Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros

Description

Product Description Embark on thrilling adventures to South America and Mexico in two full-length movies, SALUDOS AMIGOS and its sequel THE THREE CABALLEROS -- together for the first time in one DVD collection! Join Goofy, Donald Duck and Walt Disney himself as they experience all the music, beauty and excitement Latin America has to offer. Walt and his team of artists, musicians, writers and animators say "Adios!" to the U.S. to explore the heart and soul of Latin America. In SALUDOS AMIGOS they travel to fun and exciting places and capture their adventures along the way. Next, it's Donald's turn to take a fantastic journey through these colorful lands with his friends Joe Carioca and Panchito in THE THREE CABALLEROS. With lighthearted dance and lively music, it's a celebration the whole family will enjoy! desertcart.com Review for "The Three Caballeros" As a Disney oddity, they don't get much odder than Three Caballeros. Donald Duck receives a birthday package from South America, and the film proceeds to unravel like some peyote-induced hallucination. It starts out reminiscent of other Disney films, where shorts are cobbled together, such as "Make Mine Music" or "Fun and Fancy Free." The film has vignettes such as "The Cold-Blooded Penguin" and "The Flying Guachito." After them it careens straight into part-travelogue, part-stream-of-consciousness animation. Not helping out much are Donald's "friends," Joe Carioca (a parrot) and Panchito (a rooster). They spend most of the rest of the film watching Donald chase skirt. That's right, Donald Duck is a wolf in this movie, and he chases every live-action señorita who bustles across the screen. Although some will say otherwise, Caballeros is for die-hard Disney, Donald, or psychedelia fans only. --Keith Simanton Review for "Saludos Amigos" The first of two features Walt Disney made at the behest of the Office of Inter-American Affairs, Saludos Amigos consists of four cartoons linked by live-action travel footage. The very funny "Lake Titicaca" finds Donald Duck high in the Bolivian Andes, struggling with a recalcitrant llama. "Pedro," the story of a little airplane replacing his father on a mail run across the Andes, is a variation on "The Little Engine That Could." "El Gaucho Goofy" continues the popular "How To" cartoon series that juxtaposes a deadpan narration with increasing physical mayhem. Here, Goofy demonstrates Pampas-style riding and the use of the bola. The jaunty parrot Jose Carioca makes his debut in "Aquarela do Brasil." Although largely eclipsed by the wilder The Three Caballeros (1944), Saludos Amigos retains its charm. Included in the supplemental material is South of the Border with Disney, which chronicles the Good Will Tour Walt and a group of his artists made in 1941. The 16mm footage has darkened, but this featurette offers rare glimpses of some of these artists at work, including Frank Thomas, Norm Ferguson, and Mary Blair, whose stylized drawings set the look for much of Saludos Amigos and Caballeros.--Charles Solomon. Review: Saludos Amigos / The 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. " Review: The Blu-Ray transfer is a vast improvement. - 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.