Planes

image for Planes

Short takes

Not recommended under 5 PG to 8 (Violence, Scary Scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Planes
  • a review of Planes completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 2 September 2013.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not recommended due to violence and scary scenes
Children 5 to 8 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes
Children 8 and over OK for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Planes
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild animated violence
Length: 91 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Dusty (voice of Dane Cook) has flown thousands of miles as a crop duster but hasn’t seen anything of the world. He therefore decides to enter the ‘Wings around the World” competition but of course, is the laughing stock of the crowd. Ripslinger (voice of Roger Craig Smith) is three times champion and has no intention of letting a mere crop duster beat him.

At first Dusty doesn’t qualify for the race but one of the planes is disqualified which means he can enter. He has a hard task in front of him but with the help of former WW11 fighter plane, Skipper (voice of Stacy Keach) and his friends Dottie (Teri Hatcher) and Chug (Brad Garrett) he gets ready for the great race. This involves many dangers and perils but at least Dusty gets to see the world.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Plane crashes; war planes; air racing

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Dottie hits Dusty with her spanners
  • Watching a film of the ten worst plane crashes, two are shown crashing to the ground.
  • Ripslinger is an aggressive plane who wants to win at all costs. He smashes a plane’s ‘sky pod’ and sends his cohorts to attack Dusty on two occasions.
  • A battle scene is shown from Skipper’s memory when he was a leader of a squadron. Against his judgement they attack an enemy ship but are fired on. Skipper is the only plane to survive and the others are seen being shot down in flames.
  • Ripslinger and his cohorts fly above Dusty and try to push him to the ground but Skipper comes to the rescue and chases after Ripslinger.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Dottie (a car) has a fit and falls over onto her side.
  • Dusty goes to visit Skipper the WW11 fighter plane who is large and scary and very unfriendly.
  • Dusty is landing on a runway and is nearly crushed by a jet plane.
  • Dusty has to fly through bad weather and storms and between icebergs.
  • Bulldog, the British plane, has engine failure and nearly crashes to the ground but Dusty comes to the rescue.
  • Dusty flies through a tunnel because he’s afraid of heights, scrapes along the wall and nearly crashes into an approaching train.
  • Dusty loses his antenna in one of the attacks and is low on fuel. Large American planes fly above him and order him to board a nearby warship.
  • Dusty has to fly through a very bad storm and because he’s flying low he crashes into a huge wave and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. He is rescued but is quite a wreck.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group could also be scared by some of the above-mentioned scenes

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Nothing of concern

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Nothing of concern in the film but associated merchandise being marketed to children

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • El Chupacabra, a Mexican plane, falls in love with Rochelle, a French Canadian pink plane. There is a lot of flirting and innuendo.
  • Ishani, the Indian female plane is attracted to Dusty.

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • There is reference to a ‘go-go punch’, which makes you fly faster but blurs your vision. One of the planes is found to have this in its fuel tank and is disqualified.

Coarse language

There is a lot of name calling that children may imitate such as:

  • punk
  • moron
  • losers
  • knucklehead
  • idiot

In a nutshell

Planes is an animated movie that is likely to appeal to children. It’s a follow up to Cars and is very much the same story set with planes instead of cars. Under 5s, and some slightly older children, may find some of the scenes too scary so the film is not recommended for children under 5 and parental guidance is recommended for the 5 to 8 age group. The aerobatics in the movie might cause some ‘motion sickness’ for some children, particularly in the 3D version!

The main message from this movie is to follow your dreams and not to be concerned by what others see as your limitations.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Helping others in need even to your own detriment.
  • Courage
  • Tenacity

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Skipper was seen as a hero but the truth was far from this. Should Skipper have covered up for his mistakes?
  • Being a winner at all costs might bring fame but you lose all your friends.