PRESIDENT'S ESSAY
Sky High
POSTED
December 10, 2005

Sky High focuses on Will Stronghold, son of the greatest superhero duo in history - The Commander and Jetstream, who has some difficulty (but not nearly enough) discovering his powers. Though as much a high school story as a superhero story, Sky High will inevitably be compared with The Incredibles , and will suffer by the comparison. The cartoon has a vastly better script, is much more inventive, and is a sustained assault on egalitarianism. Sky High is of two minds about the superiority of the super. The filmmakers can’t decide whether to mock egalitarianism or promote it, and end up doing both: The Green superheroine Layla’s distrust of “labeling” is played for laughs, yet the film as a whole dismantles the hierarchy of superhero and sidekick. The movie has its amusing moments, but Mr. Incredible is my preferred hero any day.

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