[Movie Review] Planes (2013)

Posted on August 15, 2013 by thegrandshuckett in Movie Reviews // 0 Comments

Plot Summary: Dusty is a cropdusting plane who dreams of competing in a famous aerial race. The problem? He is hopelessly afraid of heights. With the support of his mentor Skipper and a host of new friends, Dusty sets off to make his dreams come true.

Director: Klay Hall

Writer: Jeffrey M. Howard

Runtime: 92 min

Main Cast:

Dane Cook as Dusty Crophopper (voice)
Stacy Keach as Skipper (voice)
Brad Garrett as Chug (voice)
Teri Hatcher as Dottie (voice)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Rochelle (voice)
Carlos Alazraqui as El Chupacabra / Additional Voices (voice)

Review: by Anthony and Lee

A Disney spin-off movie from the world of Cars where the focus is on Planes and the main character wants to be more than he's built to be sounded new and refreshing!

What We Liked:

Although Pixar wasn’t involved in Planes, it LOOKED like they were. The computer imaging in all of the flying scenes were beautiful, and the 3D was done smoothly. We couldn’t even tell there was a difference visually.

The sidekick of El Chupacabra and his side quest for love was absolutely hilarious. There were a few other likable characters too, but El Chu is likely to be most popular with adults and children alike.

There wasn’t a huge emphasis on romance. It was a children’s movie, so this seemed appropriate. El Chu’s love story was not a main point of the movie, and Dusty’s romance was even less of a focus than El Chu’s.

What We Didn’t Like:

The jokes fell a little flat, and all of the plot, characters, and relationships to the main character were a direct rip-off of Cars, just incredibly poorly executed. The movie revolved around the main character, Dusty (Lightning McQueen), preparing for and competing in a very important race. Dusty had a cornball best friend, Chug (Mater), who tried to help but was mostly incompetent. Eventually, Dusty realized he needed a mentor Skipper (Doc Hudson), who reluctantly took the role. Basically, the writers watched Cars and made a carbon copy. I feel bad comparing Planes to Cars, but the multiple similarities just cannot be ignored.

2.5

Summary

Planes was an okay movie that could have been great. It felt like a weak spin-off of Cars, made primarily to get parents to buy their kids tickets to the movie and all of the subsequent merchandise.

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