Planes

In 2013, DisneyToon produced a spin-off of Pixar’s Cars franchise, titled Planes. Starring Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Priyanka Chopra, Brad Garrett, Cedric the Entertainer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Roger Craig Smith, John Cleese, Carlos Alazraqui, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards, it grossed $219.8 million.

A cropduster working in a cornfield, Dusty Crophopper (Cook) practices aerobatic maneuvers in his spare time and dreams of becoming racer. Trained by a reclusive navy war plane named Skipper Riley (Keach) he trains to fly in the Wings Across the Globe race.

Planes is unique in that it’s in the same world as Cars, but is at the same time distinct and not a rehash of the film it spins off of. Dusty has to overcome his shortcomings of not being built to race in a very short time span. And not only does he do it, but eventually wins the respect of most of the racers he is flying with. It showcase’s Dusty’s character in how he goes about doing it: saving another racer and coming in last, having surprising determination and just being an all-around nice guy.

And the variedness of the race is also pretty interesting. Each leg is a different obstacle, such as high flying over the Himalayas, relying on GPS over the Pacific and maneuvering through the cold on the way to Iceland.

But while it’s a fun movie with a pretty good plot, it’s obvious that it was originally meant to be straight to video, but was given a few extra bucks to make it have a theatrical release. The writing is on par with many of the better direct to video sequels Disney put out and should have gone through a couple rewrites before it really went into production.

It’s underwhelming, but didn’t have to be.

#83 

Ratatouille

The eighth Pixar film was released in 2007, directed by Brad Bird. Starring Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, and Janeane Garofalo, Ratatouille grossed over $600 million. Nominated for 58 award it won 38, including The Academy Award for Best Animated Film, The Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, The Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack.

A rat named Remy (Oswalt) has a highly developed sense of taste and smell and is dissatisfied with eating garbage. Winding up in Paris, he gets the chance to be a cook at the restaurant founded by his idol, Auguste Gusteau (Garrett). However, he must do it by making a deal with the restaurant’s garbage boy, Linguini (Romano) who has been mistaken for a cooking genius.

Ratatouille is an incredibly fun film that has an interesting antagonist while also featuring side characters that have a side story that’s actually engaging.

A rat that can cook and wants to subvert humanity’s perception of his species. It seems like an odd concept, but so does every other Pixar film. Remy and Linguini make an interesting connection that lets the two fool nearly everyone into thinking the latter is actually a master chef. And then there’s Skinner who continually comes off as more and more insane as the film goes on.

But Skinner’s not the main antagonist, that role falls to Anton Ego. And while making a food critic seem like a terrifyingly sadistic person seems hard, Pixar pulls it off. It certainly doesn’t help that he finds a weird enjoyment in providing negative reviews and making restaurants suffer.

And then there’s the side story romance between Linguini and Collette. While an idea like this could seem, and most often is, incredibly cliché, it works for this movie. Mainly because when she storms off, she comes back not because of something Linguini or Remy said, but because she recalls that Gusteau believed artists can come from anywhere. What Gusteau meant by that is also a clever way for Ego to soften.

#12

Tarzan II

Disney’s third Tarzan film was released on video June 14, 2005. The last film in the chronology of the Disney version of Tarzan (until Tarzan III is released next month), Glenn Close and Lance Henriksen reprised their roles while George Carlin, Harrison Chad, Brenda Grate, Harrison Fahn, Estelle Harris, Brad Garrett, and Ron Perlman were added.

Taking place during the “Son of Man” sequence in the first film, Tarzan (Chad) runs away as he believes it’s best for the rest of the gorillas. However, he happens upon an old gorilla (Carlin) pretending to be a fabled monster. Together, the two try to figure out just what exactly Tarzan is.

Tarzan II is essentially pointless. It might be well animated, but serves no real purpose in the greater mythos of Disney’s Tarzan story. In the first film, he kept trying to figure out what he was and he eventually realized that he’s a human. This film renders that lesson redundant because here, they figure out he’s a Tarzan. None of it needed to happen and it really shouldn’t have.

On the other hand, the animation is pretty good, better than Tarzan & Jane and Carlin was able to make a crochety hermit ape seem somewhat believable. But unfortunately, his wisdom never happened to include a certain seven words.

It’s a short review mainly because this film really doesn’t really have a reason to exist. #96.  

Planes: Fire & Rescue

The sequel to “Cars” spinoff “Planes” touched down into theaters a couple weeks ago. Produced by Disney’s secondary animation studio, DisneyToon Studios, “Planes: Fire & Rescue” stars Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Danny Mann, Teri Hatcher, Julie Bowen, Ed Harris, Wes Studi and Dale Dye. It was directed by Roberts Gannaway, known for his work on various Disney cartoon series.

After world famous air racer Dusty Crophopper’s (Cook) learns he may never race again after his engine becomes damaged, he shifts gears and flies into the world of wildfire air attack. Joining forces with veteran rescue helicopter Blade Ranger (Harris) and his team, Lil’ Dipper (Bowen), heavy lift helicopter Windlifter (Studi), ex-military transport Cabbie (Dye), mechanic Maru (Curtis Armstrong) and the Smokejumpers (Regina King, Corri English, Bryan Callen, Danny Pardo and Matt Jones). The team battles a massive wildfire, leading Dusty to learn what it takes to become a true hero.

“Planes: Fire & Rescue” is a pretty decent film. The animation is quite good with more than a few well done shots, fun characters and an engaging climax. The humor is also done well, able to entertain the kids and make adults laugh with jokes that will go over the kids’ heads.

The film is animated fairly well and has many good shots and angles, mostly involving the rescue team doing their job. One example is a scene that’s been built up the entire movie, which involves Dusty going under a bridge and pulling up on the side of a waterfall. Each time, he pulls up before reaching the bridge out of fear of pushing his engine too hard. During the climax, he finally pushes himself, reaching the waterfall to fill his tanks and the shots do well in conveying the intensity of the situation. On the other hand, some of the backgrounds aren’t exactly up to par with the rest of the film, lacking the depth other backgrounds have. The scene where Dusty is starting his trip to reach the base stands out the most. It’s not badly done, but the quality is different than other spots and it really sticks out.

While most of the characters are one-sided and defined by their quirks, they’re still quite fun to watch. Blade is the rough leader with a past, Dipper is the overexcited, stalkerish fan to Dusty, Maru is the eccentric mechanic, Windlifter is the stand-in for the mysterious American Indian and the Smokejumpers are the team daredevils. The park superintendent (John Michael Higgins) is the weasel that cares more about his travel lodge than the work the fire vehicles do. On the other hand, Dusty is quite a well-rounded character. He wants to prove himself as a good aerial firefighter, but the problems with his gearbox make him afraid to push himself. It’s not until he realizes that people depend on him does he understand that he has to push himself despite the possibility of engine failure.

The film’s climax is done well. While an element of it can be seen coming almost a mile away, that’s only a part of the whole. The film’s version of Yellowstone National Park becomes almost entirely engulfed in flames, endangering the travel lodge and threatening two old RVs recreating their honeymoon (Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara). Despite it being a kid’s film, it’s quite intense and provides Dusty’s finest hour.

There’s also some good music, including “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC and a song by Brad Paisley written for the film.

As the sequel to the spinoff of the sequel to one of Pixar’s less popular films, “Planes: Fire & Rescue” is fairly decent. It’s not better than “Cars” but it’s entertaining. It’s an enjoyable film for the kids and can keep the adults from getting too bored. But if you hate Dane Cook, then this might not be the film for you. 

#81

An Extremely Goofy Movie

Disney released yet another direct-to-video sequel in 2000, this time, to A Goofy Movie. Starring everyone from the original film, plus Jeff Bennett, Vicki Lewis, Brad Garrett, and Bebe Neuwirth, An Extremely Goofy Movie is the only Disney direct-to-video sequel to rate higher than its predecessor on Rotten Tomatoes until 2006.

In the film, Max heads to college and looks to compete in the College X-Games. However, Goofy is fired from his job and must go back to college to finish his degree. He arrives at Max’s school, joins a rival team and befriends the librarian, who shares his love of 1970s nostalgia. Meanwhile, PJ falls in love with a poet.

As Rotten Tomatoes notes, this film is actually considerably better than its predecessor. The background animations don’t freeze like they did and the subject is much more interesting. It makes sense to have the film be centered on sports, as the X Games were hitting their peak in popularity at the time.

While it seems Max took a step backwards in characterization, it must be realized that he was excited to finally start his own life, but Goofy bounced back into it and started messing everything up. And Goofy was dealing with empty nest syndrome, of course he would want to come to the same school Max was in. Unlike the first film, the two do communicate, but this time it just leads to a falling out which is repaired in the eleventh hour.

Giving Goofy a love interest is actually a great idea, mainly because it gives him someone other than Max to have intimate interactions with. Besides, him and Sylvia tearing it up Disco Style is perfect. Same with PJ. Having him finally express himself and break away from being an neurotic mess helps to develop his character and make him finally be who he was meant to be.

The music was great as well, but I have a predisposition to music from the 70s. 

One thing though, there’s the suspicious absence of Roxanne. With Max doing everything he could to be with her in the first film, it seems odd that she wouldn’t show up. She wasn’t even mentioned.

#28

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World

In 1998, Disney furthered Pocahontas’ story with a direct-to-video sequel. Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World features most of the original voice cast, with Billy Zane, Brad Garrett, Jean Stapleton and Finola Hughes providing new voices and Donal Gibson replacing his older brother as the voice of John Smith. It was met with largely negative reviews.

The film deals with Pocahontas’ journey to England with John Rolfe to negotiate peace between the Native Americans and the English. However, Ratcliffe is still up to his scheming ways and has King James in his pocket.

A great way to describe this film is mediocre. It’s got average story, average art, average characters, average voice acting, and average music. Everything about it just completely ok.

Jamestown is now a proper settlement, but it seems the lessons of the first film have been completely forgotten by both sides. It makes sense on the part of the settlers, mainly because there’s a bunch of new people who most likely weren’t told of what happened. But for the Native
Americans, Powhatan seems to have a horrible memory.

The irony of the “new world” being flipped to mean London for Pocahontas is interesting, the fish-out-of-water story is could have been much better. Granted, seeing her explore London through song, her not understanding Victorian dress and committing numerous faux-pas at a party is interesting. The culture shock could have been much better. However, her character not being derailed is good, especially when it came to the bear baiting.

Also, it was painfully obvious that John Smith was never really dead, especially since Ratcliffe tried to kill him at the beginning of the movie. But when he shows back up, while he’s under a cloak, his face is still a visible, just darker. Also, how did news of his “death” beat Rolfe’s voyage?

Despite all that, this wasn’t terrible. In fact, it looks to be better than most of Disney’s direct to video sequels.

#37