Planes: Fire & Rescue

World-champion racing plane Dusty Crophopper (voice by Dane Cook), learns that his racing days are over due to engine damage, so he goes into training to be a firefighter, under the, er, wing of veteran fire-and-rescue helicopter Blade Ranger (Ed Harris). This sequel to last year's dismal Planes is better than expected. The characters still aren't very interesting, getting more of their personality from their celebrity voices (Hal Holbrook, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Cedric the Entertainer, etc.) than from the animation or the script. And again, there's no reason this couldn't have gone direct to video. But at least the fire scenes are nicely done. An opening title dedicating the movie to the world's firefighters (human ones, presumably) was a clever touch, sure to get applause.