Planes is set in the world of Cars, and it’s by DisneyToon Studio, which made DVD sequels like The Lion King 2. It’s what you’d expect: a rehash of Pixar’s least interesting two films, with scaled-down spectacle (the flying is rarely exhilarating) and even less to interest grown-ups. For kids, the action’s slow to get going.
A crop-dusting plane transcends his limits to enter a globe-circling race and have meandering adventures. John Cleese barely registers in a support role, and there’s a Top Gun in-joke. The final message directly contradicts the one in Monsters University.