Product Code Database
Saludos Amigos (Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated "Donald Duck: An American Diplomat?" The National Museum of American History. Published April 12, 2019. Accessed November 5, 2023.Gilderhus, Mark T. "The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications." Presidential Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1, 2006, pp. 5–16. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27552742. anthology film featurette produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. 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, the Malandragem Brazilian parrot. Saludos Amigos premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 19, 1943.
The film was a success, helping launch the international popularity of Donald Duck and leading Disney to produce The Three Caballeros (1944), another government-funded film aimed at Latin American goodwill.
The film itself was given federal loan guarantees, 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).
The film included live-action documentary sequences featuring footage of modern Latin American cities with skyscrapers and fashionably dressed residents. It surprised many contemporary US viewers, who associated such images only with US and European cities, and contributed to a changing impression of Latin America. Film historian Alfred Charles Richard Jr. has commented that Saludos Amigos "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."Richard, Alfred Charles Jr. Censorship and Hollywood's Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1936–1955. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1993, p274, cited in
The film also inspired Chilean cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger to create Condorito, one of Latin America's most ubiquitous cartoon characters. Ríos perceived that the character Pedro, a small, incapable airplane, was a slight to Chileans and created a comic that could supposedly rival Disney's comic characters.
Plot
The film features segments of 5 countries in South America: Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. Each country has its own segment except for Bolivia and Peru, because both countries are represented in the Lake Titicaca segment.
Chilean cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger (known popularly as "Pepo") was disappointed with how the character Pedro represented his country. In response, he developed the character Condorito, who went on to become one of the most iconic comic magazine characters in Latin America.
The film's soundtrack was first released by Decca Records in 1944 as a collection of three 78 rpm singles.
The film returned rentals to RKO by 1951 of $1,135,000 with $515,000 being generated in the U.S. and Canada.
It was later released on both VHS and DVD on May 2, 2000, under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection banner, and again on DVD on April 29, 2008, under the Classic Caballeros Collection banner. The film received a third DVD release on November 30, 2010, as a bonus Feature on the Walt & El Grupo DVD. A fourth release, the first on Blu-ray, was released on January 30, 2018, as Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros 75th Anniversary Edition 2-Movie Collection).
Film segments
The main feature film features four different segments, each of which begin with various clips of the Disney artists roaming the country, drawing cartoons of some of the local cultures and scenery they see.
Lake Titicaca
In the segment, the Disney artists make a cartoon where Donald Duck visits Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru and meets some of the locals, including an obstinate llama as an American tourist. When Donald tries to ride the llama over a bridge, he ends up falling into the sea and rows away in pots and pans.
Pedro
Pedro is a story about a small anthropomorphic airplane from an airport near Santiago, Chile, engaging in his first flight to retrieve air mail from Mendoza, with disastrous consequences. He manages to safely return to the airfield with the mail, which happens to be a single postcard. RKO Pictures released the particular segment as a theatrical short on May 13, 1955.
El Gaucho Goofy
In the segment, American cowboy Goofy gets taken from Texas to the Argentina by the Narrator to learn the ways of the native gaucho. The segment was later edited for the film's Gold Classic Collection VHS/DVD release to remove one scene in which Goofy is shown smoking a cigarette. The edit appears again on the Classic Caballeros Collection DVD. The sequence has since been restored as the unedited version has been much requested. The fully unedited version is available as a bonus feature on the Walt & El Grupo DVD release and fully unedited and restored on Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros 75th Anniversary Edition 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray. When the film was released on Disney's streaming platform Disney+, the edited version of the sequence was used despite disclaimers of the film being presented in its original format with "outdated cultural depictions" and tobacco usage, but it has since been changed to the unedited version.
Aquarela do Brasil
Aquarela do Brasil (Portuguese for "Watercolour of Brazil"), the finale of the film, views Disney artists creating pictures that magically turn into different pictures. One of them is a flower, which turns into Donald Duck after a bee goes into his mouth. When the bee flies out of his mouth, Donald sees a paint brush creating a brand-new character, José Carioca from Rio de Janeiro, Vargas Era, who shows Donald Duck around South America, lets him have a drink of cachaça with him, which is so spicy for Donald that he starts hiccuping, and introduces him to the samba (complete with the songs "Aquarela do Brasil" and "Tico-Tico no Fubá").
Cast and characters
The voice cast was all uncredited, as was the practice at the time for many animated films.
Music
The film's original score was composed by Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, and Charles Wolcott. The title song, "Saludos Amigos", was written for the film by Charles Wolcott and Ned Washington. The film also featured the song "Aquarela do Brasil", written by the popular Brazilian songwriter Ary Barroso and performed by Aloísio de Oliveira, and an instrumental version of "Tico-Tico no Fubá", written by Zequinha de Abreu. "Aquarela do Brasil" was written and first performed in 1939, but did not achieve much initial success. However, after appearing in this film it became an international hit, becoming the first Brazilian song to be played over a million times on American radio.
Track listing
Release
Theatrical
Saludos Amigos premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. It was theatrically reissued in 1949, when it was shown on a double bill with the first reissue of Dumbo.
Home media
In 1995, the film was released on Laserdisc under the "Exclusive Archive Collection" series.
Reception
The film holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews, with an average score of 6.40/10. The site's consensus reads, "One of Disney's lesser-known animated films, Saludos Amigos may be slight stuff, but it's still a spirited, energetic travelogue."
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards Best Scoring of a Musical Picture Edward H. Plumb, Paul Smith and Charles Wolcott Best Original Song "Saludos Amigos"
Music by Charles Wolcott;
Lyrics by Ned Washington Best Sound Recording Sam Slyfield National Board of Review Awards Best Documentary
See also
Further reading
External links
Categories: Official Website, 1942 American Animated Films, American Films With Live Action And Animation, 1942 Films, 1942 Children's Films, 1942 English-language Films, American Anthology Films, American Aviation Films, Articles Containing Video Clips, Donald Duck Films, Films Directed By Norman Ferguson, Films Directed By Wilfred Jackson, Films Directed By Jack Kinney, Films Directed By Hamilton Luske, Films Directed By Bill Roberts, Films Produced By Walt Disney, Films Scored By Charles Wolcott, Films Scored By Paul Smith, Films Scored By Edward H. Plumb, Animated Films Set In Argentina, Films Set In Bolivia, Animated Films Set In Brazil, Animated Films Set In Chile, Animated Films Set In Peru, Films Set In Rio De Janeiro, Films Set In South America, Goofy Films, Animated Anthology Films, Self-reflexive Films, Walt Disney Animation Studios Films, Walt Disney Pictures Animated Films, Walt Disney Pictures Films, Rko Pictures Films, 1940s Children's Animated Films, Films About Gauchos, 1940s Children's Fantasy Films, Films With Screenplays By Ralph Wright, Animated Films Set In South America, English-language Fantasy Films, Portuguese-language American Films, Spanish-language American Films, Films With Screenplays By Homer Brightman, Films With Screenplays By William Cottrell, Films With Screenplays By Dick Huemer, Films With Screenplays By Joe Grant, Films With Screenplays By Harry Reeves, Films With Screenplays By Ted Sears, Films With Screenplays By Webb Smith, Films With Screenplays By Roy Williams, Good Neighbor Policy, 1942 Fantasy Films, 1940s Color Films
|
|
