Saludos Amigos
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| Saludos Amigos | |
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| Directed by | Norman Ferguson Wilfred Jackson Jack Kinney Hamilton Luske Bill Roberts |
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| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Written by | Homer Brightman William Cottrell Dick Huemer Joe Grant Harry Reeves Ted Sears Webb Smith Roy Williams Ralph Wright |
| Starring | Lee Blair Mary Blair Pinto Colvig Walt Disney Norman Ferguson Frank Graham Clarence Nash José Oliviera Fred Shields Frank Thomas |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 24, 1942 |
| Running time | 43 minutes |
| Country | United States Brazil |
| Language | English Portuguese |
Saludos Amigos (Hello, friends in English, Alô, Amigos in Portuguese) is a 1942 animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the 6th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It is the first of six package films made by the Disney studio in the 1940s. Set in Latin America, it is made up of four different segments; Donald Duck stars in two of them and Goofy stars in one. It also features the first appearance of José Carioca.[1] Saludos Amigos was popular enough that Walt Disney decided to make another film about Latin America, The Three Caballeros, to be produced two years later. The film premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. It garnered mixed reviews and was only reissued once, in 1949, when it was shown on a double bill with the first reissue of Dumbo.
In early 1941, before U.S. entry into World War II, the United States Department of State commissioned both a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie to be shown in Central and South America as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. The tour, underwritten by the State Department, took Disney and a group of composers, artists, etc. from his studio to South America, mainly to Brazil and Argentina, but also to Chile and Peru. The film itself was given federal loan guarantees. These were necessary because the Disney studio had over-expanded just before European markets were closed to them by the war, and because Disney was struggling with labor unrest at the time (including a strike that was underway at the time the goodwill journey began).[1]
Disney was chosen for this because several Latin American governments had close ties with Nazi Germany[1], and the US government wanted to counteract those ties. Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters were popular in Latin America, and Walt Disney acted as ambassador.
The film received 3 Academy Award nominations for Best Sound, Original Music Score and Best Song for "Saludos Amigos".
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[edit] Film segments
This film features four different segments, each of which beginning with various clips of the Disney artists roaming the country drawing cartoons of some of the local cultures and scenery:
- In Lake Titicaca, American tourist Donald Duck visits the title location and meets with some of the local yokels, including an obstinate llama.
- Pedro involves the title character, a small airplane from Chile, engaging in his very first flight to pick up air mail from Mendoza, with near disastrous results. Disappointed with Pedro as the image that the outside world had of Chile, Cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger (Pepo) started one of the most famous latinamerican comic: Condorito.
- In El Gaucho Goofy, American cowboy Goofy gets taken mysteriously to the Argentinian pampas to learn the ways of the native gaucho. This segment was later edited for the film's video release to remove one scene of Goofy smoking a cigarette.[2]
- Aquarela do Brasil (or "Watercolor of Brazil"), the finale of the film, involves a brand-new character, José Carioca, showing Donald Duck around South America and introducing him to the samba (to the tunes of "Brazil" and "Tico-Tico no Fubá").
[edit] Production
[edit] Cast and characters
- Lee Blair - Himself
- Mary Blair - Herself
- Pinto Colvig - Goofy
- Walt Disney - Himself
- Norman Ferguson - Himself
- Frank Graham - Himself
- Clarence Nash - Donald Duck
- José Oliveira - José Carioca
- Fred Shields - Narrator
- Frank Thomas - Himself
[edit] Release
[edit] Release dates
- Brazil: August 24, 1942 (Rio de Janeiro)
- Argentina: August 26, 1942
- United States: February 6, 1943
- Australia: February 15, 1943
- U.K.: February 15, 1943
- Mexico: April 26, 1943
[edit] Home video
[edit] See also
[edit] Other References
This was one of the many films featured in Donald Duck's 50th Birthday.
