Dusty Crophopper (Cook) is a cropduster plane who harbours dreams of racing in the big leagues; dreams that are duly shot down by his boss Leadbottom (Cedric the Entertainer) and his mechanic/friend Dottie (Hatcher). His best friend, fuel truck Chug (Garrett) stands by his side, and Dottie eventually comes around to supporting him. Dusty seeks the mentorship of Skipper (Keach), a “get off my lawn-type WWII veteran. Dusty soon finds himself smack dab in the middle of the glamourous racing world, in the running for the championship title in a globe-hopping aerial rally. He meets colourful characters such as Mexican race-plane El Chupacabra (Alazraqui), the Pan-Asian champ Ishani (Chopra), stiff upper-lipped British deHavilland Comet Bulldog (Cleese) and F/A-18 Super Hornets Bravo (Val Kilmer) and Echo (Anthony Edwards). Naturally, he must defeat the arrogant reigning title-holder Ripslinger (Smith), who sneers at the cropduster at every turn.
First things first this isn`t a Pixar film. Planes was made by DisneyToon Studios, responsible for all those direct-to-video sequels of classic animated films, stuff like Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 and The Lion King 2: Simba`s Pride. Accordingly, Planes was intended for direct-to-video release, but the higher-ups at Disney figured a theatrical run might be a better way to make a quick buck. Truth be told, the film doesn`t look that bad while it certainly lacks the richness of Pixar`s animation, there are still colourful, fairly exciting visuals and the 3D is put to really good effect, enhancing the many flying sequences.
However, the story couldn`t be any more formulaic if it willed itself to. The “farm boy with big dreams and a destiny to fulfill archetype was already old when Star Wars came out a good 36 years ago, let alone today. It`s as paint-by-numbers an underdog story as underdog stories go. You`ve got the protagonist who is repeatedly told “you`re not built to race, you`re built to dust crops, the “Mickey Goldmill stock mentor character, the “Gonna Fly Now-style training montage, the scene where our hero from a small town is awestruck by the bright lights of the big cityâ€