Planes (2013), PG, 1 star

Dusty Crophopper getting ready for a race, I suppose.

When Pixar Animation Studios made the movie Cars, I was delighted to watch this movie because it was fun despite the cars and trucks just talking with no humans surrounding them creeping me out. When they made the sequel, I thought it was a little too much of everything, especially, too much of Mater, the best character in the series. Now, Pixar is not involved with the next animated movie which is called Planes. That's pretty good because I thought this movie was just a waste of time and effort from Disney Animation.

Dusty Crophopper (voiced by Dane Cook) is a crop-duster plane who works at a cornfield and spends his free time doing aerobatic exercises dreaming that he could race with other planes one day. It kind of sounds like a familiar set-up to different movies including Days of Thunder. However, his boss, Leadbottom (voiced by Cedric the Entertainer), and his mechanic, Dottie (voiced by Teri Hatcher), disapproves of Dusty's dreams, but he is supported by his fuel truck friend, Chug (voiced by Brad Garrett).

A few days later, Dusty enters the qualifiers despite the audience mocking him for being just a crop-duster. While he is qualifying, Dusty impresses the audience with his aerobatic skills, but he manages to qualify 6th which means that he does not qualify. But, another few days later, a representative (voiced by Sinbad) tells Dusty that he is now qualified due to a plane using an illegal fuel enhancement.

Later in the morning, Skipper (voiced by Stacy Keach) tries to talk Dusty out of racing in the flying competition, but Dusty refuses to listen to him. He wants to prove he's just more than a crop-duster. What a cliched statement! So, Skipper mentors him and what do you know, when he practices for the competition, he is afraid of heights. He's a plane. What is wrong with that? Therefore, after all of the practice and meeting with a few competitors at a meeting at JFK Airport, Dusty is off to the races.

It's about to go down.

Where do we begin? I found this movie to be boring and predictable. You can predict Dusty's story and main goals from the second we see him on screen. The racing is just too reminiscent of Pixar's Cars, except it's flying. Even, Skipper has a story that he had to tell Dusty that is also the same as Hudson Hornet's guilt and troubles in that movie as he was telling Lightning McQueen a story about why Hudson retired.

I mean, I guess all of the actors who voiced these characters ought to be proud and privileged since they got a paycheck. This Disney animation looks like it took about 3 months to make because there is no effort except that the animation looks pretty and colorful. Also, I had a problem with the ethnic stereotyping in these planes with a Mexican plane, a French-Canadian plane, an Indian plane, and also the villain. It was a little too offensive for me to take.

What is more offensive, though, is that the movie is really a product for young and small children. I mean it's rated PG and a 5 year old can see it. I did learn that it was going to be a "straight to Blu-ray and DVD" plan for Disney. They should have kept it that way because this movie was like it was in a coma. It was just still and not full of surprises. I mean, I almost went to sleep because of the predictable outcomes of each character. This was a Disney disappointment and shockingly, one of the worst movies of the year because it is rare to say that about an animated movie. Parents or relatives, if a child is misbehaving badly, just put them in front of a TV screen and let them watch Planes.

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