What is it with heavy metal and animation films! Remember Megamind with all that cool, cool music? From ‘Bad to the Bone’ (George Thorogood and the Destroyers), ‘Crazy Train’ (Ozzy), to AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Back in Black,’ they were just super fun to listen to on Dolby digital surround sound.
Whenever I hear metal in the theatre, I always wonder how it would be to watch a concert movie like say Pink Floyd’s The Wall or The Who’s Tommy or Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar in a theatre. Angus and Malcolm Young seem to be popping up in quite a few movies — didn’t Tony Stark make a rockstar entrance to the sound of AC/DC’s ‘Shoot to Thrill’ in Iron Man 2 ? Here Dusty tries out his firefighting skills to the tune of AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’. Dusty, the crop-duster plane who became a champion racer in last year’s Planes, now has engine trouble and cannot race. He decides to retrain as a firefighter. He joins a bunch of firefighters and in the course of fighting a big, fat fire learns important life lessons.
The second of Pixar’s planned trilogy, which is a spin-off of their Cars franchise, Planes: Fire and Rescue sees the return of Dane Cook as Dusty. Priyanka Chopra, who gave voice for Ishani, the Indian plane and was Dusty’s love interest in the earlier movie, is replaced by Julie Bowen who voices Lil Dipper, a super scooper. Ed Harris is the voice of Blade Ranger, a chopper with a tragic backstory.
Once you’ve got your head around anthropomorphic planes, trains and automobiles, the 84-minute movie (yes, it is blissfully short) is mildly entertaining. And then there is always AC/DC on Dolby. Now about watching Woodstock on the big screen...