Planes 
Starring: (Voices of:) Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Priyanka Chopra, John Cleese, Cedric the Entertainer, Carlos Alazraqui
Directed by: Klay Hall
Rated: PG
Run Time: 92 mins
Genre: Animation/ Adventure/ Comedy
Opens August 9th
By Lisa Minzey of The Reel Critic.com
One of the last family films throwing its hat in the box office ring for the summer is the from the world of “Cars”, is the animated film “Planes”. Original slated for a direct-to-video release and with a different actor for the lead voice, can “Planes” reach the heights of box office success “Cars” had or will it crash and burn opening weekend? Read on to find out.
Dusty Crophopper (Dan Cook- voice) has big dreams of busting out of his mundane existence of crop dusting and being able to compete against the best flyers in the world in the Wings Around the World race. Unfortunately, crop-dusting planes are not built for racing, let alone high speeds, but Dusty refuses to listen to the naysayers. He enters the qualifying race for the Wings Around the World as the top 5 planes will make it in. Dusty places in 6th in the race just missing the qualifying group. Deflated, he goes home but his luck changes when he finds out that one of the other lanes has been disqualified for high octane fueling. Dusty is ecstatic but knows he has a lot of work to do to prepare for this life-changing race.
He enlists the help of retired plane Skipper (Stacy Keach) to help him train for distance, harsh weather and be able to get his speed up. Skipper flew missions during World War II, so he knows a thing or two about dangerous flying.
Dusty is flying against of of his heroes, Ripslinger (Roger Craig Smith), three time champ of the Wings Around the World Race. Ripslinger is looking for his fourth consecutive title and isn’t about to let anyone get in his way, especially a country bumpkin plane. Will Dusty be able to finish the race or will it prove to be too big of a challenge for the small time player?
The message of the film seems familiar, and a nice reminder that anyone can achieve their dreams if they put their focus, time and effort into it, but we’ve seen this in another film earlier this summer starring a bunch of snails. If you combine “Turbo” and “Cars”, making them aerodynamic, you get “Planes”. Lacking any originality in the story, but mildly entertaining for the Tonka and Hot Wheels kids, “Planes” is worth the look for a rainy day matinee. “Planes’ opens in theaters nationwide starting Friday August 9, 2013.
