Saludos Amigos! Hello Friends!
Saludos Amigos is Walt Disney’s 6th animated feature… though it does not seem like it belongs in the Disney animated feature film collection. The film is a compilation of 4 animated shorts interspersed with some live footage of Disney animators and artists traveling around South America. The film runs just over 40 minutes and was released in 1942. This is the first of six animated “package films” that Disney released in the 1940s. So I guess this won’t be my only foray into the land of animated shorts compilations...
Saludos Amigos is set in South America and was actually produced as part of a Goodwill Mission from the US to South America. World War II and tensions between countries, lead the US to take steps to solidify/improve their good relations with their neighbors. Walt and a team of 20 animators, musicians, technicians, and the like traveled to South America to tour Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru. The result of their travels is Saludos Amigos.
Saludos Amigos is made up of 4 animated shorts. The first is "Lake Titicaca" and centers around Donald Duck as he explores this South American destination. The second short is "Pedro" and tells the story of a young plane and his struggles to make the mail run over the mountains. The third short is "El Gaucho Goofy" and features Goofy and his attempts to be an Argentinian cowboy. (It was fun to watch the narrator/Goofy rapport in this segment as appears in many of Goofy's "How to" cartoons.) The fourth and final segment is "Aquarela do Brasil" or "Watercolor of Brazil." This was the most abstract short, but it did focus a good amount of time on the dance of the samba which was fun. Also Jose Carioca is introduced in this short. He will also appear with Donald in The Three Caballeros.
Prior to this project (53 Disney movies in 53 weeks) I had never heard of Saludos Amigos, so I was really looking forward to some "new" Disney. Unfortunately, I found myself very bored. There was no plot, no riveting music, and no Disney magic. It was fun to see Donald and Goofy in their respective shorts, but as a whole I found the film uninspiring. I'm hoping its sequel, The Three Caballeros, is more engaging.
This week I'll leave you with some inspiration from Walt himself:
In bad times and good, I have never lost my sense of zest for life.
Coming Up Next: The Three Caballeros
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