Can a crop-duster plane with dreams of racing actually win a world grand prix for planes?
Dusty Crophopper (voice of Dane Cook) has dreams of racing along with the big racer planes out there. Here's the problem? He's not built for speed. He's built to dust crops with fertilizer. But when he gets the opportunity to try out for the Wings Around the World race, he ignores his friends' warnings, criticisms, and laughter, and goes on to try, ultimately falling just short of qualifying. But upon hearing of a disqualification (yeah, we've heard that before), he gets his chance. Will this underdog become a favorite in the biggest race ever?
There's an excellent underlying message in Planes. Despite his own dream, Dusty willingly quits the race to help a racer in need. He also shows courage in the face of obstacles, and sheer honesty and kindness to most other planes. As a result, he is accepted by the other racers. And when Dusty gets into a bad accident towards the last leg of the race, most of the other racers return the favor by offering him spare wings and other parts. Basically, Planes salutes the kindness given and given back by those affected by kindness.
The animation, while not amazing, is wonderfully cartoony with great backgrounds and characters. The foreign places are nicely-depicted in the air with camera-work finely tuned in a motion simulator-like way. The screenplay is also fairly fine-tuned, with solid voice performances from Cook, Brad Garrett, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Teri Hatcher, and many others. The music by Mark Mancina is very exciting, and there's a few nicely-done action sequences too. Some funny moments
The storyline is very predictable, but that is to be expected from dream-chasing stories (though there is one appreciable twist towards the end). While there's no superpowers this time around, some plotlines and themes seem a bit too familiar and a lot like earlier this year's Turbo and 2011's Cars 2.
That being said, Planes did surprise me. I was expecting simply a kiddie flick that ripped off the entertaining Cars movies. But this little engine-that-could-like adventure, while predictable, adds to the usual fun and interesting visuals with an inspiring message, and a few unexpected dashes of witty humor and excitement-infused pizzazz.
Grade: B+
Content Problems Families Should Be Aware Of:
Language; "Heck", "gosh" and "lug nut up!", but nothing really offensive.
Adult Content: Brief kissing. Dusty makes a wink-wink staring at the backwards propeller of a female plane.
Violence: Some perilous moments. Dusty is nearly taken out by a wave. A brief war scene shows a few planes exploding and crashing. Another plane is nearly done for.
Drugs/Alcohol: Oil at a restaurant could be seen as a substitute for alcohol.
Other: A few bathroom jokes. Someone deceives Dusty.
