Review of Planes (2012) by John R — 10 Aug 2017

Planes. A spin-off of Cars. It's terrible. So terrible that Pixar chose not to get involved. Even Cars 2 had enough redeeming qualities to be OK by regular movie standards. The animation is as visually stunning as anyone who's watched a Disney movie will have come to expect.

And it does send a decent message towards children. But it's all weighed down by how much of a disappointment this is. Since it was meant to be a direct-to-DVD movie, I think it was destined to suck.

Which is a shame since Disney's direct-to-DVD movies are the best direct-to-DVD movies to date. Which really isn't saying much, except maybe for The Lion Kings II and 1 1/2. The sole purpose for why this movie was made was to sell toys.

Seriously, this film has one of the most toyetic approaches I have ever seen. And there's a predictable story, you know Dusty's going to win. And good luck winning an audience over with Dane Cook in the lead role.

A comedian that many people dislike. At least Owen Wilson had the Wes Anderson movies he starred in. Some stereotypes too. Not racist on the same level as the twins from Transformers 2, but still somewhat stereotypical.

At least they cast an actual Indian actress as Dusty's potential girlfriend. I found the race sequences to be a bit unengaging, especially coming off of the heels of the Cars trilogy. I'm sticking with talking cars accidentally entering themselves in a demolition derby from Cars 3 or all those awesome action sequences from Cars 2.

Planes: it is what it is. A generic cash grab made by Disney only to profit off of children, who serve as the Cars franchise's principal fanbase despite some colourful animation and a message with good intentions.

Sorry, I just didn't like it as much as I had hoped for since it's sort-of Pixar, although it's not.