Disney's Planes: Despite Being Recycled From Cars, Still Proves to be a Family-Fun Film

2.5/5 Stars

Well, if I can give Planes any type of reward, I'd give it the Green Award for Being Environmentally Friendly. Despite its few differences, this film completely recycled plot elements from Pixar's Cars franchise.

Planes tells the story of Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook). A dustcropper who spends his days spreading mulch over the fields of Propwash Junction (which looks a lot like Radiator Springs) and dreams about racing other planes, with him being the fastest (hmm, that sounds a lot like a certain race car we all know). With a little bit of luck, he manages to enter a world wide race called Wings Around the World (and it is here that we enter Cars 2). Beforehand, he seeks the mentor ship of a war hero known as Skipper Riley (Stacy Keach), whose backstory and life is rather similar to a familiar Hudson Hornet. During training, it is revealed that Dusty has a fear of heights (one of the few original things in this film), and resolves to race at low altitude. During the race, he makes friends with El Chupacabra (Carlos Alazraqui) and becomes a rival to Ripslinger (Roger Craig Smith), both Mater and Chick Hicks respectively.

This movie can be best described as what most people call "film in a can". Disney pretty much took the Cars films from their partner company, Pixar, and gave it a new name. However, it did not take the nosedive that most critics said it would. If there's one thing that Disney, as well as Pixar, is well known for, it's their animation. They did amazing work animating the characters.

Now, before you guys start saying, "Oh, John Lassater lost his touch. He should stop making disappointing movies," let me explain something. Planes is not a Pixar film. Technically, it is a Disney film, and was made by DisneyToon Studios. Since Walt Disney Studios owns Pixar, they have the right to make films based off of current Pixar franchises.

So don't lose all your hope in Lassater. After all, this is the same guy who created Pixar, and gave us Toy Story and A Bug's Life. Plus, we've got a whole bunch of new Pixar films to look forward to.

It was not too horrible of a film, with all of the exceptional visuals and animation, but it's definitely not one of Disney's best.

If you've got a family, you can probably spare the $8 per ticket to see this with your child. If not, it'd be best to wait for it to come out on DVD.