Les avions 2: Les pompiers du ciel

Dusty Crophopper is now a successful famous air racer. He returns to Propwash Junction to promote the upcoming Corn Festival. His gearbox malfunctions and there are no replacements. His racing career is over. He recklessly pushes to the limits and crash lands at the airport. Old fire truck Mayday barely is able to put out the resulting fire. Government inspectors put the airport on notice. They need another firefighting vehicle. Dusty decides to get certified as a firefighter.

I like the start of this movie a lot. I like Dusty's problem. I really like Mayday. I don't really like the move away from Propwash Junction. First it feels unlikely and unwarranted. Also it's just better to stay with some of the characters especially Mayday. The fire and firefighters could easily come to Propwash Junction. The stakes would be elevated if his hometown is threatened with destruction. The fire fighting scenes are quite exciting and a vast improvement over the first movie. This is generally a better movie than the first. It's rare but I think this movie is too short. There is a straight to video quality to this that better writing could solve.

At first, I really thought this movie was okay and was a little bland, but the second half made it a little better. Also, the comedy raised it to a 7 for me, there were hilarious jokes on there that made me laugh. I like this better than the first Planes, because this story is more original. The first planes is just basically Cars on wings, it's based off of Cars making the story less original. Planes 2 is original and is about something different than racing. Sort of like Cars 2, which is racing/fighting action. But Planes 2 is better than Cars 2, because the 2nd movie still has the Planes vibe, whereas with Cars 2, it's nothing like the first Cars. Planes 2 had a few things like comedy and a great second half that made a comeback and saved it from having the pleasure of being a 5.0 movie. But a few comments. 1. There are continuity errors like the fact that he can't push his engine to like 250 mph without his engine having an error, but in the first one, he can outrace supersonic jets that go 700 mph. 2. Another continuity error, the girl he was with in the first one was completely forgotten. As if they don't really hang out anymore, and has a new girl in the movie that just sweeps aside the girl in the first Planes movie. However, I think the 2nd girl was more exciting in my opinion. 3. I think that fancy car should have been more of an enemy just to make the story interesting, he would make a great villain. For example, if he wouldn't let Dusty save the people, only the landscape. But yeah, overall, this movie gets a 7(Good).

Cars, Planes, whatever. Consistently the worst products from the Pixar branch (or maybe this is just Disney studios?). I did appreciate the importance of and praise for rescue workers, specifically those fighting forest fires, even if they're planes not humans. But this one definitely dragged slowly along, especially in terms of plot; my son, who really enjoyed the first Planes movie, was clearly less impressed with this installment.

Took my 5 year old to see this fully knowing the franchise is worn out after having seen the disappointing Cars 2 and the first Planes. The plot is more interesting here as it plays out like an 80 minute episode of Rescue Heroes.

The animation is fantastic as you would expect. Having animated planes allows for more panoramic views of the woodlands and fires.

Sounds like kids were bored during the sad parts. The story didn't really need this as it's all predictable. You knew Rusty would defeat the odds to save the day in the end. Dane Cook voiced Rusty similar to Owen Wilson's Lightning McQueen, very down to earth without being over the top.

There is certainly nothing groundbreaking here but the action scenes were good enough for my son to say he liked it (which is all that really counts!).

The first "Planes" was a pleasant surprise. It may have had practically the same "race-against-all-odds" story as "Cars", "Turbo" and many other animated films. But "Planes" still managed to be distinct and charming on its own, for both kids and adults.

We get a lot of this homespun country charm again in this second installment called "Planes: Fire and Rescue." Our hero cropduster Dusty is having problems with his gear box and cannot push his engine to racing anymore. A fire at his hangar revealed the inadequacy of the fire-fighting capabilities of his area, so Dusty decided to try and have himself accredited as a Fire-Fighter.

For adults, this may be an average affair for the most part. Even my tween kids did not too interested about watching it. Personally, my favorite part was when it was revealed that Dusty's stern mentor Blade Ranger (authoritatively voiced by Ed Harris) was once an actor in a TV cop-show called "CHoPs", which had the very familiar theme song of 70's motorcycle cop show "CHiPs"! The nostalgia brought a smile to my face.

The story is pretty slim, standard and predictable, so this episode spent a lot of time showing grand forest vistas, amazingly realistic and scary fire scenes and more amazing aerial feats by Dusty and the other fire-fighting aircraft. Despite the fact that this is a film for kids, I give it props for tackling a form of heroism not usually shown on the big screen -- fire and rescue teams.