Planes (2013)

Planes arrives from DisneyToon Studios as a spin-off of the Cars franchise, and it carries itself with the confidence of a film that knows it will sell bedspreads regardless of what the critics say. Dusty Crophopper is a crop duster who dreams of the Wings Around the Globe rally despite a fear of heights, and his journey is assembled from spare parts: the underdog, the reluctant mentor, the rival who slows for the cameras. The animation is bright. The plotting is not.

Where the film shows a flicker of modern cultural awareness, it is in the casting and the global roster of racers, with competitors drawn from India, Mexico, Quebec, Britain and Germany and voiced by a correspondingly international ensemble. This is a paint job, not a thesis. Critics at the time observed that the film trades in broad cultural shorthand, which is not racial consciousness so much as a souvenir stand. Female characters exist, a mechanic and a champion racer among them, but neither is permitted to argue for anything, and Ishani's arc resolves into betrayal and forgiveness on behalf of the male lead. There is no environmental message in a film about aircraft and agriculture, and no thought given to the money that bankrolls the race. The film has no interest in bodies, brains, or history; its only obstacle is a fear of heights, treated as a plot mechanism to be conquered.

What remains is a gentle sermon on following your dreams and facing your fears, delivered softly enough that no one in the audience will feel scolded. The result is a film of mild moralizing and milder ambition, culturally aware in the way a tourism brochure is aware of other countries.