PLANES

year: 2013 voices: Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, John Cleese, Teri Hatcher, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer rating: **

In the world of underdog characters, a little crop-dusting plane named Dusty Crophopper stands, or rather, flies alone. Unlike other put-upon heroes, he is, right off the bat, utterly intrepid and gracefully confident and knows exactly what must be done. First he's gotta qualify against really fast jet planes and then compete in an around-the-world race. Sound easy?

The way Disney tells this basic story, there are few problems for our little flying engine that could – expect he's afraid of heights, and one plane will do anything in the Tortoise/Hare dirty trick fashion to make him lose everything. After all, the longshot Dusty has taken all the media from his competitors including a Spanish romantic, a British snob, two sexy females and that one cocky villain. But it's really nothing stressful, no worries... he has his future all mapped out.

The problem with PLANES, other than seeming like a bland straight-to-DVD semi-sequel to CARS, is the downtime between each leg of the race. Dusty and his two closest friends (a gas station truck and an old war jet serving as a tattered mentor) talk up a tedious storm during overlong pockets of downtime, making those high-flying scenes the only thing to look forward to… And while the colorfully rip-roaring aerial shots are pretty darn cool, especially in 3D, the action can  be easily matched by playing PLANES THE VIDEO GAME in the cozy confides of home.