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HTF UMD REVIEW: Sky High (1 Viewer)

David Galindo

Screenwriter
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Mar 30, 2003
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[c]Sky High (UMD)
Region 1 • PG • Dolby Digital • Available Now

[/c]

Buena Vista delivers what is needed in this light family film that’s oh-so short of greatness.

Thoughts on the Movie

Sky High is a movie that is clever, sometimes ingenious, and downright inspired...in the first half of the movie. Let’s expand on that a bit more.

Will Stronghold is a teenager of the Stronghold parents, who fight crime as The Commander and Jetstream and is one of the better known supers in a world where hero crime fighting is its own occupation. Will is about to enter high school, but does not have super powers just yet...not his mom’s flying abilities, or his dad’s super strength. He grows more worried when boarding the bus to school with longtime friend Layla, who also happens to be a girl and very good looking at that. She has the power to make nature grow as far as I can tell, though she refuses to use it for crime fighting. Not that trees make a formidable opponent against someone who has, say, heat vision...but that’s another story.

As they board the bus to Sky High (located thousands of miles up in the sky, hovering on a gravitational disc like thingy), we find that this isn’t an ordinary school, but a high school just for superteens of super parents. And soon the freshmen enter a gym with Coach Boomer in a hilarious segment where he decides on the bases of their powers alone if they go down the hero path...or the sidekick path, also known (only known, really) to the sidekicks as Hero Support.

Soon after Will displays his lack of powers he is sitting in the sidekick 101 course, with Dave Foley as the teacher, also known back in the day as Greatest American Boy, but that’s Mr.Boy to his students. Kevin McDonald also shows up as the science teacher, and in one P.E. exercise has the students face off as villains and heroes on the gym floor, trying to save the citizen mannequins from getting chopped up in the grinder as precious seconds tick away.

All of this is downright funny and pretty inspired, and just when I thought this movie would follow in the steps of another Disney straight-to-TV movie where a teen copes with his superhero parents and siblings from not having any super powers at all, I was wrong. The movie kept me entertained for the first half.

And then, the second half of the film enters and totally eclipses the funnier first half. It escapes to a totally predictable villain vs. superhero plot, and dares to ask such questions such as, will the friend since childhood finally share her feelings for Will? Is there more to this new girlfriend that Will has, even though she is absolutely perfect in every way (as pretty much everyone needs to remind us throughout the movie)? Will Will become popular as a hero and throw a party in his parents’ house? Will Layla see this and misunderstand everything? Will the lowly sidekicks use their unpowerful powers to save the day at the end of the movie, especially since every incident requires a specialty only the sidekicks can deliver? (Hey, it’s dark in this air duct...thank goodness Glow in the Dark Boy can lead the way! Whoa, that tube is too small for anyone to fit...looks like a job for Shape Shifter into a Gerbil Girl!) Will the two opposing teens who hate each other team up and bond towards the end of the movie? Will Layla finally break her own rule of not using her powers of growing stuff to save the sidekicks? And for that matter, how can you plant trees hundreds of miles up in the sky anyways? Wouldn’t it freeze? All these questions and the movie never thought to ask...does Glow in the Dark boy keep himself up at night?


Video Quality

The ratio is 2.35, and looks very good. The black levels are good, the colors are very solid, and everything looks great. While everything has a very slight soft look to it (most likely the cinematography), this is still another stellar job from Buena Vista.

4/5




Audio Quality

Loud and crisp is the only real way of describing Sky High...it sounds just as good as it needs to, and then some. There were some good surround effects, and the overall separation was great.

4/5




Extras

The presentation is once again up to par with Buena Vista’s usual standards, though those forced trailers are a bummer. You get subs with a nice chapter selection and menu design.

The bonus features are not much more then fluff, unfortunately. You get the Welcome to Sky High Featurette (15:21) which is the best of the bunch and has some pretty good behind the scenes looks. Next up is an Alternate Opening (3:23) that’s a bit interesting but definitely wouldn’t have been a good curtain raiser. Next are some Super Bloopers (4:21) that are mildly amusing, and a ”I Melt With You” Music Video (4:08) that’s as good as these kinds of things can be, really.

While the content adds up to nearly twenty-five minutes of features, none of it is really substantial to warrant multiple viewings. It’s good for what it is, and not much more.

3/5




Overall…

As far as video and audio goes, Sky High is a winner. The movie itself and bonus features are a tad disappointing, but anyone who likes this movie should definitely consider this UMD. Recommended for fans of the film out there.

3.5/5


IGN CONVERSION:
Movie:7
Video:8
Audio:8
Extras:6
Overall:7.5
 

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