The best superhero movie on Disney+ has nothing to do with Marvel

According to Chris Snellgrove
| Published 4 days ago

Nerds like to debate which superhero movie is the best, and get into downright nasty arguments about whether, say, Avengers: Endgame or the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man are the best films in the genre. With all due respect to all of you true believers out there arguing over which pantyhose and flyaway movie to watch next, the best superhero movie has nothing to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe at all. The best superhero movie is, of course Sky Highand streaming it on Disney+ right now is the best way to see how beautifully this movie has aged.

Sky High Towers

Assumption Sky High is simple: the film focuses on a sort of superhero academy (the titular Sky High) where today’s talented youngsters are trained to become the superheroes and sidekicks of tomorrow. Our main character is the son of a superhero power couple who seemingly has no powers of his own, making it difficult for him to fit in or find friends among all these talented dudes. He ends up discovering a power he didn’t know he had, but it may or may not be enough to stop a powerful enemy from the past who has found a new way to terrorize the present.

If you’re a fan of superhero or genre media, the cast is a veritable who’s who of big names, including Kurt Russell as the Superman-like patriarch and Bruce Campbell as the weirdest gym teacher in the world. Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, plays the principal of Sky High, and Dave Foley plays the former sidekick turned teacher alongside his colleague. Children in the hall alumnus Kevin McDonald (who plays a science teacher with a comically oversized head). As for the younger stars, Michael Angarano stars alongside future superhero legends Danielle Panabaker and Mary-Elizabeth Winstead.

At the checkout, Sky High proved to be a modest hit, grossing $86.4 million against a budget of $35 million. It was also a modest hit with critics as the film currently holds a 74 percent critical rating Rotten tomatoes. In general, these critics stated that the film was a little derivative, but still managed to entertain from start to finish.

Why Sky High is the Best

Now is the time to address the caped elephant in the room: Sky High it didn’t make the biggest box office in the world, and it didn’t exactly excite the critics. So why am I calling this movie the best superhero movie on Disney+, the streaming platform where you can watch the entire MCU anytime? First of all, this movie embraces the pure, goofy fun of the genre. While the MCU has been much more light-hearted than the DCEU (and thank goodness for that!), some of its better films often get buried under the weight of being either too realistic or too heavy on tradition.

And for this long box lover, Sky High it’s much stronger because it embraces the goofier side of comics rather than trying to look cool. The MCU has done unpleasant things before, like replacing the over-the-top comic book villain The Mandarin with a drug-addled actor Ms. Marvel from a rubber hero to a hero with light powers who would conveniently look less stupid on screen. Meantime, Sky High has characters riding a school bus to a flight academy and a superhero father who honestly considers throwing his son into a vat of toxic waste to help the young man finally develop his powers.

Sky High it’s not a perfect movie, of course, but every scene is better than the sum of its parts. It succeeds as a superhero movie, but it also works as a great comedy and a very unconventional coming-of-age story that offers the kinds of great chemistry and character development that the latter MCU films have sorely lacked. Plus, the veteran actors have so much fun chewing the scenery that you’ll never be bored before the credits roll.

Can you find? Sky High is it better or are you going to dump this movie and go see some other Marvel movies instead? You won’t know until you stream it on Disney+. And if director Mike Mitchell gets his act together and creates a sequel set in the MCU, then this cinematic universe could get more of what it so desperately needs: laughs and heart.