"Saludos Amigos" is a very short full-length film that actually consists of several short films created as a result of Walt Disney's good will tour of South America just before the US entered WWII. This tour is discussed at length in the documentary "Walt & el Groupo" and "Saludos Amigos" is a special feature included on this disk--though it was originally released in theaters in 1942.
I know some will be shocked when they read this, but the fact is that the two feature films created as a result of this trip were pretty poor--mostly because they came off more like travelogues than the typical Disney film. IN addition, they simply are not fun and kids will hate them. Of the two, "Saludos Amigos" is the best--but it still is sub-par Disney. It consists of several shorts all released together instead of separately. Apparently Disney realized that the shorts had very limited marketability, so he had them bundled together and released. Imagine how sad people must have felt when they saw this dull stuff!
The first short involves Donald Duck in Peru. While it has a few moments, it comes off as a dull travel film and not much more. Then, the film switches to an odd and not particularly entertaining film about a tiny plane called Pedro. This really seemed to have little to do with Chile. Then, footage of Walt and his employees visiting the Argentine gauchos is shown--followed by a short featuring Goofy as one of these cowboys. It's a lot like the typical Goofy educational film and shows the differences between the American and Argentinian versions. This is probably the best short of the four in the film but once again, it's far from their best work. Finally, the film jumps to Rio where there is a lot of samba music and lots of footage of Carnival and the short "Watercolor of Brazil". The music is the same title music to the Terry Gilliam film "Brazil"--a film about as different from this Disney film as you could imagine. This short features Donald Duck and a new character, Joe Carioca--a talking parrot. Mostly you just see them dancing about to samba music and they don't have a lot of personality...or fun.
Overall, a pretty dull lot but made a bit better if you see the accompanying documentary. I certainly wouldn't recommend you rush out to see this.
I know some will be shocked when they read this, but the fact is that the two feature films created as a result of this trip were pretty poor--mostly because they came off more like travelogues than the typical Disney film. IN addition, they simply are not fun and kids will hate them. Of the two, "Saludos Amigos" is the best--but it still is sub-par Disney. It consists of several shorts all released together instead of separately. Apparently Disney realized that the shorts had very limited marketability, so he had them bundled together and released. Imagine how sad people must have felt when they saw this dull stuff!
The first short involves Donald Duck in Peru. While it has a few moments, it comes off as a dull travel film and not much more. Then, the film switches to an odd and not particularly entertaining film about a tiny plane called Pedro. This really seemed to have little to do with Chile. Then, footage of Walt and his employees visiting the Argentine gauchos is shown--followed by a short featuring Goofy as one of these cowboys. It's a lot like the typical Goofy educational film and shows the differences between the American and Argentinian versions. This is probably the best short of the four in the film but once again, it's far from their best work. Finally, the film jumps to Rio where there is a lot of samba music and lots of footage of Carnival and the short "Watercolor of Brazil". The music is the same title music to the Terry Gilliam film "Brazil"--a film about as different from this Disney film as you could imagine. This short features Donald Duck and a new character, Joe Carioca--a talking parrot. Mostly you just see them dancing about to samba music and they don't have a lot of personality...or fun.
Overall, a pretty dull lot but made a bit better if you see the accompanying documentary. I certainly wouldn't recommend you rush out to see this.