Tonight, I took Boo out for a movie and saw Disney’s new movie “Planes“.  It’s the latest computer animated film from Disney, and is set in the “Cars” universe.

The plot revolves around Dusty Crophopper, a plucky little cropduster who dreams of becoming more.   He takes a chance on a tryout for an around-the-world race, and gets in.  He is supported in this by his friends, including a crusty old Navy Coursair named Skipper.  Through hard work, determination, and a lot of heart, he learns to be a good racer and competes with the big boys.

Like I said, the movie occurs in the same universe as Cars, and it shows.  Cars, planes, blimps, and just about everything else that has a motor is alive and a part of the story.  The movie follows a similar formula as Cars in that a young racer turns to an old hero for help and becomes something special.  The formula is switched a bit in that instead of being a racer who needs help from the old wiseman to discover an inner strength, Dusty has the inner strength, but needs the aid of Skipper to learn how to translate it into being a good racer.  Throughout the movie, the character of Dusty is shown to be a decent fellow in a world of people who are only in it for themselves.  As part of the plot, these traits help to make him into a true hero.

The casting for this movie was very well done.  Dane Cook voiced Dusty, so now I can finally say I like a movie with Dane Cook in it.  Stacy Keach provided the voice for Skipper, an old war hero who takes Dusty under his wing and teaches him to really fly.  Supporting characters include Chug, a fuel truck voiced by Brad Garrett, Dottie, a repair vehicle voiced by Terri Hatcher, and El Chupacabra, a fellow racer from Mexico voiced by Carlos Alaszraqui.

The movie clocks in at 92 minutes, and is one of the better paced films we’ve watched lately.  Boo sat through it with minimum of fidgeting, and I was never bored.

The animation was excellent, especially when you consider that it was modeled on an earlier CGI movie.  The animators definitely borrowed extensively from existing animation from Cars for background characters.  A lot of the stadium shots during the races were very reminiscent of the stadium shots in both Cars films, except that every other ‘person’ in the crowd was an airplane.  Rather than looking dated or out of place, these characters blended in very well with what is definitely new work when it comes to the aircraft in the movie.  The animation for the airplanes was very well done.  Where they needed to be cartoonish, as in their ‘face’, they were, but otherwise they looked very much like airplanes.  Once again, the backgrounds in these movies are almost photo-realistic, and the fast-paced flying scenes were reminiscent of Imax films on airplanes and stunt flying.

Interestingly, this is not a Pixar production, which is a shift from the original “Cars” movies.  This movie was produced by DisneyToon studios, and appears to be the first of three “Planes” movies.   I hope this does not signal an absorption of Pixar into the greater Disney empire.  Pixar’s quasi-independence has allowed it to produce consistently excellent movies, while Disney tends to bat around .500.

If you’re looking for an outstanding family movie that both kids and parents will enjoy, you will probably like “Planes”.  Like most well-done CGI movies, it’s worth the price of admission to the big screen, and I expect that it will be on our DVD shelf when it comes out.