Released on this day in 1942, Saludos Amigos is the sixth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It is the first of six package films made by Walt Disney Animation Studios 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, the Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot. 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. Saludos Amigos garnered positive reviews and was only reissued once, in 1949, when it was shown on a double bill with the first reissue of Dumbo.
Background
In early 1941, before U.S. entry into World War II, the United States Department of State commissioned a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie to be shown in the US, Central, and South America as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. Disney was chosen for this because several Latin American governments had close ties with Nazi Germany, 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 tour, facilitated by Nelson Rockefeller took Disney and a group of roughly twenty composers, artists, technicians, etc. from his studio to South America, mainly to Brazil and Argentina, but also to Chile and Peru.
The film included live-action documentary sequences featuring footage of modern Latin American cities with skyscrapers and fashionably dressed residents. This 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 Saludo 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".
This 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.
Lake Titicaca - In this segment, American tourist Donald Duck visits Lake Titicaca and meets some of the locals, including an obstinate llama.
Pedro - Pedro involves the title character, a small airplane from an airport near Santiago, Chile, engaging in his very first flight to pick up air mail from Mendoza, with disastrous results occurring when near Aconcagua again while chasing a vulture on the way back. And to make matters worse, Pedro gets caught in a terrible storm! But he makes it back to the airfield safe and sound with the mail which is just a postcard.
El Gaucho Goofy - In this segment, American cowboy Goofy gets taken mysteriously to the Argentine pampas to learn the ways of the native gaucho. This segment was later edited for the film's Gold Classic Collection VHS/DVD release to remove one scene in which Goofy is smoking a cigarette. This edit appears again on the Classic Caballeros Collection DVD. This sequence has since been restored as many fans have asked for the uncut version.
Aquarela do Brasil - translated as "Watercolor of Brazil", the finale of the film, involves a brand-new character, José Carioca from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showing Donald Duck around South America, having a drink of cachaça with him and introducing him to the samba.
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