girl and trying to succeed in your parents footsteps. Very entertaining for the kids, and some nice laughs for parents too (during the Sidekick lessons given by ex-All American Boy for instance: lots a references to the Robin from the Batman TV-series). Great 80's soundtrack as well, with covers from songs by The Smiths, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears and even Till Tuesday and Modern English.