Planes is the 2013 Disney animated spin-off connected to Pixar’s Cars.
Planes follows Dusty Crophopper, a crop-dusting aircraft who dreams of competing in an around-the-world aerial race. The movie uses a world populated by talking vehicles, similar to Cars, but shifts the focus from automobiles and racetracks to aircraft and international air-racing.
Planes was produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Klay Hall and written by Jeffrey M. Howard. Although the film is set in the broader Cars universe and includes visual and thematic connections to that world, it was not produced by Pixar Animation Studios.
Planes received a sequel, Planes: Fire & Rescue, in 2014. The original Cars film, Cars 2, and Cars 3 remained Pixar productions. This distinction is a common source of confusion because the spin-off shares the vehicle-based premise and branding of Pixar’s franchise.