Planes: Fire & Rescue

Director: Bobs Gannaway

Screenplay: Bobs Gannaway & Jeffrey M. Howard

Stars: Dane Cook (Dusty Crophopper), Ed Harris (Blade Ranger), Julie Bowen (Lil’ Dipper), Curtis Armstrong (Maru), John Michael Higgins (Cad), Hal Holbrook (Mayday), Wes Studi (Windlifter), Brad Garrett (Chug), Teri Hatcher (Dottie), Stacy Keach (Skipper), Cedric the Entertainer (Leadbottom), Danny Mann (Sparky), Barry Corbin (Ol’ Jammer), Regina King (Dynamite), Anne Meara (Winnie), Jerry Stiller (Harvey), Fred Willard (Secretary Of The Interior)

MPAA Rating: PG

Year of Release: 2014

Country: U.S.

No doubt young children—the movie’s intended audience—will marvel at the high-velocity computer-animated derring-do in Planes: Fire & Rescue, the quickie sequel to Disney’s late summer hit Planes (2013), which itself is an airborne synergistic extension of the world created in Disney/Pixar’s Cars (2006). Those children’s parents, however, will likely find the movie underwhelming, especially when compared to Pixar’s greatest hits and even Disney’s recent computer-animated offerings, especially the hugely successful Frozen (2013). It’s not that there’s less than meets the eye in Planes: Fire & Rescue, but rather that it is exactly what meets the eye—all surface, nothing more, nothing less.

The story picks up where Planes left off, with crop duster-turned-world-racing-champion Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cooker) basking in the glow of his worldwide stardom and still feeling the need for speed. Unfortunately, his gearbox starts to break down, and his trusted mechanic Dottie (Teri Hatcher) is unable to find the necessary replacement parts. He can still fly, but he can’t press the pedal to the metal without risking a complete burnout. Thus deprived of his racing prowess, Dusty turns to a new vocation—firefighting—to help out his small town’s aging fire engine, Mayday (Hal Holbrook). Mayday sends Dusty to train with Blade Ranger (Ed Harris), a crusty, experienced old copter who oversees a rag-tag fire and rescue team that operates in the majestic Piston Peak National Park, which is also home to a massive resort that is about to have its grand reopening.

The filmmakers manage to pack quite a bit of story into the movie’s brief running time, cramming in more than enough conflict: Blade’s cynical distrust of Dusty, the racing champion; Blade and his crew’s friction with Cad Spinner (John Michael Higgins), the opportunistic park superintendent who cares only about appearances and rubbing fenders with VIPs; Dusty’s reluctance to admit to others about his failing gearbox; and so on. Of course, like Cars and its sequel, the anthropomorphizing of vehicles can only be so effective. The animators do their best to invest expressiveness into windshield eyes and bumper mouths, but there’s only so much they can do, especially when each and every character is a simplistic type that fits neatly into a dramatic or comedic role.

And that’s the real problem with Planes: Fire & Rescue: Despite a solid dramatic core draped with plenty of comic asides and visual gags, there are no surprises, even small ones. The story moves through its plot points with precision predictability, and even the big revelations (particularly the reasoning behind Blade’s crustiness) hold little surprise. It feels assembled from familiar spare parts from other, better movies, and even though the sequences in which the planes dive into action fighting raging fires have a respectable sense of visual thrill, the movie as a whole fails to rise above its individual parts.

Planes: Fire & Rescue Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD

Aspect Ratio	2.39:1
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround 7.1,
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French
Supplements	“Vitaminamulch: Air Spectacular” animated short “Dipper” animated short “Smokejumpers” animated short “Welcome to Piston Peak!” mockumentary promotional piece “CHoPs” TV promo “Air Attack: Firefighters From The Sky” featurette “Still I Fly” Spencer Lee music video Deleted scenes with filmmaker introductions
Distributor	Walt Disney Pictures Home Entertainment
SRP	$18.96
Release Date	November 4, 2014

VIDEO
The direct digital port of Planes: Fire & Rescue looks superb in Disney’s 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation. While I found some aspects of the film’s story and characters wanting, I can’t complain about the film’s visuals, which are consistently impressive, from the gorgeous mountain vistas of Piston Peak National Park, to the fiery inferno of the film’s big climax. The finely wrought details of the CGI animation are all beautifully rendered, with textures and surface detail being particularly impressive and lacking in any noticeable artifacting. The image also maintains a remarkable level of depth and clarity throughout. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1-channel soundtrack impresses, as well, with deep immersion into the various environments via a robust use of both the surround channels and the subwoofer.
SUPPLEMENTS
There isn’t a whole lot of supplementary material, and almost none of it details the actual making of the film. In fact, the only time any of the filmmakers appear is in introductions to the two unfinished deleted scenes and in “Air Attack: Firefighters From the Sky,” a too-short five-minute behind-the-scenes piece that shows how director Roberts Gannaway and producer Ferrell Barron researched and were inspired by the world of real-life smoke jumpers and firefighters. Almost all of the other extras take the form of either in-world promos and mockumentaries or animated shorts featuring characters from the film. In the first category, we have “Welcome to Piston Peak!,” an amusing three-minute faux-’60s-style promotional travelogue about Piston Peak National Park and its aerial firefighting team, and a one-minute “CHoPs” TV promo. In the latter category we get “Vitaminamulch: Air Spectacular,” a new six-minuted animated short that is exclusive to this Blu-ray release, “Dipper,” and “Smokejumpers,” the latter two of which run less than two minutes each. In addition, we get the Spencer Lee music video for “Still I Fly.”

Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick

Overall Rating: (2.5)