Planes vr Turbo

Does Dusty soar to great heights or does the nitro power Turbo into the lead?  This is the great animated film race of the summer.

Story line

The underdog dreams of winning the greatest race on earth.  Manages to sneak into the race.  Gets some unconventional training.  Struggles initially but gets some advice that helps to make him the lead challenger.  The current favourite is a baddie not the great champion the world thinks he is and does a dastardly deed or two that puts out hero into trouble.  Our hero overcomes his trouble and wins by using a special move taught to him earlier in the film.  Right well that’s the story for Turbo now for Planes……..oh hang on that’s the story for Planes too!

OK OK but it’s a kids film we know storyline before going in anyway.  So what about the films themselves?

Turbo is about a snail that works at the bottom rung on a tomato farm in someones front garden.  Dreams about winner the Indy 500.  One day he gets sucked into the engine of an illegal street racing car and the nitro turns him into a super fast snail, there are some other side affects as well but they are just for laughs.  He gets caught by a burrito seller to race in his snail race and gets the shock of his life when Turbo rips up the track.  Long and short of it is that they head off to the Indy 500 and enter Turbo in the race.  In the film at least, there is nothing in the rules stopping a snail from entering (I know it’s poor journalism but I have not gone and researched the real life rules).  After qualifying for the race he comes up against his hero 5 time Indy winner Guy Gagné.  At first he struggles in the race but gets told to race like a snail not a car and gets to the front.  Guy Gagné scared of losing squeezes Turbo against the wall so Turbos’ shell breaks and he losses his powers.  There’s a big crash in the final straight and Guy Gagné tries to push his car over the line but Turbo “tucks and rolls” over the line to win.

Right Planes.  Dusty is a crop duster who dreams of winning the Wings Across the World race.  In qualifying he just misses out but a few days later finds out that the person ahead of him was doping (illegal fuel) and so gets disqualified letting Dusty in.  After getting an elderly war plane (Skipper) to train him he heads off to the big race.   Initially struggles, then sacrifices his chances to help another plane.  After the 3rd leg the great champ Ripslinger feeds bad advice to Dusty, but he gets a break and wins a couple of legs.  Ripsligner then gets Dusty hobbled as they cross the pacific and losses his faith (bit more going on here) and crashes into the sea.  Gets rescued and rebuilt with gifts from the other competitors and wins the final leg after Skipper (who’s been discredited earlier) comes to his help.  Yup they pack a lot in!

For full details on either check out Wikipedia.

OK so which one is better?

I came out of the Planes movie wondering why I hadn’t liked it so much, was it that I knew it was originally destined straight to DVD?  Luckily a friend pointed it out, the pace was wrong, it would zoom through bits then slow right down and then do it again.  It had all the wisecracks etc… just technically not a good movie.

Turbo just had more thought put into it and flowed well.  Also the hero is easier to connect with.

But it’s not about the adults what did the kids think?

Very true, both my kids loved Turbo and were snails for the weeks afterwards.  My one and a half year old is still playing being a snail 3 weeks later.  For planes, the younger one is not interested in playing being a plane at all.  The 4 year old likes being Dusty but just until she sees the next toy so there’s no real conviction.

So over all?

Turbo I’ll probably buy when it comes out on iTunes but Planes I won’t.  Planes is worth going to if you have a hangover or it’s really wet and you want to have an easy hour or so.