Summer Views...

Planes - 2 stars **

Today I took Aum and his friend Max to see Planes, the latest Disney Pixar offering. It tells the tale of Dusty Crophopper (voiced by Dane Cook), a small plane built to dust crops in the countryside, and his dreams of winning the prestigious Wings Around The World race tournament. After originally failing to make it past the trials stage, a place becomes available when one contestant is found guilty of using an illegal fuel and is disqualified. The space in between Dusty's disappointment at not making the grade, to him gaining a place took all of ten minutes, so there wasn't much empathy there to be honest.

There are all the usual set backs; a few planes dislike the fact that he isn't a racing plane, and try to bully him out, he has a fear to overcome (a fear of heights) in order to succeed, and his hero (Skipper, a supposed naval hero) is found to have lied about his accomplishments, causing Dusty to doubt himself at the last hurdle. I think the overall story in Planes left a bit to be desired, it was quite predictable, and was basically the same as Cars but with a different mode of transport. This was particularly noticeable with the characters, as there is a clumsy and stupid sidekick (Brad Garrett), a self righteous leading female (Teri Hatcher) and a 'baddie' with a big ego, all of which are dominant in Cars.

However, the visuals in this film were really good. As the competition takes places all over the world, many countries and cultures were shown, which was really interesting and good for children seeing it to learn about international destinations. The two I took to see it complained that it wasn't long enough, which is unusual, so they obviously enjoyed it!

A sequel is planned for release in 2014, which I may be dragged to see, but my expectations won't exceed a carbon copy of Cars 2, with planes!