Monster can’t help but tink dat if Wonder Woman had been my high school principal, me could have accomplished so much more in life. Instead, here me is doing movie reviews to help support my cookie habit. But me suppose it could be worse. Monster could be reviewing Elektra again. Instead, dis week, me watch Sky High, a film dat prove you CAN write a smart, funny, entertaining kids movie. Take DAT Shark Boy and Lava Girl! Hmmm. Could be de peach schnapps talking but me really liked dis movie.
Will Stronghold just a regular kid. And dats de problem. He just a regular kid wit no superpowers – but his parents be The Commander and Jetstream, celebrity superheroes. Will keep his super-impotence a sekret from his famous folks, but it not going to be a sekret for long becuz he now a freshman at Sky High – a sekret floating high school for children of supherheroes (and de occasional supervillain).
On his first day at Sky High, we introduced to Will’s classmates – and deir powers. One kid glows in de dark. Another can turn into a hamster. Two more, de school bullies, have super speed and stretching ability. At first gym class, kids demonstrate deir powers for gym teacher (Hey! It’s Bruce Campbell!) who divide dem into “heroes” and “sidekicks”, Sky High’s version of de classic high school dichotomy of cool kids and losers.
Will declared a sidekick and have to take classes wit his fellow second-raters. One class taught by The Commander’s former sidekick, All-American Boy (Hey! It’s Dave Foley!). Another by big-brain professor (Hey! It’s Kevin McDonald!). Like most high school kids, he discover dat even tho dey not be “de cool crowd”, his new friends a lot more fun to hang out. Especially so his cute best friend who, for some reason, he not seem to notice be mighty cute, Leila.
Also attending Sky High is broody rebel kid, Warren Peace, son of superhero mother and supervillain father. Warren take instant dislike to Will becuz his father (The Commander) put Warren’s father in jail.
Will finally come into his powers – super-strength. And, suddenly, he go from sidekick to hero. He catch de eye of sexy/bitchy in-girl, Gwen. Meanwhile, poor Leila left to sulk – and hit it off wit broody Warren.
Tings come to a head when Will’s parents go away and he tricked into hosting a house party – and showing his new gal, Gwen, his father’s sekret inner sanktum!
Will finally come to his senses and dump Gwen. He decide to skip prom and hang around his father’s inner sanktum – where he diskover disappearance of “de pacifier”, a mysterious sekret weapon dat once belonged to de nefarious supervillain Royal Pain!
At prom night, The Commander and Jetstream show up to be presented wit speshul hero award – only to get ambushed by Gwen who turn out to be…Royal Pain (in a clever twist dat involve her getting turned into a baby, den getting adopted and raised by her own henchman)! She use de pacifier on dem, turning dem into babies. Den, wit de help of some accomplices, she start zapping everyone in sight, turning DEM into babies too!
Will show up and, wit help of a bunch of sidekicks, have to prove himself hero-worthy by saving de day.
Movie full of great in-jokes, one-liners, charakter moments, and does terrific job of satirizing high school life and family dynamics. And bonus marks for casting of Lynda Carter/Wonder Woman, as Principal Powers, who still lookin’ fiiiiiiiiine.
Verdikt: Great movie for kidz, comic book fans, and jaded monsters.
Rating: 7.5 chocolate chippee cookies.
“Monster could be reviewing Elektra again. Instead, dis week, me watch Sky High, a film dat prove you CAN write a smart, funny, entertaining kids movie. Take DAT Shark Boy and Lava Girl!”
Quit it!! Don’t be so mean Monster! Shark Boy and Lava Girl was goooood!! Can’t compare because it was made for children and starred children. Stop being a big bully!
Well, I feel terrible. I didn’t get a chance to screen the movie (stuff going on, you know) although I did unsuccessfully try to find a copy. However, I did see it a few years back, and I remember it much as you did, Cookie. Despite first appearances (and the concept could very easily have turned into a mess), it was actually very clever and a good take on what it’s like to fit in at high school. Once again, it’s all about the writing!
Wait. This movie had a long-locked broody dude in it??! YO, JOE! Why didn’t I get a super secret head’s up e-mail informing about this very important fact??! I mean, you – of all people – know the one thing that will make me watch a movie or read a book: hawt long-locked introspective moody dude. YOU know this!! Okay, and mebbe Sparrowhawk. And anyone who reads your blog. But you, YOU knew in advance! And no head’s up. 🙁
You’ve failed me, Joe…you’ve failed me.
*sniffle*
das
Agree with you, Cookie Monster. This was a great movie! We all loved it here.
Have a great day!
When this movie came out I watched it with my nephew, expecting to be bored out of my mind. But I liked it, I really liked it! Didn’t get the chance to rewatch it yet but I will soon.
My dissatisfaction with my high school experience grows and grows.
My comment vanished! I am very bummed. Anyway, I’ll say it again. I always love watching Sky High . It’s one of those movies that is intended for kids, but is not painful to watch as an adult. The plot is clever – I love the whole side-kick/superhero dynamic. The characters are different and fun. Magenta (the girl who turns into the pink guinea pig) is a hoot. It has a broody bad boy, a supervillain with goons, Lynda Carter and Kurt Russell.
Of course, now that I have written this, the old comment will magically appear.
Thanks Cookie for yet another funny movie review.
@Cookie:
I was finally able to sit down and watch this last night with the kids (although I did fall asleep during a couple of scenes…jetlag is still a factor). It was goofy in spots, but a fun goofy (as opposed to un-intentionally bad-goofy). The first bus take-off scene, for example: “How did the bus get that high off of such a short exit ramp?!?”
I did have to explain the Wonder Woman reference to my kids; further complicated by the fact that my sister-in-law was also named Linda Carter, resulting in some initial confusion (“Aunt Linda is Wonder Woman?!?”)
I also didn’t realize Dave Foley had a Stargate connection prior to this (Malcolm Tunney in SGA’s “Brain Storm” in 2008) and of course, Kurt Russell was in the original Stargate film.
Ugh, I couldn’t stand this movie. It made a slight mockery of already existing superheroes and wrapped it up with Disney’s typical bubble-gum whitewashing of storylines so that everything is right up on the surface with no real depth to any character. Then they fill it with enough guest stars and over-the-kids-heads references to keep the parents happy tied with fart jokes and nut shots to keep the kids happy and churn out another craptastic movie that for some reason, people keep gobbling up every six months. It’s kinda why I’ve sworn off a LOT of Disney movies in the last 10+ years, they’ve got one formula and as long as people keep going to their movies, they’ll keep making them. Bleh, let me off this stupid ride.
But yes, I will agree about Lynda Carter. She looked amazing. She was my first TV crush as a kid, so I am a little biased already. I think she influenced me more than I realize because between her and Erin Grey(Battlestar Galactica), I now have quite the preference for blue-eyed brunettes….
-Mike A.
@Ponytail – Cookie’s come a long way. He’s not that much of a bully considering his parents were both monsters.
Waitaminute. Sparrowhawk, YOU also knew about the broody (long-locked!) bad boy and you didn’t bother to tell me, either??! Sheesh. You and Joey, peas in a pod. 🙄
😉
das
I’m surprised Cookie liked this movie so much. 7.5 cookies is a rarity. I enjoyed it but I like corny films. We have watched Sky High several times and I always get a kick out of it. When I first watched it, Magenta’s character turning into a hamster was a surprise. A good surprise. It makes gentle fun of comic themed movies, high school experiences and has a great cast. Michael Angarano would have made a good “Percy Jason”, if the age had lined up.
I find it funny you brought up Shark Boy/Lava Girl. Sorry Ponytail but Shark boy/Lava Girl is a measuring stick for all bad movies to me now. 😉 No hard feelings, right? Please?
I just updated Adobe and it installed a bunch of Google crud! It doesn’t seem fair they can take programs you don’t want onto an update. Very wrong. If I wanted Google Chrome I would already have it. Gotta go uninstall a bunch of Google stuff now. 🙁
Meant “tack” not take programs. I’ll leave you alone now. Have a good day!!! Yes, I’m a little hyper. Why do you ask? 🙄
I haven’t seen this movie sorry, that said I’m probably going to be resting for a few days, aha.. could check it out, think I have the flu incoming. Suddenly hit me earlier when I became super tired out of nowhere and I have an awesome temperature at the moment lol
I actually quite enjoyed this movie but I did have a couple of problems with it:
The whole boy-falls-in-love-with-gorgeous-but-bitchy-girl-while-ignorning-gorgeous-non-bitchy-best-friend-but-eventually-realises-that-bitchy-girl-is-a-bitch-and-that-he-really-loves-the-girl-that’s-been-in-front-of-him-since-kindergarten thing is so overdone in kid-tween-teen movies (and a hell of a lot of adult romance movies too!). Perhaps kids aren’t jaded enough or maybe they just don’t remember that they’re seeing the same story over and over again but it really drives me nuts and I had that particular plot line picked as soon as I saw bitchy girl.
The other thing that bothered me was the soundtrack of ’80s music. It felt so incongruous. Why would high school students in 2005 be listening to ’80s music (even if they are covers)? It felt to me like the director/producers put in the music that they liked when they were in high school rather than putting in music that kids of 2005 would be into.
Anyway, as I said, I still liked the movie. It was entertaining and occasionally humorous. Always good to see Kurt Russell. I think Cookie Monster was spot on with his review and cookie rating.
Gluten free brownines! Interested in the recipe Das: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/gluten-free-chewy-gooey-brownies
Cookie Monster typing the blog…
http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab253/cherluvya/618A7BD8-5990-4B0D-8F21-9233C3E83286-3534-000002F827C6B5BC.jpg
Oops, sorry das.. The broody guy didn’t have long white hair and he was kinda young, so I wasn’t sure he would be your type… But I did tell you it had Kurt Russell. Isn’t that enough?
I’ll have to give this one a try.
@Cookie – Shark Boy and Lava Girl make another appearance in Spy Kids 3D in case you wanted to give them another chance.
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@Line Noise – Guy-isn’t-noticing-potential-love-right-in-front-of-him and guy-pines-after-bitchy-girl are a legitimate third of the six things that need fixing a properly formulated movie is supposed to present to us early on. The obviousness of it is part of the game to get us to root for things to change, but, yeah, pick something else that needs fixing if you don’t have an original way to go about it. Not to mention those things don’t leave a lot of room for your movie to pass the Bechdel test.
@ DP – Really?? Shark Boy… Wow, great!! 😀 😀 I’ll have to watch!