Cynical, underwritten, blandly voiced and marketed to beat the band, Disney’s “Planes” is shaping up as an epic fail for an animation division that John LAsseter’s hiring was supposed to make failure proof.

They’re cashing in on a direct-to-video movie that they should never have put into theaters. Rotten rankings on rottentomatoes, sub-mediocre notices on metacritic, and so on.

A lot of good will is officially gone out the door. It looks like Pixar and smells like Pixar, but keeping Pixar’s name off it will not sully that brand. So the “studio” (much of the work was outsourced) that released “Brave” and “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Tangled” takes the hit.