Planes
Release Date: August 9 Oscar Prospects: Slight Disney roles out its crass Cars-spinoff cash in with Planes, a film that takes the same concept of a world solely existing of transportation vehicles but this time shifts the focus from autos to aviation. If you're curious enough about the specifics of the film's plot, it involves a crop duster plane named Dusty (get it?) who's life long dream is to compete in a famous aerial race. The catch though is that Dusty has a particularly strong fear of heights, precluding him from actually partaking in the race until a mentor by the name of Skipper helps the would be aviation champ overcome his debilitating fear. This sounds incredibly rote to me (between the Cars' series this film riffs on, and this summer's Turbo, what's with animation's preoccupation with racing?), but the point for Disney here is obviously to sell toys, not any level of significant artistic achievement. While Pixar was much derided for what was seen as primarily monetary motivations for the making of Cars 2, Disney was smart enough not to sully the brand name of Pixar any further and took the sole responsibility of Planes, and any accusations of crude profiteering, on its own shoulders. The film will unlikely reach the financial success of any of the Pixar films, but I'm sure Disney will do well enough on the merchandising alone. Planes' awards prospects obviously boil down to one category: Best Animated Feature. Even in this category though, the chance of Planes receiving a nomination are fairly slim unless 2013 is seen as a monumentally weak year in the animation field. Despite Pixar's normally rock solid relationship with the Academy when it comes to the Best Animated Feature category, the Cars series, of which Planes derives, has never been as beloved as the studios other films. The original film received a nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost out to Happy Feet. The sequel, Cars 2, couldn't even find a spot in a field that had five nominees, including Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. This guarantees Planes will not be nominated if the field is limited to only three nominees, and even if the category meets the qualifications for five nominees, I would be quite surprised if Planes managed to be among them. Possible nominations: Best Animated Film