Sky High Fandom Overview
Fandom Overview: Sky High
Sky High was, in my opinion, one of the best movies of 2005. Very few people saw it, though, which may have had something to do with the previews making it look as dumb as a box of rocks. Instead, it's incredibly adorable, and a smart, skilled parody/homage of both the superhero genre and classic teen-movie plots. The movie includes a variety of characters both teen and adult, and a defined yet wide-open fantasy universe, making it very ficcable. I think the best thing in the fandom is still the movie, though, so run out and rent it and then come back to check out my recs!
Cast of Characters
Steve Stronghold/The Commander and Josie Stronghold/Jetstream - The greatest superheroes in the world. Also, real estate agents.
(clockwise from top: Will, Layla, Zach, Ethan, Magenta)
Will Stronghold - Incredibly sweet yet rather awkward teenage boy. Third-generation superhero-in-training. But oops, it's the first day of high school, and he doesn't have any powers yet.
Layla - She controls plants. She's an idealist, an activist, and Will's best friend since kindergarten. Also secretly in love with him.
Zach - Too tall and too talkative for his own good. He glows.
Magenta - Cynical, pragmatic, and can turn into a guinea pig.
Ethan - He's a prep, a geek, and a bit of a goody-goody kiss-up, who melts.
Warren Peace - Son of a superhero and a supervillain, Warren has issues. And lots of fire.
Gwen Grayson - Student body president, scientific genius, drop dead gorgeous, and not very nice.
Royal Pain - A supervillain who was destroyed by the Strongholds.... OR NOT.
Stitches - Royal Pain's loyal sidekick.
Penny - A bitchy, stuck-up cheerleader who can turn into a whole cheerleading squad.
Lash - A bully. Stretchy.
Speed - A bully. Fast.
Coach Boomer - The hard-nosed PE coach.
Mr. Boy - The hero-support teacher.
Mr. Medulla - The mad science teacher.
Principal Powers - The principal of Sky High.
Ron Wilson, Bus Driver - He's Ron Wilson, Bus Driver. Respect the hat.
Plot Synopsis
This synopsis, of course, contains spoilers for the entire movie.
The movie opens on the morning of Will's first day in high school at Sky High, school for superpowered teens. But Will, unlike both his parents and his grandfather, has no superpowers, although he's been pretending to have superstrength like his father. So off he heads to school with his friends Layla and Zach, worried about what will happen.
What does happen? Well, during power placement, he gets put into the loser sidekick hero support class, along with Zach, Magenta, and Ethan. And also Layla, who refuses to show her power because she thinks the system is fascist. The sidekicks are bullied by Speed and Lash, Will falls head over heels for Gwen, the student body president, and discovers that he has an enemy in Warren. Turns out Will's father, The Commander, is the one responsible for getting Warren's father, Barron Battle, sentenced to four consecutive life terms in jail. Warren has a bit of a grudge over this.
Oh, and there's this shadowy figure plotting away and planting spying devices in the Stronghold house who may or may not be Royal Pain, a villain that The Commander and Jetstream supposedly destroyed ages ago.
The kids settle into hero support class, but there's one little problem. Will still hasn't told his parents about not having any powers. When he eventually ends up doing so it is, I think, one of the best cinematographic coming out scenes ever.
Ha, did I say one little problem? I kid. There's more than one, obviously. Lash and Speed trip Will one day in the lunch room, and his tray flies right onto, you guessed it, Warren. Warren bursts out with the fireballs, and he and Will have a very one-sided fight until Will's superstrength manifests, and then Will and Warren are sent to detention together. Will tries to make friends, but Warren refuses.
All this and romance, too. Layla, of course, is crushing on Will, Will is crushing on Gwen, and Zach and Magenta are flirting with each other. Will is transferred to hero class after his power manifests, and Gwen begins to tutor him in mad science. Will is suddenly one of the cool kids, and isn't hanging with his old friends as much anymore, having been drawn into the popular crowd with Gwen and Penny.
Lash and Speed are still up to their bullying ways, and Zach gets Will stuck in a bet to beat them at the PE game of Save The Citizen, after which either the sidekicks will be let alone or Ethan's head will be dunked in the toilet every day. Lash and Speed, as the reigning champions of the game, get to pick their opponents, and they team Will up with Warren. It's a close game, but despite not getting along well, Will and Warren manage to work together enough to win.
Afterward, Will promises to meet Layla for dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, to make up for that whole popular crowd thing. But then Gwen shows up at his house unexpectedly, and Will forgets about the dinner with Layla, spending the whole evening with Gwen and his parents, reminiscing over old Sky High yearbooks. When Will walks Gwen home, she asks him to be her date to Homecoming.
Layla, sitting alone at the Chinese restaurant, discovers that Warren works there as a busboy. The two of them talk, and he realizes she's madly in love with Will and urges her to confess to him.
The next morning, when Will tells her that he's going to Homecoming with Gwen, Layla, hurt, tells him that she's going with Warren.
Right, but don't forget the superheroics. Turns out Gwen is actually Royal Pain. See, back in the day, she was named Sue Tenny, and she went to Sky High and got put in the sidekick class because no one understood her technopath power over technology. She made this device called the Pacifier, and it exploded while she was fighting The Commander and Jetstream and turned her into a little baby. Her sidekick, Stitches, raised her up as his daughter, and now she's back at Sky High, seeking to destroy it and babify all the heroes so she can raise them as an army of villains. And Homecoming is her trap! She tricks Will into having a party at his house while his parents are out so that she can sneak in and get the Pacifier from The Commander's secret sanctum where he keeps all his trophies. Then Layla shows up and there's a fight and Will dumps Gwen and says he isn't going to Homecoming with her.
Will's parents get mad over the party and Will goes to his room to sulk. The Commander and Jetstream go to Homecoming anyway, to accept an award, and all the other kids are there, and Will is leafing through the old yearbook again and realizes, hey, that Sue Tenny girl looks just like Gwen, and she's holding the Pacifier in this science club photo, and oh noes, the Pacifier is missing from its display case.
Will heads to Sky High, Gwen turns all the adults into babies, and only a few of the sidekicks, our favorites Layla, Zach, Magenta, Ethan, and Warren, get out of the gym to meet Will and fight against Royal Pain and her minions Penny, Lash, and Speed. Will gets thrown over the side of the floating school and discovers he also has the power of flight. Royal Pain is finally knocked out, but she's sabotaged the anti-grav device and the whole school's going to fall down and kill them all. It's up to Magenta to turn into her guinea pig form and crawl down the little tubes to disable the anti-grav scrambler.
So in the end, the sidekicks save the day, Warren becomes friends with them, the adults are de-Pacified, the school is still floating, and Will and Layla kiss. All is happy (and we have learned the values of teamwork and the specialness of everyone). Yay!
This summary, though, fails to do justice to the tone or structure of the movie. It's full of little bits of visual humor and superhero jokes that can't be captured here. And the soundtrack is awesome.
Fandom Resources
Popular fanfic pairings include such canon couples as Will/Layla and Zach/Magenta, and such non-canon couples as Will/Warren, Warren/Layla, and Warren/Mary Sue.
Official Movie Website - The official site contains some cute stuff, but it has this Flash layout I hate and well, let's just say that I suspect the people who wrote the copy didn't actually watch the movie.
IMDB site - If you want to know who the actors are.
skyhighmovie - LJ community for general discussion of any and all things related to the movie.
skyhighfic - All fanfic community. Most of the stuff posted here is at least minimally competent.
skyhigh_icons - Community for posting icons, wallpapers, banners, graphics, and screencaps.
skyhigh at DW - General discussion, fic, and everything else comm on Dreamwidth.
fanfiction.net section - Where most of the fic is.
Archive Of Our Own section - Not as used as it should be.
willandlayla - For Will/Layla fans.
brainsxbrawn - For Will/Warren fans.
Will/Layla/Warren ship manifesto - Good descriptions of characters and relationships, and links to some fic.
LJ interests search - For a fuller listing of more actor comms and RPGs.
Sky High at Yuletide - Good source of fic for any small fandom.
Fanlisting - A list of Sky High fans.
Sky High at Wikipedia - More useful info about the movie.
Sky High at crack_van - All the SH fic that's been recced here at crack_van.
What else ciaan says - More SH recs, discussion, fic, and so on at my journal.
Sky High was, in my opinion, one of the best movies of 2005. Very few people saw it, though, which may have had something to do with the previews making it look as dumb as a box of rocks. Instead, it's incredibly adorable, and a smart, skilled parody/homage of both the superhero genre and classic teen-movie plots. The movie includes a variety of characters both teen and adult, and a defined yet wide-open fantasy universe, making it very ficcable. I think the best thing in the fandom is still the movie, though, so run out and rent it and then come back to check out my recs!
Cast of Characters
Steve Stronghold/The Commander and Josie Stronghold/Jetstream - The greatest superheroes in the world. Also, real estate agents.
(clockwise from top: Will, Layla, Zach, Ethan, Magenta)
Will Stronghold - Incredibly sweet yet rather awkward teenage boy. Third-generation superhero-in-training. But oops, it's the first day of high school, and he doesn't have any powers yet.
Layla - She controls plants. She's an idealist, an activist, and Will's best friend since kindergarten. Also secretly in love with him.
Zach - Too tall and too talkative for his own good. He glows.
Magenta - Cynical, pragmatic, and can turn into a guinea pig.
Ethan - He's a prep, a geek, and a bit of a goody-goody kiss-up, who melts.
Warren Peace - Son of a superhero and a supervillain, Warren has issues. And lots of fire.
Gwen Grayson - Student body president, scientific genius, drop dead gorgeous, and not very nice.
Royal Pain - A supervillain who was destroyed by the Strongholds.... OR NOT.
Stitches - Royal Pain's loyal sidekick.
Penny - A bitchy, stuck-up cheerleader who can turn into a whole cheerleading squad.
Lash - A bully. Stretchy.
Speed - A bully. Fast.
Coach Boomer - The hard-nosed PE coach.
Mr. Boy - The hero-support teacher.
Mr. Medulla - The mad science teacher.
Principal Powers - The principal of Sky High.
Ron Wilson, Bus Driver - He's Ron Wilson, Bus Driver. Respect the hat.
Plot Synopsis
This synopsis, of course, contains spoilers for the entire movie.
The movie opens on the morning of Will's first day in high school at Sky High, school for superpowered teens. But Will, unlike both his parents and his grandfather, has no superpowers, although he's been pretending to have superstrength like his father. So off he heads to school with his friends Layla and Zach, worried about what will happen.
What does happen? Well, during power placement, he gets put into the loser sidekick hero support class, along with Zach, Magenta, and Ethan. And also Layla, who refuses to show her power because she thinks the system is fascist. The sidekicks are bullied by Speed and Lash, Will falls head over heels for Gwen, the student body president, and discovers that he has an enemy in Warren. Turns out Will's father, The Commander, is the one responsible for getting Warren's father, Barron Battle, sentenced to four consecutive life terms in jail. Warren has a bit of a grudge over this.
Oh, and there's this shadowy figure plotting away and planting spying devices in the Stronghold house who may or may not be Royal Pain, a villain that The Commander and Jetstream supposedly destroyed ages ago.
The kids settle into hero support class, but there's one little problem. Will still hasn't told his parents about not having any powers. When he eventually ends up doing so it is, I think, one of the best cinematographic coming out scenes ever.
Ha, did I say one little problem? I kid. There's more than one, obviously. Lash and Speed trip Will one day in the lunch room, and his tray flies right onto, you guessed it, Warren. Warren bursts out with the fireballs, and he and Will have a very one-sided fight until Will's superstrength manifests, and then Will and Warren are sent to detention together. Will tries to make friends, but Warren refuses.
All this and romance, too. Layla, of course, is crushing on Will, Will is crushing on Gwen, and Zach and Magenta are flirting with each other. Will is transferred to hero class after his power manifests, and Gwen begins to tutor him in mad science. Will is suddenly one of the cool kids, and isn't hanging with his old friends as much anymore, having been drawn into the popular crowd with Gwen and Penny.
Lash and Speed are still up to their bullying ways, and Zach gets Will stuck in a bet to beat them at the PE game of Save The Citizen, after which either the sidekicks will be let alone or Ethan's head will be dunked in the toilet every day. Lash and Speed, as the reigning champions of the game, get to pick their opponents, and they team Will up with Warren. It's a close game, but despite not getting along well, Will and Warren manage to work together enough to win.
Afterward, Will promises to meet Layla for dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, to make up for that whole popular crowd thing. But then Gwen shows up at his house unexpectedly, and Will forgets about the dinner with Layla, spending the whole evening with Gwen and his parents, reminiscing over old Sky High yearbooks. When Will walks Gwen home, she asks him to be her date to Homecoming.
Layla, sitting alone at the Chinese restaurant, discovers that Warren works there as a busboy. The two of them talk, and he realizes she's madly in love with Will and urges her to confess to him.
The next morning, when Will tells her that he's going to Homecoming with Gwen, Layla, hurt, tells him that she's going with Warren.
Right, but don't forget the superheroics. Turns out Gwen is actually Royal Pain. See, back in the day, she was named Sue Tenny, and she went to Sky High and got put in the sidekick class because no one understood her technopath power over technology. She made this device called the Pacifier, and it exploded while she was fighting The Commander and Jetstream and turned her into a little baby. Her sidekick, Stitches, raised her up as his daughter, and now she's back at Sky High, seeking to destroy it and babify all the heroes so she can raise them as an army of villains. And Homecoming is her trap! She tricks Will into having a party at his house while his parents are out so that she can sneak in and get the Pacifier from The Commander's secret sanctum where he keeps all his trophies. Then Layla shows up and there's a fight and Will dumps Gwen and says he isn't going to Homecoming with her.
Will's parents get mad over the party and Will goes to his room to sulk. The Commander and Jetstream go to Homecoming anyway, to accept an award, and all the other kids are there, and Will is leafing through the old yearbook again and realizes, hey, that Sue Tenny girl looks just like Gwen, and she's holding the Pacifier in this science club photo, and oh noes, the Pacifier is missing from its display case.
Will heads to Sky High, Gwen turns all the adults into babies, and only a few of the sidekicks, our favorites Layla, Zach, Magenta, Ethan, and Warren, get out of the gym to meet Will and fight against Royal Pain and her minions Penny, Lash, and Speed. Will gets thrown over the side of the floating school and discovers he also has the power of flight. Royal Pain is finally knocked out, but she's sabotaged the anti-grav device and the whole school's going to fall down and kill them all. It's up to Magenta to turn into her guinea pig form and crawl down the little tubes to disable the anti-grav scrambler.
So in the end, the sidekicks save the day, Warren becomes friends with them, the adults are de-Pacified, the school is still floating, and Will and Layla kiss. All is happy (and we have learned the values of teamwork and the specialness of everyone). Yay!
This summary, though, fails to do justice to the tone or structure of the movie. It's full of little bits of visual humor and superhero jokes that can't be captured here. And the soundtrack is awesome.
Fandom Resources
Popular fanfic pairings include such canon couples as Will/Layla and Zach/Magenta, and such non-canon couples as Will/Warren, Warren/Layla, and Warren/Mary Sue.
Official Movie Website - The official site contains some cute stuff, but it has this Flash layout I hate and well, let's just say that I suspect the people who wrote the copy didn't actually watch the movie.
IMDB site - If you want to know who the actors are.
skyhighmovie - LJ community for general discussion of any and all things related to the movie.
skyhighfic - All fanfic community. Most of the stuff posted here is at least minimally competent.
skyhigh_icons - Community for posting icons, wallpapers, banners, graphics, and screencaps.
skyhigh at DW - General discussion, fic, and everything else comm on Dreamwidth.
fanfiction.net section - Where most of the fic is.
Archive Of Our Own section - Not as used as it should be.
willandlayla - For Will/Layla fans.
brainsxbrawn - For Will/Warren fans.
Will/Layla/Warren ship manifesto - Good descriptions of characters and relationships, and links to some fic.
LJ interests search - For a fuller listing of more actor comms and RPGs.
Sky High at Yuletide - Good source of fic for any small fandom.
Fanlisting - A list of Sky High fans.
Sky High at Wikipedia - More useful info about the movie.
Sky High at crack_van - All the SH fic that's been recced here at crack_van.
What else ciaan says - More SH recs, discussion, fic, and so on at my journal.