Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros

It is a very good idea to put these two films into a single DVD. "Saludos Amigos" was an initial effort of Disney to honor the Latin American nations in the wake of Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor" policy, and during World War II when the United States was trying to gain the sympathy and support of the American nations against the Axis powers. "Saludos Amigos" was a fairly good film, but was surpassed by its sequel, "The Three Caballeros." This film centers on a tour of parts of Latin America through the eyes of animated cartoon bird characters, principally Donald Duck of the United States, Jose Carioca of Brazil (a parrot), and Pancho Gonzales of Mexico (a pistol-packing rooster). Though the cultures are presented in a very simple way, we are given a terrific cafeteria of places and stories from Latin America, and though a bit corny, these glimpses of the cultures are both accurate and engaging. The principal vignettes are of the pampas of Uruguay and the gaucho culture, which really speaks also for Argentina; the sultry colonial beauty of Bahia in northeast Brazil; and various typical regions of Mexico. With each location we are treated to some of the most unforgettable folk dances and lovely traditional songs, featuring Brazilian singer Aurora Miranda, sister of the more famous Carmen Miranda, and Mexican Dora Luz singing Agustin Lara's great popular song, "Solamente una Vez," in English as "You Belong to My Heart." Then there is the Mexican folklorist, Carmen Molina, who performs several traditional Mexican dances including a fragment of "Zandunga" in the spectacular lace headdress of the women of southern Mexico, and a most charming original dance to the great Mexican revolutionary song "Jesusita en Chihuahua" while wearing a most fetching feminine version of the Mexican national dress-up cowboy costume, the charro. Amidst all the glorious song and dance in "The Three Caballeros," the recurrent main theme is the surging mariachi song "Jalisco no te rajes," which means something like, "Jalisco (a very traditional state in western Mexico headed by Guadalajara) don't let anyone put you down!" Prior to digitally enabled film production,the combination of animated characters with real world photography was not very common. In these films it is quite effective. Sometimes the animated fantasy sequences are a little over the top and Donald Duck may not be to everyone's taste, but at least he makes an effective foil to all the gorgeous Latin American sight and sound. "Saludos Amigos" is a nice appetizer before the main feast of "The Three Caballeros," a basically simple film which nevertheless strikes a universal chord and fully deserves five stars. I don't enjoy seeing many films several times over, but I never tire of "The Three Caballeros. "

I was very glad to see that they finally released these films on Blu-Ray. I had an earlier DVD version and I'm very pleased to note that the Blu-Ray version is a vast improvement. After comparing the two versions, I could see that every trace of flicker, grain and speck that was on the DVD version has been removed on the Blu-Ray version. Colors and sound are very sharp. I was also pleased with another restoration. On the previous DVD version, the Gaucho Goofy segment of Saludos Amigos was edited to remove frames of Goofy smoking a cigarette. I always thought that was a silly edit to make, particularly when Joe Carioca was allowed to keep and smoke his cigar. On the new Blu-Ray version, the film has been completely restored and there is an anti-smoking PSA at the beginning instead. I think that should be the same for every Disney film: Keep the film completely restored with no edits and just place PSA's or disclaimers for any scenes which may be considered objectionable. As for the films themselves, they are very entertaining. Modern day viewers should keep in mind, however, that these films are a product of their time and may have different points of view and different versions of entertainment than what we have today. For example, Saludos Amigos was meant to alleviate some stereotypes of South American countries that existed in the 1940's. People viewing the film today may see it as reinforcing some stereotypes. In Three Caballeros, Donald Duck and company consistently drool and pant over the beautiful women to the point where today's audience may consider this to be sexist and perpetuate the objectification of women. However, it was considered standard entertainment for the 1940's, so I would encourage the audience of today to keep that in mind when viewing. The surreal animation near the end may also be an acquired taste for some, particularly "Donald's Reverie". All in all, however, highly recommended to fans of classic Disney animation.

I bought this as an upgrade to my old DVD-version and has since included in my 53 film Disney box set to replace the DVD that the Box set came with, along with another couple of DVD's rather than Blu-ray's in that box set. Only the Black Cauldron eludes me in a Blu-ray version; cost prohibits a Blu-ray version of this joining the box set. As for this disc on Blu-ray, it's just that little bit better than the DVD to make it worth importing it.

IF you're fan of Epcot and enjoy the ORIGINAL RIDES such as the "Three Caballeros" in World Showcases Mexico Mayan pyramid then you'll certainly appreciated this film! This is where it all began. Outside Epcot I'd have to say that this is a generational film, 2 in fact, and both are offered here. It is from a bygone era which some covet and others will never appreciate. In its heyday this was considered a grand achievement in animation and live action film. It also goes to the heart of any Donald Duck fan as this was one of many his best and perhaps most 'unique' film roles with Disney. Hard to rate as it is truly a 'close to your heart & age' sort matter. I LOVE it, in every way! I love Donald as well the other characters introduced here, the connection to Epcot's ride "Three Caballeros", as well the wonderful animation achievements from Disney with these productions. Grateful it's on Blu Ray !

The 3 Caballeros is one of Disney's most innovative and entertaining films. The combination of animation and live action was groundbreaking. It has a lovely score including the lilting Bahia and You Belong to My Heart. The blu-ray disc surpasses the DVD in video quality. The companion piece, Saludos Amigos, is a short feature. During WWII Disney had to scale back the production of full length features like Snow White, Fantasia and Pinocchio due to the studio involvement in making films for the war effort. So it was more practical to produce films like this which were more geared toward our American neighbors to the south. Unfortunately, these films are oft forgotten as part of the Disney animation classics. However, now Disney is offering them as part of the Disney Movie Club.

I bought this to help complete my Disney collection. These two movies are fine, but if you are buying for a child who didn't grow up with "older" cartoons (that is, very obviously hand drawn little stories where things DON'T go boom), then they might not be very entertained. I actually bought the 2 movies together because for some reason "Three Caballeros" was $90.00 by itself while "Saludos Amigos" and the other Disney anthologies from the same period we're about $8.00 a piece. I bought mine used (again, to save about $50.00 on the extremely jacked up pricing) and I am more than satisfied with them. The touristy, live action parts about South American animals and culture are kind of a little bonus; it's cute to see how the USA was trying to commercialize tourism to South America at the time the movies were made (1950s).

Walt Disney and staff was asked by our state department to visit South America and to make a film. As Nazi Germany marched on with world domination as it's goal the USA felt that a visit from Walt would promote goodwill.. The result is "Saludos Amigos" and it's companion feature "The Three Caballeros". As animated art both films shine. Beside the great animation the films were enhanced by the eye of Mary Blair. Her color sense is unequaled. If you don't think that color can blow you out of your seat...watch these cartoons!

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