Blu-ray Review - Planes: Fire and Rescue (2014)

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Planes (2013)

AKA: Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue; Planes: Fire & Rescue

As the very embodiment of not just wishing upon a star but aspiring to fly among them to make his Disney dreams come true, in the first of three planned "World of Cars" spin-off Planes pictures, Dane Cook's ambitious crop duster ventured from humble beginnings as a farm flyer before overcoming enormous obstacles to take to the international skies as a world-class racer.

Yet just because the underdog made it to the top of our eye-line (in some gorgeously crafted CG sequences that helped distract us from the otherwise by-the-numbers plotline), it doesn't mean that he'll be smooth sailing in the sky for long as this time around, reality in the form of a faulty gearbox soon sends him crashing down from cloud nine.

Hoping to remedy the mess he’s made at home, Dusty cruises over to Piston Peak National Park for what he assumes will be a cakewalk compared to everything he's achieved.

However he quickly finds himself overwhelmed, outclassed, and — whether or not he wants to admit it — seriously impressed by the high precision flying, jaw-dropping displays of teamwork, bravery and lack of ego evidenced by the squad of true heroes whom he encounters.

And though it may be smaller in scope to the global scale of its predecessor, Planes: Fire and Rescue is vastly superior to the first film which ran out of gas and plot by the end of the first act.

Yet while the original Planes would have been better off wrapping up its entire storyline in the form of a short film as opposed to a feature, Fire and Rescue only gets better as it continues, particularly as witnessed by the coolly cinematic introduction to the crew (and what they can do) cut in time to AC/DC's "Thunderstruck."

Admittedly and much like the previous installment, Fire is a retread of the same character archetypes, storylines, style, and structure of Cars — this time with Ed Harris taking on the role as the mentor embodied by Paul Newman in the Pixar original.

However, the one bonus that this film has over the rest of the World series is a genuinely witty, against-type voice-over turn by Modern Family's Julie Bowen Dipper, the aptly-named new coworker of Dusty who's as dippy and she is determined to make Dusty her wingman.

While Dipper's overeager charm recalls Jessie in Toy Story 2 and Dory in Finding Nemo, a theme from another Pixar franchise film floats into the last half of Disney’s Planes that echoes the mature moral conveyed in Monsters University.

For just as Billy Crystal's Mike struggled to adapt his future plans and roll with the punches when he learned that the path he'd always imagined for himself wasn't in the cards, it's precisely the same ability-driven setback that Dusty faces in this film upon realizing that sometimes life doesn't always go the way you’d expect.

A rough patch of a plot twist that can also be viewed as a metaphor for disability, Dusty's role-defining character arc is universally relatable from multiple points-of-view.

Uniting the ambitious flier with his mentor on a more soulful level, viewers eventually discover that, like Dusty, the decision to join the Fire and Rescue Squad came later in life as a fallback career for the character voiced by Harris as well.

Predictably of course, Planes: Fire and Rescue takes a cheap way out by giving its characters another happily ever after solution in the nick of time. Nonetheless, even utilizing this plotline is an admirably responsible step in the right direction for Disney given that their entire empire is built upon wishing on a star and dreams coming true.

For fittingly, over the past thirty years there's been a definite paradigm shift at the House of Mouse in an important transition for not only the classic fairy tales that served as a foundation for the happiest place on earth but also in the underdog films that have replaced them as modern day wish fulfillment sagas.

Winningly, they’ve managed to infuse the works with more realism while still staying true to their roots by never taking away from the importance of optimistic dreams.

Thus, Disney has not only taken responsibility for the oversimplification of tales of old by showing us heroes that know they might need a backup plan to save themselves when times are tough but they also give the youngest generation filmic examples of these very lessons at the very same time.

While it's nowhere near as impactful or thrilling as recent Disney fare including the superlative Wreck it Ralph or Frozen, much like Dusty you have to admire the ability of Planes to bounce back from the problems of the first one early on to deliver something stronger and more successful all around.

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TV on DVD: Dave's World -- The Second Season

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Based on the Books by Dave Barry

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Although the writers are channeling legendary film critic Pauline Kael with the title of the second season’s premiere episode of CBS’s successful ‘90s series Dave’s World with “I Lost it at the Movies", it’s the young character of Tommy Barry (Zane Carney) who throws down an even more challenging gauntlet by warning, “Dad, don’t try to be funny.”

Predictably nervous about his first date (or pseudo group date as far as the middle school equivalent goes) to take a girl he likes to The Flintstones, Tommy’s challenge wouldn’t normally be a big deal in avoiding embarrassment… that is if his father wasn’t Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry (played in the show by Night Court’s Harry Anderson). Telling Dave Barry not to be funny is like telling Meryl Streep not to give a good performance — even in the unspeakably horrid Mamma Mia!, the girl simply can’t help it and neither can the boy or at least the man-child personified in executive producer Jonathan Axelrod and Fred Barron’s adaptation of Barry’s beloved books Dave Barry’s Greatest Hits and Dave Barry Turns 40.

As a childhood fan who religiously read each and every Dave Barry book I could get my hands on until - with the invention of the Internet - I was able to better track them down on The Miami Herald website, Dave’s World as a series was one I especially enjoyed when I was young. Seeing it again however — now in this slim-packaged three-disc set from CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment — I realize just how much the show has aged and how the typically uninspired sitcom plots like “throw a bad party” (a la Mary Tyler Moore), or “quick, the kid’s pet died, let’s get a replacement one” or “the wacky sister-in-law is the houseguest that never leaves” had in actuality very little to do with Dave Barry’s column in real life.

Yes, he wrote jokes about scatological topics and plenty of beer throughout and the books are filled with some suitably juvenile entries, but Dave’s World took some of the best written comedy fodder of the last decade and sadly turned it into a pleasant if forgettable concoction that makes it in retrospect seem like TV’s equivalent of tofu (in that it tastes like nothing but the rubbery texture just doesn’t quite sit right).

This isn’t to say the show doesn’t have its moments and ironically the predictable plots I cited actually do provide fodder for some of season two’s best episodes, most notably in the dinner party where dates are dumped, wine goes bad, chicken cooks forever and everyone is out of the house by 8:25 or when the French exchange student mistakes the Barry’s adorable youngest son's (Andrew Ducote) pet rabbit for dinner which makes Dave’s wife Beth (DeLane Matthews) reveal her Hannibal Lecter side when she can’t stop eating it anyway.

Much like other series, the supporting cast that revolves around the titular character is the reason to watch as Matthews in particular reminds me of an earlier version of Cheryl Hines on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Dave’s two best college buddies Kenny and Shel (Shadoe Stevens and Meshach Taylor) provide some great Odd Couple humor as the toxic bachelor and sensitive divorcee respectively, and the incessantly cheerful demeanor of his wacky assistant Mia (J.C. Wendel) brightens up every scene she’s in and doubly when her boyfriend Eric (Seinfeld’s Patrick Warburton) is in tow.

Of course, between all of the typical obstacles of suburban life and the many issues facing his circle of family and friends, Dave somehow cranks out that famous column but, despite the charm of Harry Anderson, he never quite makes it believable, thanks largely in part due to the writing team’s decision to draw less from Barry’s column and more from the then current trends of safe family sitcoms. While it has some amusing moments there's not quite enough to fill all twenty-five episodes that are divided into three discs.

Likewise, perhaps another reason it was unable to capture that same childhood magic it held when I was young (despite now our ability to predict nearly every joke uttered by Beth, Shel, or Kenny once you pick up the rhythm) is that the digital transfer quality is unspeakably poor, even on an upconverting Blu-ray player as characters appeared slightly blurred and shadowy despite adjusting the color scheme. Additionally, it’s also missing the show’s memorable “You May Be Right” Billy Joel cover by the band Southside Johnny which was used as the theme opener in lieu of this DVD set's replacement of a standard instrumental track until later in the season’s episodes, it’s abandoned altogether in an odd decision that calls attention to itself due to lack of consistency.

And although overall, while I still feel that Mia deserved her own series (although perhaps so did ABC as she would’ve been at home on that network’s Dharma and Greg), ultimately I can’t recommend this DVD set and instead encourage you to read about "Dave's world" instead of watch this watered down version of the wit of the real Mr. Barry.

Space Chimps

Director: Kirk DeMicco

Every monkey dance now! I’m not sure when the trend started, but by now it’s nearly become a prerequisite for all animated children’s movies to contain at least one '70s or '80s-inspired dance party sequence. In addition, the mandates seem to be doubly serious when the animated characters are animals — whether they’re penguins partying in the snow with their Happy Feet or getting jiggy with Shark Tale. Let’s just say that in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion can’t sleep tonight because he’s breaking in his dancing shoes, much to the delight of audiences everywhere even if it only occupies a precious few moments of screen time.

And while “the few, the proud, the monkeys” in Space Chimps are a bit footloose and fancy free, they’re more preoccupied with being chosen by a slightly shady Senator (voiced to delicious effect by Stanley Tucci) to “straighten up and fly right.” In this throwback to the days when NASA utilized primates in their earliest space missions, they are being sent on a risky quest to retrieve an unmanned lost ship that has journeyed through a black hole. While the no-nonsense, NASA-trained Titan (Seinfeld’s Patrick Warburton) and Luna (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Cheryl Hines) take their assignment seriously, they find their rank challenged when the cynical, circus-performing grandson of the first ape in space, Ham III (Andy Samberg), is recruited to join the flight by the publicity hungry senator hoping to up the mission’s coolness factor.

With his career in mind, realizing that by now NASA and scientists in general are so nerdy that if this assignment is unsuccessful, the Senator has devised a fall-back plan to turn the center into a “Paint Your Own Plate” arts and crafts emporium. His motives seem to be unapparent to everyone except Samberg’s rebellious Ham, who says he doesn’t “want to be the warm-up act for human astronauts.” Tricking Ham into believing he’s taking part in a simulated mission, the three monkeys blast off for the great beyond, sliding through the black hole to arrive alongside the missing pod only to discover an inhabited planet where an egomaniacal and tyrannical leader is threatening to sacrifice the occupants in a hubris-driven ode for supreme reign.

Although on strictly entertainment value, it’s infinitely preferable to another animals in space children’s film due out this summer (the review of which will be forthcoming), Space Chimps pales in comparison to the more polished Pixar offering WALL-E (incidentally also involving the solar system) as well as my two favorite children’s films this year so far, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who and Kung Fu Panda. Despite this, younger kids will find Space Chimps’ skies far friendlier than the darkness of WALL-E, even if adults may find themselves looking at their watch several times throughout.

Refreshingly, keeping in mind the adults who must tow along the children in their lives, Chimps does make a genuine effort to insert clever intellect and mature humor such as a terrific sequence wherein Ham finds himself in a Freudian conflict between his Superego and Id, while chatting with Luna upon the cloud of Id as she continually asks, “How does that make you feel?” In addition references are made to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album, modern technology in the form of “banana-berries” as well as sky-travel classics such as Airplane, as one character notes that he’s picked the wrong day to quit eating bananas as a salute to the iconic Lloyd Bridges character.

Harmless and light — although it’s certain to vanish in the wake of The Dark Knight in its opening weekend — the lackluster but mildly entertaining interstellar Chimps will be sure to garner a bigger family friendly audience when it arrives in the DVD galaxy and can be savored in living rooms where toddlers can dance along whenever the chimps feel the obligatory need to turn the beat around.