Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Saludos Amigos Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 25, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Disney's Saludos Amigos / The Three Caballeros exclusive Disney Movie Club release.

One of the interesting archival supplements included with Disney's release of Cinderella 4K got into the somewhat precarious fortunes of the studio in the immediate wake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, and considering the fact that all of the foregoing films are championed (in varying degrees) to this day may make that "precarious" descriptor somewhat baffling. As this archival supplement points out, while many of the early Disney animated efforts were universally praised for their artistry, that didn't necessarily translate into huge box office, and by the time World War II broke out and many potential foreign markets closed for business, Disney's future was none too assured. It may come as a source of pride or frustration, depending on your point of view, then, that evidently none other than Uncle Sam contributed to Disney's survival by sending a bunch of Disney's "imagineers" (if they were called that then) on a tour of South America as part of the so-called Good Neighbor Policy that was an attempt to keep Nazi influence at bay. The ultimate cinematic result vis a vis Disney was first Saludos Amigos and then a rather quick follow up, The Three Caballeros.

Saludos Amigos is something of a hybrid, with a quasi-documentary structure that shows all of the Disney folks, um, Flying Down to Rio (so to speak) and several other South American locales, soaking up the local culture and literally sketching their reactions to what they've seen. Four extended animated sequences "interrupt" the live action footage, and provide some typical Disney whimsy. The first of these offers Donald Duck attempting to visit Lake Titicaca with the "help" (?) of an obstreperous llama. The second short evidently caused some controversy in its "home" setting of Chile, since the story involves a somewhat hapless anthropomorphized Chilean plane named Pedro who has a bit of a struggle delivering the mail. Third up is a, well, goofy story starring Goofy as a gaucho wannabe in Argentina. This effort also created some controversy in ensuing years due to the fact that Goofy briefly smokes a cigarette (the Blu-ray has a brief PSA warning against the dangers of smoking, set to scenes of Cruella de Vil and her green vapor emitting cigarette). Last up is the most fanciful of the animated offerings, a really spectacular, quasi-abstract setting of the iconic Ary Barroso tune Aquarela do Brasil, which may or may not evoke somewhat anachronistic images of a certain Terry Gilliam film due to Gilliam's later appropriation of the song.

Saludos Amigos Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Saludos Amigos is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This transfer offers an often ravishing palette, with some of the more graphical elements of the animation, as in the almost psychedelic Ary Barroso sequence, really popping with considerable force. Line detail is generally sharp, but both this feature and The Three Caballeros can show very slight fringing at times. The live action elements here were shot on 16mm according to the credits, and my hunch is some judicious filtering may have been applied to this entire presentation. Grain is visible to be sure, but it's quite fine a lot of the time.

Saludos Amigos Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Saludos Amigos features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that thankfully doesn't try too hard to rejigger an original mono experience (why Disney is so loathe to include original mono tracks is beyond me). The bulk of this track resides front and center, which is fine, with both spoken elements (narration and dialogue) and especially music sounding nicely full bodied and problem free. Optional English subtitles are available.

Saludos Amigos Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no on disc supplements. A Disney Movie Insiders code is included.

Saludos Amigos Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Saludos Amigos is short and at least intermittently sweet. This was just the first of a series of so-called "package films" that brought together rather disparate material, and in this case a quasi-documentary aspect, and so there's a kind of "buffet" quality to the proceedings. Technical merits are generally solid, and Saludos Amigos comes Recommended.