Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros

Quite a trip
My husband loves the animated finale of "The Three Caballeros" so much he says nothing else here matters, and rates this, ahem, unique Disney collection 5 stars. I, on the other hand, rate it 3. Sure, the surreal stuff is creative, but the live-action material is so lame! And besides, I want a story! The 4 stars above are our compromise. (Our teenage daughter, by the way, sides more with her father.)

So here's my review, a mix of all of our opinions.

SALUDOS AMIGOS

"Saludos Amigos" is a 42-minute South American travelogue. Produced in 1942 with limited wartime resources, it uses live-action scenes to link together four cartoons.

The live-action segments show Walt Disney and a team of Disney artists as they travel to the continent and then gather information and sketch cartoon ideas. Poorly composed, badly faded and politically out of date, the footage has the look of an old home movie, as well as an obviously overdubbed soundtrack. My...

Still EDITED, Not all extras from original DVD release are here.
If you already have the two individual older DVD releases, there is no reason to purchase this new single disc release.

If you don't have the original individual releases, you may still want to get those as the original theatrical trailers included there were NOT put on this new release.

The Three Caballeros (Disney Gold Classic Collection)
Saludos Amigos (Disney Gold Classic Collection)

And YES, THE SAME CENSORSHIP HAPPENS HERE. THEY ARE EDITED.

A Side by side comparison does show some slight improvement in picture sharpness, and the audio has been re-mixed for surround sound, but it is not a full restoration. Obviously this is a great price, and hard to pass up if you do not already own these.

The feature films themselves fall a little short of being classics, they are best viewed...

Creative & Innovative Disney Animation at its best!
Wow, wow, and triple wow. It is not often that I get excited over animation anymore, but these 40+ year old films took my breath away. This DVD set contains "Saludos Amigos" (1943) and its follow-up, "The Three Caballeros" (1945). A team of Disney animators visited Latin America and collected a wealth of film, photos, sketches, paintings, mementoes, and ideas that reflected the culture they soaked up. In "Saludos Amigos," there is plenty of 16mm footage documenting the trip, interspersed with 4 animated segments: "Lake Titicaca" starring Donald Duck. "Pedro," an ADORABLE baby airplane, "El Gaucho Goofy" starring Goofy (and to answer the "burning" question, there is no cigarette visible here), and my VERY favorite, "Aquarela do Brasil" (Watercolor of Brazil"). This finale could easily have been used in "Fantasia." It is a marvel of animation, color, and music. It is absolutely breathtaking. It is inspiring to see what this team was able to create together. Released two years later,...

Click to Editorial Reviews