I got an invite to a PLANES 3D screening and here’s the review!

If you have kids 6 and under (or you feel like a 6-year old kid), it’s a fun movie with lots of flying, a little sprinkling of lessons, a few sight gags, a few bodily function jokes and action, action, action.

There is an intense scenes (flashback) of a firefight but it’s oddly edited so really young kids (like 3 and under) might be more confused than anything but just so you are warned.

You definitely have to see it in 3D – while there’s not a lot of gimmicky 3D stuff, the scenery and flying sequences are dazzling in 3D – especially when flying with the F-18’s and other Navy jets, you do feel you are sitting on their wing – so that is super nice – even just flying at a leisurely pace with Dusty, it does feel like you are airborne.

So, it’s not Pixarian quality but it’s solid animation on the ground to excellent dazzling animation in the air with a good storyline and cute little lessons along the way. It has lots of flying scenes and some interesting story twists. Kids will probably call it an A-.

The next segment is the review for adults so some spoiler alerts … you may or may not want to stop reading.

In the background are some of the other competitors in the race who don’t get much action, mention or lines (a few have one or two lines).

For animations fans, it’s a nice solid film that is not particularly ambitious but is a nice showcase for animation professionalism. In a good way, it is not “burdened” with the Pixar name which does sometimes raise expectation to ridiculous heights – that EVERY Pixar movie has to be an “Incredibles,” or “Toy Story,” or “Finding Nemo.” Obviously great films but ultimately if a movie is entertaining, it serves its purpose – and of course, if you want to be cynical, you can call it merely a marketing ploy to refresh the line – and it is that but then they wouldn’t be interested in making expanded universe projects unless they thought there was interest (not much call for Delgo 2). You could then also argue that any movie not an 8-hour movie of the Empire State Building in slo mo is simply pandering. 🙂

And yes, a race around the world sounds like a retread but then again, what other storyline offers the possibility of action, villains and dazzling scenery? Just planes flying around can only keep your sustained interest for you for so long – but the race is nicely done here – it moves along quickly and without too much gimmickry. The storyline has some nice surprises and other than a weird subplot involving Skipper, is not too contrived. The animation on the ground scenes are solid. They cannot compare to Pixar’s efforts who seem to have someone animate the pixel of a pixel … but then again, they knocked this out in a year or so. The animation in the air is all great. And smartly, most of the film takes place in the air – the 3D makes all the difference. Even if you’re bored with the story, the flying sequences will keep you entertained and impressed. The scenes with the Navy jets are even more dazzling.

As for the acting, there are no real breakout performances. I know it’s easy to pile on Dane Cook but he is not much of a voice actor – unlike Larry the Cable Guy who may not be the world’s greatest standup comic but made Mater come to life with his voice acting. He’s fine – he’s just not amazing. The other performances are also solid and professional but just that. There is one surprise cameo from CARS.

The soundtrack songs are a little odd – one sounds like they couldn’t afford to license “Danger Zone,” so they had a guy write a song like it so you keep wanting to sing “Danger Zone” at the spot in the song where it should go – but instead he sings two other words with three syllables – strange. The closing theme sounds suspiciously like “Collision of Worlds” at the end of CARS 2 but again, when you get ready to sing Collision of Worlds, the guy sings 3 other words. In other words, unless you enjoy karaoke versions of hits songs, skip the entire soundtrack of PLANES – there are other decent tracks but not these two obvious cheap replacements.

So, clearly fans of the World of CARS will enjoy PLANES. It’s still fun to see vehicles/transport modes with eyes and while it’s not Pixar PLANES, Disney Toon PLANES is a solid B – a solid effort and we didn’t have to wait too long to see more of the World of CARS we like/love. It’s not “Pixar” but then not many things are – it’s a solid, fine opening effort – and I’d certainly appreciate a new CARS World film every year instead of waiting 4-5 years for Pixar to get around to it so bring ’em on. Since, this film is all new characters, it’s not like they risk alienating us by using Pixar characters (in the talking parts) … and now they have this out of the way, I’m sure on the next one, they will stretch a little more on PLANES 2: Fire & Rescue coming next July. I can already see wacky antics – there was a tiny “I’m on Fire” scene in this one.

As for diecast fans, there are no main characters from CARS but lots of minor CARS characters we recognize.

It seems unlikely we will get many CARS releases in the PLANES line but who knows?

There are a TON of fun Pitty’s but Mattel does not really like Pitty’s …

Mainly because they seem confused as to the ones we want to buy – it doesn’t help when they re-release Octane Gain Pitty’s 35 times but My Name is Not Chuck only a few times AND other Rust-eze’s Pitty’s exactly ZERO TIMES. So it might be too much to hope for these.

These are the coolest – though Ishani’s Pitty’s are nice also.

So, enjoy and send us your review Friday.