''Saludos Amigos'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated

anthology film An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme ...

produced by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

and released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

. It is the sixth Disney animated feature film and the first of the six package films produced by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in the 1940s. Set in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, it is made up of four different segments;

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

stars in two of them and

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...

stars in one. It also features the first appearance of José Carioca, the Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot.''

Walt & El Grupo ''Walt & El Grupo'' is a 2008 American documentary film written and directed by Theodore Thomas. Summary A presentation of Walt Disney Family Foundation Films, the film tells the story of Walt Disney's 1941 U.S. Government sponsored trip to Lat ...

'' (documentary film, 2008). ''Saludos Amigos'' premiered in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. ''Saludos Amigos'' was popular enough that Walt Disney decided to make another film about Latin America, ''

The Three Caballeros ''The Three Caballeros'' is a 1944 American live-action/animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on ...

'', to be produced two years later. At 42 minutes, it is Disney's shortest animated feature to date.

Background

In early 1941, before U.S. entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

commissioned a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie to be shown in the US,

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

as part of the

Good Neighbor Policy The Good Neighbor policy ( ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt towards Latin America. Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had prev ...

. This was being done because several Latin American governments had close ties with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, and the US government wanted to counteract those ties.

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

and other Disney characters were popular in Latin America, and Walt Disney acted as ambassador. The tour, facilitated by

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, was an American businessman and politician who served as the 41st vice president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. A member of t ...

, who had recently been appointed as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), took Disney and a group of roughly twenty composers, artists, technicians, etc. from his studio to South America, mainly to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, but also to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. 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. 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 ''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". The film also inspired Chilean cartoonist

René Ríos Boettiger René Ríos Boettiger ( Concepción, 15 December 1911 — 14 July 2000), also known as Pepo, was a Chilean cartoonist, creator of the famous character Condorito. He has been credited as the most prominent Chilean graphic humorist of the 20th centu ...

to create

Condorito ''Condorito'' (''Little Condor'' in Spanish) is a Chilean comic book and comic strip that features an anthropomorphic condor living in a fictitious town named Pelotillehue—a typical small Chilean provincial town. He is meant to be a representat ...

, 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.

Film segments

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

visits

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, ...

and meets some of the locals, including an obstinate

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...

''Pedro''

''Pedro'' is about a small anthropomorphic airplane from an airport near

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, engaging in his first flight to retrieve

air mail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...

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 RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

released this particular segment as a theatrical short on May 13, 1955. Chilean cartoonist

(known popularly as "Pepo") was disappointed with how the character Pedro represented his country. In response, he developed the character ''

'', who went on to become one of the most iconic comic magazine characters in Latin America.

''El Gaucho Goofy''

In this segment, American

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

gets taken from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

to the

Argentinian Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

pampa The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazil ...

s by the Narrator to learn the ways of the native

gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the south of Chilean Patagonia. Gauchos became greatly admired and ...

. This 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 A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

. This edit appears again on the Classic Caballeros Collection DVD. This 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 ''

'' 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 Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

, 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 "Watercolor of Brazil"), the finale of the film, involves a brand-new character, José Carioca from

, showing Donald Duck around South America, having a drink of

cachaça ''Cachaça'' () is a distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice. Also known as ''pinga'', ''caninha'', and other names, it is the most popular spirit among distilled alcoholic beverages in Brazil.Cavalcante, Messias Soares. Todos os no ...

with him and introducing him to the

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havin ...

(to the tunes of "

Aquarela do Brasil "Aquarela do Brasil" (, 'Watercolor of Brazil'), written by Ary Barroso in 1939 and known in the English-speaking world simply as "Brazil", is one of the most famous Brazilian songs. Background and composition Ary Barroso wrote "Aquarela do Bras ...

" and "

Tico-Tico no Fubá "Tico-Tico no fubá" (; " rufous-collared sparrow in the cornmeal") is a Brazilian choro song written by Zequinha de Abreu in 1917. Its original title was "Tico-Tico no farelo" ("sparrow in the bran"), but since Brazilian guitarist Américo Ja ...

").

Cast and characters

* Lee Blair – himself *

Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American people, American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for s ...

– herself *

Pinto Colvig Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Co ...

– Goofy *

– himself * Norman Ferguson – himself * Frank Graham – himself *

Clarence Nash Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...

– Donald Duck *

José do Patrocínio Oliveira José do Patrocínio Oliveira ( Jundiaí, February 11, 1904 – Los Angeles, December 22, 1987), known by the pseudonym Zé Carioca, was a Brazilian musician and voice actor. Biography Self-taught on musical instruments, Zé Carioca played the ...

– José Carioca (Used in the Brazilian Portuguese version) * Fred Shields – narrator * Frank Thomas – himself *

Stuart Buchanan Stuart Buchanan (March 18, 1894 – February 4, 1974) was an American voice actor, announcer, and educator. After graduating from the College of Wooster, Buchanan was on the faculty of the University of Florida and West Virginia University, tea ...

– flight attendant

Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, and

Charles Wolcott Charles Frederick Wolcott (September 29, 1906 in Flint, United States – January 26, 1987 in Haifa, Israel) was a music composer who served as a member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Baháʼí Faith, between 19 ...

. The title song, "Saludos Amigos", was written for the film by Charles Wolcott and

Ned Washington Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Life and career Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Bes ...

. The film also featured the song "

", written by the popular Brazilian songwriter

Ary Barroso Ary de Resende Barroso (1903–1964), better known as Ary Barroso, was a Brazilian composer, pianist, soccer commentator, and talent-show host on radio and TV. He was one of Brazil's most successful songwriters in the first half of the 20th centur ...

and performed by

Aloísio de Oliveira Aloísio or Aloysio de Oliveira (December 30, 1914 – February 4, 1995), also known as Louis Oliveira, was a Brazilian record producer, singer, actor and composer. A key figure in the internationalization of Brazilian popular music, he contribute ...

, and an instrumental version of "

", written by

Zequinha de Abreu José Gomes de Abreu, better known as Zequinha de Abreu (September 19, 1880 – January 22, 1935), was a Brazilian musician and composer. Abreu was born in Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, São Paulo state. He is best known for the famous choro ...

. "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. The film's soundtrack was first released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

in 1944 as a collection of three 78rpm singles.

Track listing

* Side 1: "Saludos Amigos" b/w Side 2: "Inca Suite" * Side 3: "Brazil ("Aquarela do Brazil")" b/w Side 4: "Argentine Country Dances" * Side 5: "Tico-Tico" b/w Side 6: "Pedro from Chile"

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 ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, a ...

''. The film returned rentals to RKO by 1951 of $1,135,000 with $515,000 being generated in the U.S. and Canada.

Home media

In 1995, the film was released on Laserdisc under the "Exclusive Archive Collection" series. 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 ''

'' 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)''.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * * * * * {{Walt Disney Animation Studios 1940s American animated films American films with live action and animation 1942 animated films 1942 films 1940s English-language 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 Paul Smith (film and television composer) Films set in Argentina Films set in Bolivia Films set in Brazil Films set in Chile Films set in Peru Films set in Rio de Janeiro (city) Films set in South America Goofy (Disney) films Animated anthology films Self-reflexive films Walt Disney Animation Studios films Walt Disney Pictures animated films 1940s children's animated films Films about gauchos 1940s children's fantasy films