A direct and blatant rip-off of Pixar’s Cars except now with planes (and a few cars for good measure). Similar to Turbo in that only hardcore animation fans or families that desperately want something to do with their kids will really find value in it.
What Works: The idea of a race around the world is always exciting no matter how poorly executed. The story of a “little crop duster who becomes a serious racing plane” can be mistaken for original, and there are a few nifty flying sequences that kick the movie into second gear.
What Doesn’t Work: Cars and Cars 2 are probably the worst Pixar films so the idea of Disney now asking us to care about Planes who do the same thing is pushing it. There’s even a fuel truck that bares an uncanny resemblance to Cars’s Larry the Cable Guy truck Mater, and a crotchety old fighter plane that has to show the young buck a thing or two (a la Paul Newman in the first Cars). And I found the depiction of a Mexican plane borderline offensive, and I liked that the lead’s romantic interest was an Indian plane but why do they have to play that stereotypical swami music every time she’s on screen to remind us she’s Indian?
What I Would Have Done Differently: I’m not sure I would make a movie like this, and I’m not sure Disney should have either.