6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Disney animators tour South America and present four animated shorts inspired by their trip.
Starring: Pinto Colvig, Clarence Nash, Walt Disney, Frank Thomas (I), Norman FergusonFamily | 100% |
Animation | 94% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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 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 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.
There are no on disc supplements. A Disney Movie Insiders code is included.
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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Los Tres Caballeros
1944
1948
1946
1949
1977
1981
Anniversary Edition
1997
2004
1947
1990
Diamond Edition | DVD Packaging
1942
2003
Anniversary Edition
2003
1985
2003
1964
The Signature Collection
1961
2000
2002
2006