Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our look at Disney's non-MCU supervillains as we head to Sky High as we look at a villain that seems to take inspiration from the more absurd stories of comics that are more or less mocked nowadays. Where things got a little bizarre such as Superman being able to shoot little versions of himself out of his fingers or as we will discuss with Royal Pain's Grand Desire, turning heroes into babies. This happened in a number of comics, i.e. Batbaby.
It's a dumb and silly concept that makes the threat level of these villains seem small compared to some of the big plots that we see from more modern day baddies. However, I think that this lies more in the execution and how the villain uses this and what they plan to do with it. And this is something that we will touch upon a bit more when we get to Royal Pain's Grand Desire but I think for her character, it's actually the least important aspect of her character.
Actor
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Considering the year that this movie came out, I believe that Winstead wasn't as big a star as she is today. Sure, she had had some acting roles before this but her big break would come in the other comic book movie of her career, Scott Pilgrim.
Something interesting to consider here as Winstead seems like she was cast to play the crush/popular girl that our main character, Will Stronghold falls for and that is the case with this movie but as the movie goes on, it lets the audience observe that it is much more than a typical high school movie. I've mentioned in past that I am a fan of the podcast, Junkfood Cinema and in their episode on this movie, they mentioned that this movie is a mashup of '80s high school movies and superhero movies. And this is something that I will try to go into greater length about as the article goes on but that does make quite a bit of sense. And I do believe that when you first see Winstead playing the supposed love interest in this movie, the audience is meant to buy into the high school aspect.
Voice Actor
Yes, we actually have another actor to look at here and one that has worked with Disney quite a bit in the past.
Patrick Warburton
When Royal Pain is in her armor, she uses a voice modulator a la Ghostface from the Scream franchise and many other famous villains to make her voice sound more intimidating and the voice here is provided by an acting great especially in voice-over, Patrick Warburton. I cannot recall if Warburton was credited as the voice of Royal Pain or not but it was a fun touch, even if you don't get to see Warburton onscreen. Still cool to see Kronk get to voice the main villain in a Disney movie and he actually does a lot of the heavy lifting as we do see Royal Pain spy on the Stronghold family throughout and hear her voice. This is something that I'll touch on a bit more as this article goes on, the scenes with Royal Pain seem very Power Rangers esque.
First Appearance
Much like with the Neville Sinclair entry from earlier this month, I feel that we have two different First Appearances to look at. The First Appearance of Gwen Grayson and the First Appearance of Royal Pain. Let's start with the latter.
We meet Gwen on the first day of school for the heroes to be and this goes back to what I brought up when talking about Winstead playing the villain. She is shown as a quote-unquote nice girl that seems to have the best interest of the new students at heart as Student Body President and of course, with the lead Will having a crush on Gwen, one is led to believe that she is a character that the audience should care about. But as the movie goes on, the audience learns that isn't so much the case.
Royal Pain is first seen in a flashback as The Commander (Kurt Russell) explains how he obtained his most prized souvenir, The Pacifier. It's quick and just shows this baddie being taken out, which is pretty cool to watch.
Personality
Before I get too far into Royal Pain's personality, I want to focus in on the pseudonym that Royal Pain uses for herself as a student at Sky High. It's a combo of two popular comics characters, as she goes by Gwen Grayson. Taking her name from Peter Parker's first love interest and the last name is from the hat of the first Robin. Kinda funny, when I see those names, I now think of Spider-Gwen and Nightwing more. (And yes I know Spider-Gwen is a different Gwen Stacy)
I just find it interesting that this character has taken the name of two characters I either think of as heroes or as being on the side of good guys. I might be reading into this a bit much but I think that this false name could also be a way as giving the audience a false sense of security, that or it's just a fun comic book nod.
Now, looking at Royal Pain/Gwen's personality. She is spiteful and manipulative. Yes, she wears a facade of caring about Will but that is only so that she could gain access to The Commander's Secret Sanctum to gain access to her weapon so that she can use it in her evil scheme. This ties into how Royal Pain was a misunderstood student, Sue Tenny that went to high school with Will's parents and was shunned because they didn't understand her powers.
Which this is something else that seems fascinating to bring up, Royal Pain as Sue Tenny was considered a nerd that no-one at the school really liked and it seemed that a bonus for her after The Pacifier being destroyed was that she got to re-experience high school and it turned out better for her, the second time around as she was now the popular girl that was also smart that people loved hanging around.
Now, in no way does that make me any more sympathetic towards what she does but at the same time, it is an interesting observation to point out.
Grand Desire
I'll let Royal Pain explain this one.
I take you back, my dear Commander, to your senior year at Sky High, a time before anyone knew what a Technopath was. So, a brilliant, but misunderstood girl named Sue Tenny was written off as a science geek and stuck in sidekick class. She hatched a plan, so daring, so visionary, to start her own super villain academy and raise a generation of heroes from scratch as villains. But first, she had to destroy the very institution that dared to spurn her genius! And now, so many years later, that plan is complete. My only regret: This may be the finest super-villain speech ever given - and you don't even know what I'm saying!
It's a bit elaborate to be sure and as I brought up in the intro, the idea of heroes being turned into babies is a trope that was used quite a bit in older comics that were more child-friendly. Yes, in the intro I used Batbaby but that is not the only example.
While Royal Pain's plan takes inspiration from some of these more absurd stories, there is some validity to her idea that re-raising heroes as villains could work except for two lines.
No one could defeat Royal Pain. When the Pacifier exploded, I wasn't destroyed. I was merely turned into a baby. Stitches took me in and raised me as his daughter.
I went through puberty twice - for *this*?
Again, I'm most likely overthinking things with these lines but I have to wonder if Stitches had to re-teach Royal Pain who she was or if those memories came back to her as she re-grew up. That idea isn't exactly made clear but to give Royal Pain's plan some benefit of the doubt, I'd just have to assume that if her plan had succeeded, the pacified heroes would have forgotten their old lives and their brains would have been warped and they would have forgotten their past lives. But in order for her plan to work, Royal Pain needed to remember who she was as she re-grew up.
When you don't think about Royal Pain's desire too hard, it seems like it can work but it is still a little goofy but that fits the tone of the movie.
Lackeys
Stitches
I brought this up throughout Royal Pain's entry but there were elements of her character that felt very Power Rangers esque and I think that is best examined through the interactions that Royal Pain has with Stitches as he is rather manic and more over-the-top than some of the other characters in the movie. Tonally, he's not out of place as this is a superhero comedy but even then, something about this character bugged me.
Popular Students
I'm using a picture of Penny, one of the popular students as an example of the other students that align with Gwen/Royal Pain and that touches upon something that the movie brings up, the classism of high school as we see the heroes students are the popular kids that are willing to put down the hero support kids that are viewed as the losers. And this is seen during the party at Will's house when Gwen's facade slips and becomes a mean girl towards Layla. Placing the popular students in a villainous role also seems to play into a high school fantasy trope of the underdog students getting to take down those that are above them and think that they are better than them.
Most Evil Deed
One could go the obvious route and say that Royal Pain pacifying the heroes is her most evil deed but I think her manipulation of Will is much worse as she was willing to play with the emotions of a teenage boy, just to get what she wanted. And knowing that technically, she is an adult (sort of), that makes her playing with Will's emotions ten times worse. Will did have real feelings for her as Gwen but she could care less about him and just used him to get what she wanted.
Demise
After a strong battle between Will after he gets his second power of fight and Royal Pain, she ends up losing and we see Royal Pain and her cohorts in the detention center that deactivates the powers of those in there but as we are informed in the comic book style intro, they are all placed in prison.
It's a crime that fits the tone of the movie.
Is Royal Pain a Good Villain?
She's a character that fits the tone of the movie as it is fun and silly but I think that Royal Pain works there because this is a movie that is a fun movie. Yes, it does say some things about high school but it's more interested in giving the audience a good time and the character of Royal Pain is a villain that fits this nature. She's not a "serious" villain and you can see that just by looking at what her scheme is. This is a villain that you can't really look at in the same light as the other baddies that we have looked at here on Villain Profile. Join me when we close out this event by looking at...
Yokai
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