Back in 2005 when I first heard that Disney/Pixar was going to make a movie about a world where cars, boats, and even planes were alive, I was pretty excited to see how it was going to turn out.
In 2006 when Cars came out in theaters, and I thought it was amazing. The story, setting, and the entire world captured my interest and my imagination. I wondered what was beyond the area known as Radiator Springs. So in 2011 when I found out that Disney was going to make another movie from the world of Cars, but this time about planes, I felt that same excitement I felt five years before.Planes starts off introducing the main character, Dusty Chrophopper, played by Dane Cook, and his home town of Propwash Junction. Dusty has dreams of becoming a racer in the “Wings Across the World race,” a checkpoint race around the world. He gets his chance to enter the race at a qualifier race, and aside from the audience mocking him for being a crop-duster and never going to place, Dusty gives it his all.Despite his efforts and the support of his fuel truck friend, Chug, played by Brad Garrett, Dusty doesn’t make the cut for the race. However, due to a technicality and a racer being disqualified for cheating, Dusty finally gets his chance to race in the major league.
The rest of the movie is the actual race around the world, while introducing the rest of the racers including a luchador plane named El Chupacabra, played by Carlos Alazraqui, and his rival and race champion Ripslinger, played by Roger Craig Smith, along with many famous places in the world that have been transformed to look like they are a part of the world of Cars.
When I finally went to see the movie, I honestly didn’t know what to expect other than the hidden references to other movies; in the world of Disney these are called “Hidden Mickeys.” Pixar is notorious for hiding the Pizza delivery truck from the original Toy Story in every one of their films. However, as I said before, Planes takes place in “the world above Cars,” which to most people would sound like it was made by the same staff that made Cars. That’s not the case; in the fact Pixar wasn’t part of this movie. It was made by just the Walt Disney Toons Studio, but as I expected, Disney didn’t disappoint me.
I loved the movie in its entirety: the characters, the settings, and the story captured the same feelings that I got when watching Cars back in 2006. This makes me wonder; because the official movie critics tore the movie to shreds, saying that it’s wasn’t original and rather a crud copy of Cars, and I feel like they were expecting it to be something very different than what we got; nothing more than another great family movie.
As for the families and kids, both young and young at heart, that I talked to about the movie said the same as me; Planes is another great addition to the long list of amazing family movies from the magical world of Disney.
