In Ratatouille, the fantasy is that there’s this rat who’s really good at smelling and tasting, and he loves great food and wants to be a chef. That’s the conceit, and that’s the only conceit. The entire film proceeds from there, and if we’re on board for the idea that a rat can cook, then the rest of the film will basically make sense.

In the universe of Planes, the fantasy is that airplanes and cars and trucks are also people. But they’re basically still airplanes and cars, and they basically have to obey the rules of airplanes and cars as we understand them. Cars drive, airplanes fly, race cars are faster than jalopies, and jets are faster than everything. Given this conceit, there’s no reason to think that Dusty should be able to beat another, faster airplane in a race simply because he wants to. If he can, then what is the point of differentiating one vehicle from another, when apparently all it takes to go faster is to really really want to? The plot of Planes is in direct conflict with what we would conclude from the premise of its setting. Even the Cars movies did not make this error.

In short: Magic systems matter.

posted by Sokka shot first at 8:38 AM