Trivia / Sky High (2005)

• Acclaimed Flop: The film did make back its budget, but it wasn't as successful as Disney thought it would be and the company decided not to take a chance on the proposed three sequels. Despite this, it's generally regarded as one of Disney's best live-action offerings of the 2000s.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: The reason why Mike Mitchell signed on to direct the film is that he had the chance to work with the actors who played four of his favourite science-fiction cult heroes, namely Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), Kurt Russell (Snake Plissken), Bruce Campbell (Ash Williams) and Cloris Leachman (Frau Blucher *Horse whinney*).
• The Cast Showoff: While most of the songs are performed by then-contemporary music acts. Steven Strait sings the Cover Version of The Fixx's "One Thing Leads to Another".
• Creator Couple: The actors who play the Timmermans, Tom Kenny and Jill Talley, are husband and wife in real life.
• The Danza:
  • Nicholas Braun as Zach Braun.
  • In the Latin dub, Leyla Rangel as Layla Williams.
• Deleted Scene: The movie originally opened with the Commander and Jetstream battling Royal Pain and Stitches, long before Will's birth. Footage from this fight made it into a flashback, and missing trailer scenes, before Disney put the whole clip on the DVD.
• Development Hell: In 2017 it was announced that a sequel had gone into development, but as of 2024 there have been no further announcements which suggests the project has stalled.
• Fake American: It's somewhat notable that All American Boy is played by Canadian born Dave Foley.
• Follow the Leader: Zoom: Academy for Superheroes was rushed into theaters shortly after Sky High came out, and the epic failure of the ripoff is probably why more films of this subgenre are not being made. Ironically, Sky High is sort-of a ripoff of the old DCOM Up, Up and Away! itself.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: The school's Nurse Spex is played by Cloris Leachman, who played Queen Hippolyta to Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman.
• Looping Lines: For Royal Pain's scenes, Mary Elizabeth Winstead played the masked character on-set and Patrick Warburton recorded his lines in post-production.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Stitches is voiced by Eduardo Tejedo, who is the father of the dub's director Ricardo Tejedo.
  • In the Italian dub, Nanni Baldini voiced Ron Wilson and his older brother Oreste Baldini voiced All American Boy, while Marco Vivio voiced Warren Peace and his younger brother Paolo Vivio voiced Speed.
• Romance on the Set: During production, Michael Angarano (Will Stronghold) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Gwen Grayson) had a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Danielle Panabaker (Layla) had a romantic relationship with Steven Strait (Warren Peace). This information can be found in the special features section of the DVD.
• Sequel Gap: After 11 years, it was announced that Disney was finally going to produce a sequel. It's still in preproduction, so it's unknown if it'll be animated, a "next generation"-type scenario, or a lot of recasting (at least with the teen characters), but it is getting made.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • There was a Disney Channel movie five years before called Up, Up and Away! about a family of superheroes where one son had no superpowers.
  • Being about the son of the world's greatest superheroes having no powers and going to a Superhero School, it could be seen as a PS238 movie.
• Those Two Actors:
  • You know who else was in The Tick? Patrick Warburton, who provides Sue's Royal Pain voice.
  • Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald from The Kids in the Hall.
  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Kurt Russell were also in Deathproof. Furthermore, Russell was also the main protagonist in the 1982 movie The Thing and Winstead his Distaff Counterpart in the 2011 prequel.
• Underage Casting: The youngest of the adult cast was Jim Rash at 33, playing Mr. Grayson, and while not super-young in the grand scheme of things, it is too young to believably be the father of seventeen-year-old Gwen (played by nineteen-year-old Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Granted, we don't know how old Stitches was when Royal Pain was transformed into a baby, but he was presumably still an adult.^note  Though considering that this is a world where superpowers exist, it wouldn't be too out of place for him to have an ability which causes him to age slower than the average human.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Royal Pain's suit was originally pink, as seen in the alternate opening and behind the scenes footage, but changed to black possibly to hide The Reveal as Gwen's trademark color is also pink. Likewise, Stitches' suit was originally bright green and purple but switched to grey for the final cut.
  • The Original Script also has various differences to the Final Movie.
    • Steve’s Name was originally Bob and he was more portrayed as an adult Jerk Jock.
    • Gwen was much calmer and less aggressive and it was her, who made the quip about the commander having an Ego in the size of a Giant Robot.
    • Gwen's original line after Will assumes that she is the Daughter of Sue Tenny/Royal Pain was:
      Gwen: I'm Not Sue's Daughter, I am Sue.
    • There was a Ship Tease between Warren and Magenta.

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