Disney’s Planes aims low and hits the safe target

Disney’s Planes is the story of a crop duster that desperately wants to be a racing plane.  It was produced by Disney Toon Studios and originally meant to go straight to DVD.  Don’t let the fact that it was intended to by-pass theaters put you off from seeing it.  Disney’s Planes makes it clear that this is from the world of Cars.  There are hints of the wonder and enjoyment from that first movie, but the soul of Planes is strictly with its sequel.   

That is not entirely a bad thing.  Cars 2 was enjoyable for most audiences, but did lack the zip and energy of the first one.  In a way, Planes feels like a sequel to either Cars or Top Gun.

Once we meet Dusty his quest to qualify in the world famous race around the globe gets started.  There’s a crusty military plane, Skipper (Stacy Keach), trusty sidekick (Brad Garrett), exotic foreign plane (Priyanka Chopra), funny British plane (John Cleese) and more.  I don’t really need to say anything else about the plot, do I?

There are some genuinely funny one liners and fans of 80’s cinema will recognize the voices of Echo and Bravo as that of Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer.  They’re voicing characters that are akin to theirs from Top Gun.  It’s no accident that Disney’s Planes has so much of its story from Cars or Top Gun.  It’s on purpose and on some occasions in the movie their tongue is planted firmly in cheek.

Disney’s Planes is not a great movie, but your children will enjoy it and is worlds better than another movie that has CGI blue people.  Adults will be mildly entertained by Planes.  It’s not a movie that exists on that same plane, pardon the pun.  This is a serviceable movie that will entertain the kids, hopefully get them interested in aviation and tide them over for 90 minutes on a hot summer day.

Is it just a case where the tail is wagging the dog?  In most cases the toys that accompany movies aren’t as good as the movie.  However, the toys that are out for Planes look very cool, fun and engaging.

Planes did not need to be in 3D, as with most movies it didn’t add anything to merit the increased ticket price.   Disney’s Planes is rated PG for a couple of mild action sequences and a potty joke or two.   We took our almost 4 year old to the movie; he liked the movie and found nothing scary about it at all.