Powerful

Must See Movie...

A Masterpiece!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

"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).

This more than any other film shows the plight of the Disney studio in the years following "Snow White" and "Pinocchio".WWII had broken out, cutting off Disney's European market. In addition, striking cartoonists and their formation of a guild/union meant that the massive about of labor needed to create a "Snow White" or a "Pinocchio" now amounted to a substantially higher production cost then either of those two films (which had not been cheap to begin with).Thus, Disney was trying to explore new ways to both package his product for another market, as well as develop new product.They released this movie and capitalized on the then-popular South American craze. Now, however, it looks dated.You can still it watch it though and see the genesis for several of Disney's later films: "The Three Caballeros" and the whole "How-To" Goofy series are the most obvious.

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).

When I first heard that Disney was going to release a number of films from the early years which had been "almost forgotten," I was very intrigued. Would there be another Sleeping Beauty or Fantasia hiding out there?Sadly, Saludos Amigos falls very short of "Disney classic" status. It is basically forgettable.There are a few smile-inducing moments, but overall the piece really does feel like a "keep the Sudamericanos on our side against the Nazis" period piece from the WW2 era. It's strange to watch a movie made in 1943 with live action sequences of South America looking so peaceful and unaffected by the world's events. Sure, the region was less involved in WW2 than many other regions... but, it is still strange to watch.Anyway, I'd sum it up thusly: 1. Worth buying if you are a Disney collector and 2. Worthy of note simply to see live shots of Buenos Aires, Lago Titicaca, and Rio de Janeiro, filmed almost 60 years ago.Other than that, you can skip this one.