Planes

Originally intended to be a straight to DVD release, Planes is a simplistic and cute animated film that serves as a spin off to Pixar's Cars films.  And even though the Pixar studio itself was not involved with the making of this film, the mind behind the franchise, John Lasseter, is still behind the story and serving as producer, so it at least has the feel of the past films.  Don't be expecting a movie the whole family can enjoy together, however.  This one's strictly for the youngest members of the family.

Set in the same world as Cars, but this time focusing on animate talking airplanes, the story follows a spunky little crop duster plane named Dusty Crophopper (voiced by a surprisingly likable Dane Cook).  Dusty spends all of his time dusting the farm fields with his partner, Leadbottom (Cedric the Entertainer), but dreams of more in life.  He wants to take part in an international competition where planes the world over race against each other in different locales around the globe.  On a whim, he tries out to qualify for the race, and ends up just barely making it in.  Now, with the help of his friends - a dim-witted fuel truck named Chug (Brad Garrett), and a sweet little forklift named Dottie (Teri Hatcher), Dusty just may have a chance to fulfill his dream.  The only problem?  He's afraid of flying too high.  Since he's a crop duster, Dusty is used to flying only at low altitudes.  To get over his phobia of going higher, he'll have to turn to wise old World War II bomber Skipper (Stacy Keach), who will help him fly higher, while Dusty aids Skipper in overcoming his own painful past memories that have kept him grounded for so long.

As far as animated films go, Planes is pretty middle of the road, doing absolutely nothing to surprise.  It doesn't help that we just had Turbo one month ago, which was also a cartoon underdog story about a plucky little guy who wanted to race.  This is a better movie than that was, however.  This one's just kind of sweeter and more likable.  Not only that, this movie uses its racing plot to introduce some interesting supporting characters from all over the world, including an uptight British plane named Bulldog (John Cleese), a seductive female racer from India named Ishani (Priyanka Chopra), and a Latin lover plane who becomes Dusty's closest friend in the race (Carlos Alazraqui).  Each of these characters have their own little quirks that help them stand out at least a little bit at some point, and the voice acting is generally quite good.  Speaking of the voice acting, there are a couple clever touches, such as Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards (both veterans of Top Gun) voicing jet planes.

Those who were disappointed by 2011's Cars 2, and how action-heavy it was compared to the original, might appreciate that this film takes a slightly more low key and character-driven approach.  It's nothing memorable, mind you, but there are a couple sweet moments.  Really, there's nothing to offend here.  The animation isn't exactly top tier (this was intended for DVD originally, remember), but it's not uninspired, either.  And since the movie is targeted at young children, there's nothing too intense or scary here.  Really, the worst thing I can say about it is that this wasn't made for me.  Much like this weekend's other release, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Planes skews young, but it's not insufferable for accompanying adults.  Just don't expect the usual jokes aimed at adults that you might find in a standard Disney or Pixar production.

With so many animated and family films hitting all at once, Disney might have been a bit smarter to release this when things are a little more barren.  Kids have a lot of choices of what to watch this summer, and I don't know if they'll take something as low key as this compared to its much flashier competition.  Still, at least it's not a total waste of time, and I'll take this over Turbo or The Smurfs 2 any day.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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