Films #065 & #066 – Saludos Amigos (1942) & The Three Caballeros (1944)
In the 1940s, as World War II forced Walt Disney to shift his focus to the war effort, he began to produce “package films”, features that consisted of two or more linked stories. Fantasia falls under this category, although that was from intent, rather than necessity. Others include Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free. But there was another force at work in those days, the USA’s “good neighbor” policy, whereby the government tried to improve relations with South American countries through cultural understanding. Disney made two theatrical features toward this goal: Saludos Amigos and the much better known The Three Cabelleros.
The segments that make up Saludos Amigos are “Lake Titicaca” featuring Donald Duck dealing with a problematic llama, “Pedro” featuring a small airplane dealing with the complexities of delivering mail, “El Gaucho Goofy” with Goofy as an American cowboy who is shown the ways of the Argentinian gaucho, and “Aquarela do Brasil” featuring Donald again and introducing José Carioca, a Brazilian parrot, in a series of stylistic musings on Brazil to the beat of the samba.
The Three Caballeros, on the other hand, has a more structured feel to it, as it is anchored by Donald Duck celebrating his birthday and receiving gifts from his various South American friends. First, there is “The Cold-Blooded Penguin”, which tells of Pablo, a penguin from the South Pole who dreams of warner climes. Then, there is “The Flying Gauchito”, a story about a young boy who finds a winged donkey that he enters in a big race. “Bahia” sees the return of José Carioca, who shows Donald the many wonders of Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. “Los Posados” tells of the Christmas celebrations in Mexico that involve re-enacting Mary and Joseph’s travels on the night Jesus was born. The rest of the film consists of Donald, José and new pal Panchito (a Mexican rooster) travelling around and, well, basically chasing after women.
These films both have a similar feel, as they both use animation combined with live action to put forth a view of South American locales. They both feature Donald and José, as well. But that’s where the similarity ends.
While the live action and animation in Saludos Amigos are, for the most part, presented separately, in The Three Caballeros, they are fully integrated (particularly whenever Donald and Co. go after one or more live action females). This level of integration had not been done at Disney since the days of Walt’s old silent “Alice” series of shorts. It’s successful use in Caballeros led to even more ambitious projects like Song of the South and Pete’s Dragon.
But the biggeste difference between the two films is the tone. Saludos‘ shorts are entertaining enough on their own, but the stories don’t seem connected. Without even the modicum of linking that Caballeros features, the stories of Saludos Amigos most clearly show the weakness of the “package” concept. The Three Caballeros starts off in much the same vein, but once José Carioca shows up, the linking material takes over the focus, instead of the individual stories and locations. Due to the involvement of Donald, José and Panchito, only the first two segments of Caballeros work independantly. The rest of the film needs to be taken as a whole. This makes The Three Caballeros the most focused and connected of all the package films. This is, no doubt, why it is the only of the classic package films to get a full home video release in the pre-DVD era.
Saludos Amigos is also a much more formulaic film than Caballeros. The individual stories don’t stray far from the standard approach taken in Disney shorts. (Compare “Pedro”, for instance, to Susie the Little Blue Coupe. They have a similar tone and look.) On the other hand, most of Caballeros has a wild, exotic, stream-of-consciousness feel to it that had been previously seen only in places like the “pink elephants” sequence in Dumbo and many parts of Fantasia. (There is a bit of this kind of thing at the conclusion of Saludos, which makes me think that it was that final segment that led Disney to expand upon the notion with Caballeros.)
I’m a bit biased in the comparison of these two films. The Three Caballeros has been my favorite Disney movie since I was a kid. Still, it is clear to me why it is the only of the package films to have had a true life beyond its initial release. The material from these films were all re-released individually as shorts and that was the only way to see anything other than Caballeros until the advent of DVD. The stories from Saludos Amigos lose nothing from being in the package and some of the photography of South America make the experience of watching the feature worthwhile. (There’s even some interesting footage of the animators themselves.) But none of the stories are all that strong and Saludos Amigos, already the shortest of all Disney Animated Features at a scant 43 minutes, fails to reach must-have status. The Three Caballeros, on the other hand, is a groundbreaking film for Disney, from the live action/animation advances, to a more sexually-charged characterization of a Disney character, to the simple acknowledgement of Donald’s popularity by making him the focal point of a feature film. Big, colorful, funny, touching, even psychadelic, The Three Caballeros is a true Disney classic. Here’s hoping that the fact that it recently went out of print (as did Saludos), means a nice big Special Edition with lots of extras is on the way. It deserves it.