Sky High, some thoughts

[dvandom]

Saw Sky High yesterday. In general, I liked it. The plot was a bit too by-the-numbers, but I felt it was a fairly clever combination of standard "coming of age Disney movies" of the sort Kurt Russell used to be in as the kid rather than as the dad (and he's in another Disney movie coming up as the dad, this one about a race horse).

I don't think it's a ripoff of PS238. If nothing else, development time on major studio movies is so long it probably had to be in development before there was a PS238 to rip off. And, really, you could say that both it and PS238 were ripoffs of Hero High (a 70s SatAM cartoon, IIRC), if you want to go looking for first use of concept. Anyway, Sky High is sufficiently different from PS238 that I don't see theft.


I found it interesting that they found an extra twist to put on the whole wish-fulfillment aspects of being a kid with superpowers. Not only does the main character find his powers, his purpose, etc...but also, all the nasty kids in high school turn out to be supervillains! And isn't that, more than merely getting powers, total geek wish fulfillment? Those snotty popular kids? The high school bullies? They're all EVIL SUPERVILLAINS, and they'll get tossed in jail at the end! And that science teacher who made you feel stupid? Another supervillain, although reformed. The antagonists in your life are actually the villains of the piece, and you're the hero. How great would that have been? Everyone ends up either on the side of the protagonist, or in jail.


Oh, and Kieron Dwyer did the comic-style art for various flashbacks and the end credits. I'm kinda surprised they went with such a distinctive but non-'hot' art style. It's not Kirby-ish, nor is it Image-style. In fact, very few others draw anything like Dwyer (who I was first exposed to when he drew the Captain America comic in the 1980s, the John Walker run), and it's not like Dwyer's got a hot book out right now (that I've noticed).

Comments

[rickj.livejournal.com]

When did we learn that Mr Medula was a reformed supervillain? I don't remember that, though I did have to take My Excuse For Going to the bathroom in middle of the flick.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Galaxy High was also on in the 80s.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

I'm just sayin', any Disney movie with Kurt Russell playing a character with super-powers that doesn't either name him Dexter Riley or have him wear a piece of Medfield College paraphanalia is missing the boat bigtime.