Saludos Amigos (1943)

Just what I expected

Excellent but underrated film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

"Saludos Amigos" is an ultra-stereotyped look at Latin America, which Disney followed with "The Three Caballeros" two years later. Basically, it depicts hispanophone and lusophone America as suave men and sexy women, all of whom spend eternity partying. That's right, no look at the legacies of colonialism (namely the terrible inequality). Cool parrot José Carioca (which is the demonym for Rio de Janeiro) of course returned in "The Three Caballeros".Basically, this movie is what Disney THOUGHT that it meant to build good relations with Latin America. A better way to do so would be to read Eduardo Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America" (a Spanish-language copy of which Hugo Chávez gave to Barack Obama at a Summit of the Americas in 2009).

"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.

This feature was made to improve relations with South America. It features a few animated shorts with live action breaking the scenes up. The live action is designed to teach about South American culture.I am someone who really likes this feature (even though it is short). I love the scene with Jose Caricoa (sp?) where Donald can't pronounce his name. "Joe-say...". I would watch this at my old job at a video store every chance I got! I would recommend it to everyone, but since some people are not impressed with this feature I would suggest renting it first.Overall very good!!!

iHola! Que tal? (sorry, I can't do an upside-down "?" on my keyboard) iMuy bien, gracias!Yeah, I'm doing very well, indeed!Why the Spanish? Because today, we are looking at the other 1942 Disney animated movie, "Saludos Amigos!" This is one of many 1940s Disney short cartoon compilations released into theaters. So, we see a few short cartoons that take us south of the border and in between these shorts, we see a travel agent telling us about the many places of Latin America and such.Come to think of it, I actually remember seeing the last part of this on the Disney Channel back nine years ago from this month of writing this (yes, you DCOM fans, we forefathers had old stuff on this network back in the days of yore), and though I didn't get to see this movie in whole, I still thought that this was good, among many other Mickey and Friends movies."Saludos Amigos" - iSi! Diez estrellas (10 stars).