Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman (2006) (TV)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Kevin Burns

Writers:

James Grant Goldin (writer)
Steven Smith (writer)

Release Date:

12 June 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History

Plot:

The history of the comic book superhero, Superman in his various media incarnations.

Plot Keywords:

Making Of | Radio | Television | Superman | Superhero

Cast

Forrest J Ackerman	...	Himself
Gilbert Adler	...	Himself
Anne Archer	...	Herself - Lois Lane Audition (archive footage)
Stephan Bender	...	Himself / Young Clark Kent
Kate Bosworth	...	Herself
Dean Cain	...	Himself
Mike Carlin	...	Himself
Stockard Channing	...	Herself - Lois Lane Audition (archive footage)
Gerard Christopher	...	Himself
Jackie Cooper	...	Himself
Dan Didio	...	Himself
Richard Donner	...	Himself
Michael Dougherty	...	Himself
Stephen Fishler	...	Himself
Alfred Gough	...	Himself
Gary H. Grossman	...	Himself
Mark Hamill	...	Himself
Dan Harris	...	Himself
Philip Hecht	...	Himself
Sam Huntington	...	Himself
Barbara Johnson	...	Herself
Gerard Jones	...	Himself
Margot Kidder	...	Herself
Jack Larson	...	Himself
Chris Lee	...	Himself
Stan Lee	...	Himself
Paul Levitz	...	Himself
Elliot S. Maggin	...	Himself (as Elliot S! Maggin)
Tom Mankiewicz	...	Himself
Chuck McCann	...	Himself
Miles Millar	...	Himself
Bill Mumy	...	Himself
Noel Neill	...	Herself
Denny O'Neil	...	Himself (as Dennis O'Neil)
Annette O'Toole	...	Herself
Jon Peters	...	Himself
Deborah Raffin	...	Herself (archive footage)
Christopher Reeve	...	Himself / Superman (archive footage)
George Reeves	...	Superman (archive footage)
Brandon Routh	...	Himself
Alexander Salkind	...	Himself (archive footage)
Ilya Salkind	...	Himself
Jerry Seinfeld	...	Himself (archive footage)
Gene Simmons	...	Himself
Gail Simone	...	Herself
Bryan Singer	...	Himself
Kevin Spacey	...	Narrator
Art Thibert	...	Himself
Thomas Tull	...	Himself
Norman Twain	...	Himself
Mark Waid	...	Himself
Lesley Ann Warren	...	Herself (also archive footage)
Adam West	...	Himself

Runtime:

UK:115 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Netherlands:AL | South Korea:All

Company:

Bad Hat Harry Productions

Quotes:

Dean Cain: I think at the end of the day everyone, they really wanna go on dates with Batman, but they want to live with Superman.

Movie Connections:

References "Justice League" (2001)

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's a great documentary

-the appeal for Superman is the escapism he provides with his amazing powers which ironically is the reason why I'm not a fan of the man. He can fly, he's super strong, and he's super fast which is what attracts a lot of people to him. He is the ultimate hero which around the time that the comic came around gained vast popularity because the world needed pretty badly due to the wars and such. The much loved George Reeves "Superman" series is something that I've never seen on the count that it never came out in the motherland but it really did help catapult the character into the iconic figure that he is today. One fascinating thing that the documentary showed was how after the death of Reeves there were plans to do a version of Superman featuring just animals which thankfully never made it to air. You can see a clip of it on the documentary and it is beyond laughable. Whoever came up with that concept must have been on some strong substances because no sane mind could think that was a good idea.

-I love how the documentary makes Superman out to be a real person and not some fictional character created by two men. We get to see the inception of the icon from the early stages and even how he got his name. We even learn about how he wasn't even meant to fly till the idea came about in later comics. It wasn't just Superman that became a cultural phenomenon but his pals Lois and Jimmy became famous and even his adventures as a child became popular to the point that the idea of giving them their own TV shows and comics almost came into fruition. The character not only became the standard to which other heroes were judged but also a sort of religious figure to some. A man sent by his father to save us from evil sounded a lot like the story of Jesus which I guess helped the religious love the character as much as the non religious bunch. To some of us he's just a man in his underwear that saves people but if you look hard enough you can find a deeper meaning in everything. What goes up must eventually come down as the Superman TV series came to an abrupt end after the death of George Reeves and the franchise became dormant for a very long time till Donner and his camp came along and resurrected it with his classic Superman movie which took a serious look at the hero unlike the series which was campy as hell.

-the most interesting section in the documentary is probably the ones that delve into the movie history and lets you know what really went on behind the scenes. Even more interesting for me was the direction that the Superman franchise was heading which was more "Matrix" meets "Star Wars" and was even suppose to have a scene in which Superman takes off his S logo and makes it into a dagger and fights Luthor. his costume was also suppose to be black for god knows what and I think Luthor was also going to be a fellow Kryptonian. That kind of stuff works great in a comic book but as a movie it would have failed horribly due to how far removed from the Superman that we all know and sorta like. You can't really blame the producers for wanting to make Superman cool but at the same time thank heavens that horrible idea never come into fruition.

-fans of Superman must see this doc that rivals the "Star Wars" documentary "Empire of Dreams" and for those of us who aren't huge fans it should provide some interesting info about the much loved Man of Steel