Number Six: Saludos Amigos

Saludos Amigos

1942

So, apparently I lied when I said movies that featured both live action and animation were not included on the list of the fifty animated Disney movies. I am now completely baffled as to how the Disney “canon” as film historians refer to it as was chosen. It does seem to be a somewhat random selection at times, but whatever, it isn't up to me to chose. I just watch them.

This film is one of the choices I’m confused about. It’s not even a full length film, with a running time of a mere forty two minutes. All it is are short stories that all happened to be based in the same area, Latin America. In between cartoons we see the artists who made the cartoons traveling around different countries, using the culture in these places such as Brazil and Argentina as inspiration for the film.

The cartoons themselves are quite entertaining. They have the feel of a documentary, with a narrator explaining everything that is happening. Subjects are different aspects of Latin American culture. Ranging in subject from airplanes to tourists to gauchos, each one displays a different country of that area. Some famous and well loved characters show up, for example Donald Duck and Goofy. Each cartoon is filled with clever wordplay and classic slapstick, and they are highly enjoyable. 

However, I still say this movie, if I can really call it that, is weird. Sure it was funny, but it didn’t have a storyline, just separate stories strung together. That’s of course not always a bad thing. In this case it isn’t necessarily awful, just peculiar.

Another odd thing about it was the length. Disney movies are never very long, usually running somewhere around eighty minutes, but this one is so short it doesn’t seem like it would qualify to be a feature film. Okay, after just googling the required length, it does technically count as a full length film, but only by two minutes. So still. It’s super short. And super weird. At least it had llamas!

Movie Watching Budd(y)(ies): Kassy.

Best Song: It wasn’t a musical so booooooo. I like musicals more.

Best Part: Donald Duck riding a llama across a bridge, and subsequently falling off. Even though it was at least an eighty foot drop, he doesn’t die, because he is a Disney character and laws of physics and other silly things like that do not apply.