Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Planes

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Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 10-05-2013, 07:50 PM:

Is Planes merely Cars with wings? Yes, pretty much. It's clearly created on the same graphics engine with modified templates and it has a race-around-the-world plot which is very similar to Cars 2 (albeit without the James Bond elements). Throw in an identical follow-your-dreams theme to Dreamwork's Turbo and you have some highly derivative kiddie fodder which could easily have gone straight to DVD. Indeed, between this and [/i]Monsters University[/i], it's been a very weak year for Pixar.

Strictly Speaking, though, Planes is a Disney film and not a Pixar film, even though John Lasseter had a hand in it. But the links to Cars are undeniable and a film of this quality will ultimately dilute the Pixar brand by association, especially as this is intended to be the first in a trilogy of Planes films.

Overall, though, Planes is fun enough as a harmless timewaster for kids. The character set relates strongly to Cars: Dusty Crophopper is a proxy for Lightning; Chug for Mater; Skipper for Doc Hudson etc. The romantic interest for Dusty is actually Indian (played by Bollywood actress, Priyanka Chopra) which makes a nice change and is one of the few original elements in the film.

Interestingly, the character of Rochelle has been localised in many markets. Originally a French-Canadian from Quebec voiced by Julie Louis-Dreyfuss, in Australia the character has been redubbed by Aussie actress, Jessica Marais.

Planes will do well enough as holiday fodder but the trend set for Pixar projects, and especially it's spin-offs, is not encouraging. What used to be the most innovative animation studio in the world is slowly being milked dry. This was always the fear since the Disney studio acquired Pixar and now these fears seem to be coming to pass. Pixar's next original project, The Good Dinosaur, is slated for next year; let's hope it arrests the slide in quality from the last few years.

5.5 out of 10

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-07-2013, 10:15 AM:

I'm wondering how long it will take, until some suits in Burbank will conclude that they can save some bucks by merging "Disney Animation" and "Pixar" into one big animation studio... Actually, from the looks of it, this has already started.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 11-18-2013, 11:09 PM:

this kind of surprised me, I was expecting the worst, but little things impressed me - the music, the animation and the voice work wasn't as grating as the Cars films. the plot though was pretty paint by numbers.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-18-2013, 11:13 PM:

quote:
What used to be the most innovative animation studio in the world is slowly being milked dry. This was always the fear since the Disney studio acquired Pixar and now these fears seem to be coming to pass. Pixar's next original project, The Good Dinosaur, is slated for next year; let's hope it arrests the slide in quality from the last few years.

And how. Not counting quickies like this formerly-direct-to-video movie, the most recent movies from Disney Animation Studios ("Tangled" and "Wreck-It Ralph") were better than anything Pixar's come up with lately. The upcoming "Frozen" looks to be the best of the bunch.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 11-19-2013, 04:18 AM:

It's not the quality that counts, but just the bucks. Seemingly this was sufficiently successful to be granted a sequel in 2014.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-19-2013, 10:26 AM:

Actually the sequel was planned before the original even came out. It has been in the IME release list since about two or three months before the first one came out. I suppose if the first one had bombed they would've just canceled the sequel.

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 11-19-2013, 03:58 PM:

In fact it was planned as a trilogy, I believe.