Movie

Sky High (2005)

When putting together my list, I focused on action movies with some thrillers and horror entries. Comedy isn’t my favourite genre, but I’m aiming for variety. This Walt Disney family adventure has a lot going for it, and a strong moral tale at its core. And the inclusion of a masked villainess is welcome!

Sky High is about school kids with problems. Not that original, you might think, except these children have special powers. The title institution – that floats in the sky – is an academy for superheroes. Students learn how to build ray guns, save imperilled citizens, and all the other good guy stuff.

One prevailing theme is the two-tier education system. Impress during induction, and you’re chosen to be a hero. If not, then you’re a sidekick (also known as hero support) and treated as inferior. Will Stronghold is the offspring of two superhero parents, but he has no powers and so becomes a sidekick. That’s until he develops super strength during a cafeteria fight with a pyrokinetic arch-enemy. Then he’s transferred to the hero group, and his problems really start.

Villainess

Gwen / Royal Pain (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)

The chief antagonist is a mysterious armour-suited villain known only as Royal Pain, whom Will’s parents defeated many years ago. But great foes aren’t so easily disposed of.

Guessing the villain’s identity is relatively easy. Royal Pain uses the voice disguiser trick, which usually implies a female. Will has two girls in his life, so a decent chance one of them is bad. Girl #1 is Layla (Danielle Panabaker) who’s a good variant of Poison Ivy with the power to control plants. Girl #2 is Gwen Grayson, a teaching assistant who seems charming at first. Then she reveals her true colours and deceives Layla into abandoning Will at a house party.

The event is a cover to steal Royal Pain’s pacifier, a suitably high-tech beam weapon. If Will had any doubts about Gwen’s intentions, those are erased when he discovers his girlfriend’s photo in the school yearbook. Long ago, she was called Sue Tenny, and is shown holding the pacifier in lab class.

Will races off to save the day and must foil Royal Pain’s diabolical plot. She wants to turn the Sky High kids into babies and re-raise them as villains. Suitably dastardly, eh?

No surprise that the school bullies and bitchy cheerleader (who makes multiple copies of herself) side with the villainess. Naturally, Will teams up with the sidekicks whose maligned powers prove useful. And the theme resurfaces when Royal Pain / Gwen / Sue Tenny reveals her motivation was derision as a sidekick. Maybe the school should rethink its policy.

There’s a fun climax where Will battles Royal Pain, and the sidekicks (make that heroes) overcome the villainess. As this is a family movie, their efforts are recognised, and the villains imprisoned to set up a potential sequel. So far there’s been talk of one, but nothing ever materialised.

Honourable Mention: Family Movies

Mr Magoo (1997) – Luanne LeSeur (Kelly Lynch)

Hon Mention TextAnother comedy adventure produced by Walt Disney, adapted from a cartoon about a short-sighted, accident-prone hero. The movie received backlash from the disabled community because of its negative portrayal of visual impairment. That said, this Leslie Nielsen vehicle is a fun romp, even if most of the humour is mediocre slapstick.

That criticism doesn’t apply to the villainess, who’s above average. Luanne is a jewel thief with a habit of double-crossing her partners, and a mistress of disguise for good measure. She’s played by martial artist Kelly Lynch, foreshadowing her Charlie’s Angels role a few years later.

Luanne wears some silly outfits, notably a bikini, a shiny silver catsuit (just because) and – most crazy of all – a “money suit” with wads of cash sewn into black fabric. Well, this is a comedy. Thankfully, the villainess’ high-kicking antics are lively, and she makes a good adversary. She beats up a small army of guys while unarmed at a crime boss’ wedding, but she’s no match for Mr Magoo, who wins purely by accident.