Shock! BAM! WOW! I checked out Sky High and – SHOCK – it’s really very good. I was never bored and always entertained. There were only a few moments where I wished the movie had done something different – and that’s pretty remarkable for a movie with so little expectation.

It’s about superhero high school and it’s from Disney – it’s a little like the Incredibles and a little like Harry Potter but in the long run, it’s really its own movie. There’s a lot of throw-away jokes about superhero lore and the idea that the kids show off their superpowers and get categorized as either heroes or “Hero Support” (sidekicks) is neat and actually gives the movie a little message about equality. And about high school and how the hero students can terrorize the sidekicks just because they have the cool powers and the sidekicks don’t… in other words, it’s all about high school cool kids vs. nerds… only with heat vision.

The basic premise is that Kurt Russell is the superstrong Commander and is married to his flying wife and together they are the most famous superheroes on the planet. Their kid doesn’t have any superpowers of his own but he’s been hiding that fact – hoping that his powers will appear. In this world, you can get your powers from your parents or you can be bitten by radioactive insects, dumped in toxic waste, etc. (afterwards, you’ll have a superpower… or you’ll be dead). So the kid goes to school and gets turned into a sidekick on the first day.

It’s a fun movie with a good cast. I mentioned Kurt Russell but Bruce Campbell is there too (Ash from the Evil Dead movies) and Cloris Leachman. Two (or possibly three) of the Kids in the Hall are in the movie too.

It’s worth watching (especially with kids). Very good, fun, and pretty family-friendly stuff.

Score: 81