DVD Review: Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros
Posted by John Meehan on 04.27.2008
Two "South of the Border" animated Disney classics on one new disc! Muy picante!
Hi, I'm John. And I'm 411's resident wrestling-fan-turned-Disney-fanatic. I've been an absolute sucker for all-things Mouse since childhood, and I'm a lifelong Disney themepark junkie to boot. At last count, I'm pretty sure I've made upwards of a dozen separate trips to Disney's various theme parks across this great nation.
Needless to say, when a Disney DVD rolls across the "needs reviewing" desk of 411, I'm always more than happy to give it a first look through a superfan's point of view. A lot of folks might wonder why a site like 411 bothers to screen releases like these "kid" movies -- well, the long and short of it is that the studios don't just pick and choose which movies they think we'll like the most... they send us EVERYTHING! And in order to keep receiving new stuff (both good *and* bad), we've got to give the "kid" flicks their due as well.
This week, we've got...
The Classic Caballeros Collection
Movie Release Date: Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1945) DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
The Feature:
For all of the well-publicized accolades in his long and storied career (the guy won a staggering 31 Oscars -- a record that no one has even come close to touching since his death), perhaps Walt Disney's greatest legacy on the film and animation industry was simply to be found in his pioneering spirit and love of all sorts of people and cultures from every corner of the globe. The man was a true storyteller in every sense of the word, and his tales (many of which have now become the stuff of legend) were always sure to be rife with exotic locales, vibrant local characters, and all sorts adaptations of cultural stories and folklore at every turn. We see it in his themeparks (in attractions like "The Jungle Cruise"), his contributions to World's Fair exhibitions ("Its a Small World," for example), and perhaps most of all -- we see it in his movies.
The dense canopies and forbidden temples of "The Jungle Book"...
The vast majesty of the African savannah in "The Lion King"...
The allusive beauty of the Far East in "Mulan"...
And the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the South American continent, as captured in this newly released "Classic Caballeros" two-movie collection, which is a double-bang for your buck as it features two full-length Disney animated motion pictures of the 1940's: "Saludos Amigos" (1942) and "The Three Caballeros" (1945).
Disney buffs and themepark-goers will notice that this famed sixty-year-old trio of Disney Latino birdbrains are riding something of a newfound wave of popularity, of late, thanks to a recent overhaul of Epcot's "El Rio del Tiempo" boat ride -- which now sports a Three Caballeros makeover. Coincidentally then (or perhaps not), the Caballeros have flown from their previous coop that was the "Disney Vault," and landed smack-dab on a brand new video re-re-RE-release of their classic 1940's adventures from South of the Border.
Who says Vince McMahon is alone in using publicity stunts just to sell DVDs?
As for the disk itself, it's really a one-two punch of two completely separate (though tangentially similar) films. The first, "Saludos Amigos," is something of an animated travelogue, originally commissioned by the Office of Inter-American Affairs in hopes to improve relations between the U.S. and its neighbors to the south. Wouldn't want the Nazis getting to them first, ya' know. The second (and arguably more well-known) movie is the 1945 hit "The Three Caballeros," which pretty much plays out like Homer Simpson's infamous bout with the Guatemalan insanity pepper -- save the coyote. To do these movies justice, we'll split the rest of the review in half accordingly.
Saludos Amigos - Released waaaay back in 1942, this film marks the Mouse's attempt to win the hearts of Americans on both sides of the continental divide -- a task they set about accomplishing by taking a tour of some of South America's most popular tourist destinations, and then proceeding to retell of their discoveries by way of a series of animated adventures.
Four, actually.
The first mini-episode sees Donald Duck (holy crap -- Donald Duck was ALREADY famous as a movie star in 1942! How's THAT for staying power?) exploring the idyllic Lake Titicaca (no jokes, please). It's slapstick and silly, and surprisingly entertaining for a sixty year old cartoon.
The second is a one-off story about a brave little airplane that could, which tells the story of how the mail must go through the treacherous mountain pass of the Andes. Longtime fans of Disney animation will likely be struck by just how seemlessly Pedro the plane is able to simultaneously recall the classic hand-drawn style of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons while at the same time foreshadowing the very same character model shaping and animation techniques that Disney and Pixar would later use in "Cars."
The third bit features "El Gaucho Goofy" in yet another installment of his famed "how-to" series. This time, he's trying his hand as a Latin American cowboy, and so he manages to end up in all sorts of, well, *goofy* situations while a narrator delivers a deadpan monologue describing some of the finer points of the culture playing out before us.
The final segment features a brilliant use of watercolor painting (think "Fantasia" and the forest sequence), and takes viewers through a lush and tropical backdrop of the natural beauty of Brazil. Here we meet Jose Carioca, a spirited little parrot who takes our pal Donald on a colorful tour of his homeland and teaches the waterfoul a thing or two about the Samba while he's at it.
The Three Caballeros -- This better-known 1945 Disney flick is actually a follow-up to its South-of-the-Border predecessor of three years earlier. It too is divided into a series of shorter vignettes (seven of 'em, actually), but whereas the other movie explored the better part of *many* South American cultures and countries, The Three Caballeros spends a fair bit of its relatively breif 69-minute run squarely in the heart of our closest neighbor to the south, Mexico.
Not gonna' lie, folks... this film is really something of a trip. The stand-alone vignettes range from "cute" (like "The Cold Blooded Penguin") to the downright trippy ("Donald's Surreal Reverie"), and it ultimately leaves viewers with a whacked-out feeling that they'd just spent the better part of an hour watching a Latinofied remix of the similarly screwed-up "Pink Elephants" drunken dream sequence from Dumbo. When he's not experiencing a nasty LSD-esque bout of bleeding colors, Donald Duck pretty much spends the bulk of this flick chasing the hispanic mamacitas.
What I suppose warrants mention in both "Saludos Amigos" and "The Three Caballeros," of course, is the matter-of-fact warmth and reverence that is repeatedly shown to the national cultures and customs in question -- many of which have particularly deep roots in the Christian faith. There's a shot of the Savior on top of a hillside, a reinactment of the nativity, and a series of offhanded (though never dismissive) references to all sorts of religious customs that each host country has to offer. In short, it's a surprisingly honest (and wonderfully refreshing) break from the overly-PC-wary depictions of so many cultures and national traditions that we see in the "ecumenical holiday" cartoons of today.
The 411: All told, this title is a fun -- if uneven and, at times, unfocused -- look back into the Disney archives and the simpler bygone era of a "can't we all just get along?" brand of international relations through the universal connection of lighthearted and friendly animation. If you're a parent with children who seem like little explorers in their own right, this disc makes a great addition to any DVD collection, as it's loaded with a dozen or so mini-adventures that really make the many traditions of the southern countries on the American continents come to life. Viewers of Latino descent from the various countries represented in the stories therein will likewise find a nostalgia and cultural appreciation as their nations are highlighted in such a way so as to avoid all of the political nastiness and focus instead on the rich heritage and natural beauty that each of these lands has to offer. Animation buffs looking to score a two-for-one deal and round out their Disney DVD collection will probably see this one as a no-brainer, since both of the titles are pretty tough to find (read: out of print) in stand-alone editions.
