3319. Planes (2013)

Starring: Dane Cook, Priyanka Chopra, Stacy Keath

Director: Klay Hall

Running Time: 91 mins

Planes is an American film about Dusty Crophopper, an ordinary plane who dreams of becoming a racer, when his shot at the big time comes rolling around.

In the immediate aftermath of the waste of time that Cars 2 was, I don’t think many people were calling for a further spin-off into this world. Plus, without the minds at Pixar working behind it, I’m not entirely sure what Planes is there for.

Coming across like just any old hashed-out, direct-to-DVD spin-off, Planes has none of the strengths of the original Cars movie, and not even the blockbuster spectacle of Cars 2. For the youngest viewers, it’s more than fine, but for anyone else, there’s not much about Planes to really grab you.

For the most part, the plot is a simplified rehash of the plot of Cars, without the emotional resonance of Lightning McQueen’s humbling after his fall from grace. Dusty Crophopper is in no way as interesting a main character as Lightning McQueen, and nor is his rise to fame through the ranks of plane racing.

Now, I don’t want to get into talking about realism and convincing stories in a world of talking planes, but why a cropduster is able to compete with the world’s greatest racing planes is beyond me. Again, it doesn’t matter, but these kinds of things do grate when you’re watching a film that isn’t particularly entertaining.

Some of the voice performances are okay, with Dane Cook and Priyanka Chopra giving perfectly likable voice performances, but the majority of the characters are entirely forgettable, and appear as nothing more than extra toys that Disney can put on the shelves.

In short, there’s nothing much to say about Planes apart from the fact that it’s a very bland, plain (!) version of Cars and even Cars 2. If you’re three years old, you might like it, but if you’re any older, then there’s not much here for you. So, that’s why I’m giving Planes a 5.6 overall.