Saludos Amigos 1943
I have been catching up on watching the Disney canon of animated feature films on Disney Plus. Saludos Amigos is an easy one to check off since it is only 42 minutes long, the shortest film in the canon. Filmed during World War II, it is part of a public relations effort by Disney and the US government to have closer ties with South America. The first of the “package films,” it combines 4 animated shorts to make one movie. The short films are tied together by a live action documentary about South America and the producers, artists, and musicians Disney sent to South America to do research. That part is okay, but there isn’t enough to get a real idea of what the staff was doing, so it is kind of like seeing some vacation video. It is doubtful that a documentary about Disney artists would hold the attention of younger audiences, but I would have liked to have seen more (and I will, once I watch Walt & El Grupo, a 2008 documentary about the trip). Most of the pieces are narrated throughout, which takes away from the storytelling, but are still pretty good. Nothing really insensitive since it was always intended for South American as well as domestic audiences. Donald Duck appears in two of the pieces (the second almost entirely musical and probably the best of the bunch), Goofy appears as a gaucho, and one original piece is about a brave little mail plane having to cross the Andes. The movie and its component pieces are way too short to overstay their welcome and they introduce a little bit of South American culture as only Disney can do. It won’t be anyone’s favorite, but it makes for an interesting watch.
Written: 23 May 2020