Disney Movie Challenge: Saludos Amigos (1942)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

Saludos Amigos

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.  I will be watching each film in chronological order. 

A few things happened around the same time that created this film.  First there was the animators strike in 1941 during production of "Dumbo" and "Bambi".  With Walt Disney on site it only created more tensions.  One of the solutions was for Disney to get out of the country and he headed down to South America. While Walt was out of the country the strike was settled and the strikers won everything they wanted.  The other major world event that happened was the United States entering WWII.  The war had many effects on Disney Studios. From less income to fewer animators available  to make sophisticated animations they had been making.  Then the U.S. Government stepped in.  Disney was enlisted by the U.S. Government to make propaganda films and one of the reasons for Disney’s trip to South America was to help ease tensions between the United States and South America.  Since Mickey Mouse was popular down there they thought Disney would be perfect for a “Good Will Tour”.  Disney went down there with a group of animators and they took inspiration from what they saw and put together 4 shorts to make "Saludos Amigos".  The government also gave loan guarantees to Disney for the film. 

Each short is supposed to reflect a specific country in South America. Originally they were going to be released individually but Disney felt that they would largely go unseen except by people of those countries so he packaged them up with some documentary footage of the animators on their trip shown between each short.  The first of the  four shorts is “Lake Titicaca'' with Donald Duck making his feature film debut. It has a series of familiar Donald Duck mishaps with a Llama. The next short is called “Pedro”. It is about a small airplane who is tasked with retrieving mail from Argentina and bringing it back to Chile.   It’s a perilous journey over some scary mountains but he proves he can do it. The third short is Goofy’s feature film debut in “El Goucho Goofy”.  Here he plays an American Cowboy who learns the way of The Goucho (a South American Cowboy) in Argentina.  The fourth short is “Aquarela do Brasil” and we get the introduction of the character Jose Carioca.  Jose brings Donald Duck on a musical tour of Brazil. 

The stand out short in the package  is “Aquarela do Brasil”.  The short has some of the best animation and best music in the film.  It feels more similar to the animation in "Bambi" and "Pinocchio".  It’s a colorful and fun short highlighting dances and music of Rio.  “Pedro” is an interesting short.  As far as story goes it is probably the best one in this bunch. A young plane has to make a dangerous journey by himself. Things are going well but then he gets stuck in a storm.  It has elements of suspense and triumph and could see kids really liking this one.  It also definitely feels like the Disney film “Planes” took some inspiration for the designs of their plane from this short.  “Lake Titicaca'' and “El Goucho Goofy” feel like shorts you would have come to expect from a Donald and Goofy shorts at the time. Neither feel that inspired or interesting.

Alfred Charles Richard Jr., a film historian,  said that the movie "did more to cement a community of interest between peoples of the Americas in a few months than the State Department had in fifty years". Most credit the documentary style parts of the film for giving Americans a new perspective of South America. Most Americans of that time thought of South America as primitive and was surprised to see that they had modern cities.   

Overall: As with most packaged or anthology films it’s a mixed bag.  Besides “Aquarela do Brasil” none of the other shorts felt worthy of being in a feature film.  There also seemed to be too much live action footage between the shorts.  Not sure why this film is considered an animated feature since it’s less than 60 minutes and a big chunk of it is documentary style footage.  Coming a few months after Bambi the decline in animation quality is quite remarkable.  

Random Facts:

The first Disney film to premiere in South America before the United States.  The movie premiered in Rio de Janeiro in August of 1942 before premiering in the U.S. in February of 1943.  

First of 6 packaged films to be released in the 40’s.  

The first appearance of the character José Carioca, the Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot

 Shortest Disney Animated Film at 42 minutes barely qualifies as a feature film. 

First appearance by Donald Duck and Goofy in a feature film. 

El Goucho Goofy was edited on home video releases to remove a short scene where he smokes a cigarette.