Saludos Amigos is basically Disney's desperate wartime attempt to find new markets and to make some quick cash, because understandably European markets had something else on their minds at the time. And it shows. Saludos Amigos is straight pandering to South American public and at least it earns some points for honesty and for at least trying to be entertaining.
Nevertheless, it's pretty clear that this was made in some rush and with an extremely limited budget. All of the segments are brief, kind of rough and don't contain much of a story. All are also little more than tourist ads for various South American locations, which isn't as much of a problem as you would think, given that this was done by Disney, after all.
The first and the third segment, featuring Donal Duck and Goofy, respectively, are the two better ones in my opinion. Both heavily resemble the various Disney shorts made before this and in a good way. They're quick with jokes, the two characters are as entertaining as they've always been and as a whole I have nothing major against them.
The second segment, featuring Pedro, the littlest airplane, is the granddaddy of Pixar's whole Car franchise, and that's not a compliment. While the segment contains some of the nicest animation sequences in the whole film, and the various images are both threatening and cute, varying as the scenes demand, the main character is annoying, the story predictable and as a whole it's just painfully childish.
The last segment, featuring José Carioca, is not my favourite, but it's a fun little story about one crazed parrot introducing Donald to samba and various other Brazilian traditions. From what I've understood, José is still a popular character in South America, and I can see why. He has a lot of personality, funny hijinks with his whole "ladies love samba" gigolo routine and he works very well with Donald. The whole segment is painfully advertising, but at least we got a good character out of it.
Saludos Amigos is important part of Disney's legacy, because it was one of the films that allowed them to tide over the war years. It's not a very good film compared to Disney's usual fare, but I like that I've seen it.
Nevertheless, it's pretty clear that this was made in some rush and with an extremely limited budget. All of the segments are brief, kind of rough and don't contain much of a story. All are also little more than tourist ads for various South American locations, which isn't as much of a problem as you would think, given that this was done by Disney, after all.
The first and the third segment, featuring Donal Duck and Goofy, respectively, are the two better ones in my opinion. Both heavily resemble the various Disney shorts made before this and in a good way. They're quick with jokes, the two characters are as entertaining as they've always been and as a whole I have nothing major against them.
The second segment, featuring Pedro, the littlest airplane, is the granddaddy of Pixar's whole Car franchise, and that's not a compliment. While the segment contains some of the nicest animation sequences in the whole film, and the various images are both threatening and cute, varying as the scenes demand, the main character is annoying, the story predictable and as a whole it's just painfully childish.
The last segment, featuring José Carioca, is not my favourite, but it's a fun little story about one crazed parrot introducing Donald to samba and various other Brazilian traditions. From what I've understood, José is still a popular character in South America, and I can see why. He has a lot of personality, funny hijinks with his whole "ladies love samba" gigolo routine and he works very well with Donald. The whole segment is painfully advertising, but at least we got a good character out of it.
Saludos Amigos is important part of Disney's legacy, because it was one of the films that allowed them to tide over the war years. It's not a very good film compared to Disney's usual fare, but I like that I've seen it.