Disney’s Planes Movie is an Hour and a Half of Pure Animated Aviation Awesomeness

To give you some indication of how great this movie is, within the first ten seconds of the movie my son excitedly screamed, “AIRPLANES!”  Now at only two years old he is somewhat easily impressed, but his smile was satisfaction enough for me.

The opening scene awakened everything I have loved about planes since I was a very little boy.  From there on in it just kept getting better and better.  I found the animation to be exceptionally clear and clean.  The scenery was beautiful and the planes were stunning, but he part that really struck me was the sound.

Clearly there is nothing quite the same as seeing and hearing the real planes in person, but about halfway through the movie when Skipper the Corsair fired up his engine it gave me the chills.  I found myself ignoring the dialogue at times in the movie just listening to the sounds.

Along with all of the beautiful sounds of engines, it was also fun to hear some of the different voices of the characters.  Most notably to me were the voices of Iceman (Val Kilmer) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) from Top Gun.  That was the movie that really sparked my love of aviation so it was fun to me to hear their voices again.

Obviously the story is not realistic as there is no possible way that a crop duster could keep up with any actual racing aircraft, but that is what animated movies should be about.  Kids should be encouraged to shoot for the impossible.  We should all long to have lofty dreams that takes our utmost to accomplish.

How many movies these days truly inspire kids to shoot for the stars anymore?  Most shows these days are trying to turn kids into teenagers before they even start school.  Instead this movie is just a simple story about a simple character that has a huge dream that he makes a reality.

What could be better in a story for children than that?

Admittedly, I am a huge avgeek, and that likely plays into how much I love this movie, but I honestly feel like it could have a huge impact on the future of aviation.  Kids need something more to be passionate about than stupid pop stars.

It was awesome to hear a group of kids with their parents outside the theater saying, “That was an awesome movie.  We need to buy it on DVD,” and their parents immediately responding, “Definitely.”  This is the kind of start that we need in general aviation.

There is so much more I would love to say about this movie, but I honestly could not say it better than Dan Pimentel, of the Airplanista Aviation Blog, did in his review of the movie after seeing it last week at EAA Airventure in OshKosh Wisconsin.

If you need just a little glimpse at the beauty of this film just take a look at the trailer.  Then hurry out to the theater and enjoy an hour and a half of pure animated aviation awesomeness.