Saludos Amigos

Release Date: February 19, 1943

Watch Date: February 1, 2023

    I would recommend not watching this with a Latino. That’s my advice.

    This is one of the ‘war time’ movies. A period in which budgets were smaller, and therefore so was Disney’s ability to create magic. Talent had gone overseas and there was bigger problems in the world than trying not to eat a poison apple.

    So what was America’s decision, amidst all this turmoil? Well, they made a lot and I’m not going to discuss then all right now because my opinion on them and Bob’s opinion on them would be vastly different. But what they did decide to do was send Walt Disney and a bunch of his employees on a tour of South America. For goodwill, Disney would make movies to extend an olive branch and maybe the Nazis wouldn’t get some more allies. Fun times.

    So, that was a lot of fluff to say that this movie was created with a very white frame of mind, viewing a culture through the lens of mostly white men, as if you were on safari and viewing different species of animals. So yea, there’s going to be offensive material. There’s no way to avoid it really.

    I’m not trying to excuse it. You should never excuse it. Especially when sitting and watching this with your Latino husband. Not that I did. He’d never let me forget it.

    The shorts are forgettable. They’re fine, but they’re nothing impressive. They do, at least, find a way to connect to what part of South America the Disney crew happens to find themselves in. Which, I understand, is the bare minimum, but this is a movie where we need to celebrate the bare minimum.

    There’s not much else to celebrate.