LIVING up to your parents' lofty expectations can be a stressful experience for any teenager - for Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) it's almost unbearable.

As the son of legendary superheroes Steve Stronghold (Kurt Russell) aka The Commander and Josie Stronghold (Kelly Preston) aka Jetstream, he must follow in their footsteps and attend Sky High, a prestigious high school where the heroes of tomorrow receive their formal training. As one of the first years, Will must undergo the humiliation of sorting with sadistic gym coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell), who assesses each pupil's superpower and divides the children into Heroes and Sidekicks.

Everyone expects Will to sail through sorting. Unfortunately, Will has no superpowers of his own, paling him into insignificance against his naturally gifted classmates, and he is consigned to Sidekicks class, along with his best friend Layla (Danielle Panabaker), who hides her ability to control nature so she can stay with her pal. They are joined by a colourful array of misfits including Ethan, who can melt into a puddle of goo; Zach, who can make his body glow like a nightlight; and adolescent punk Magenta, who can shape-shift into a guinea pig.

On the other side of the divide are the powerful Heroes including smart and pretty Gwen Grayson, who can control technology with her mind; super-stretchy Lash; and flame-throwing rebel Warren Peace, whose villain father was apprehended by The Commander.

When a dastardly arch-nemesis from the past threatens his parents, Will has to marshal his courage to find the hero within.

Sky High is an incredibly smart and savvy coming of age comedy that plays like a giddy conflation of John Hughes and The Incredibles. The screenwriters create a larger than life comic book world in which to play out a traditional tale of adolescent angst, unrequited love and cafeteria power struggles.

They provide the cast with pithy and knowing dialogue, as well as some spectacular set pieces, including the Save The Citizen trial that forces Will and Warren to work together.

Angarano is an appealing leading man and Russell delivers a great comic turn as his old man (who considers speeding up his son's superpowers by dropping him in a vat of toxic waste!)

Director Mike Mitchell, whose last project was the excruciating Surviving Christmas with Ben Affleck, more than redeems himself, maintaining a breakneck pace from the onset. Sky High is effortlessly entertaining: grade A-

See it at UCI, Odeon