Saludos Amigos
Saludos Amigos (Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated propaganda[3][4] anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Set in Latin America, it is made up of four different segments; Donald Duck stars in two of them and Goofy stars in one. It also features the first appearance of José Carioca, the Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot.[5] Saludos Amigos premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943.
Saludos Amigos
Supervising Director
Sequence Directors- Wilfred Jackson
- Jack Kinney
- Hamilton Luske
- Bill Roberts
- Homer Brightman
- William Cottrell
- Richard Huemer
- Joe Grant
- Harold Reeves
- Ted Sears
- Webb Smith
- Roy Williams
- Ralph Wright
Walt Disney
Norm Ferguson
- August 24, 1942 (Rio de Janeiro)
- February 6, 1943 (Boston)
- February 19, 1943 (United States)[1]
42 minutes
United States
- English
- Portuguese
- Spanish
$1 million (worldwide rentals) [2]
Commissioned by the United States Department of State as part of the Good Neighbor policy, the film is a notable example of American propaganda promoting goodwill towards Latin America.[6][7] The film was a success, helping launch the international popularity of Donald Duck and leading Disney to produce The Three Caballeros (1944), another government-funded film aimed at Latin American goodwill.
Release[edit]
Theatrical[edit]
Saludos Amigos premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. It was theatrically reissued in 1949, when it was shown on a double bill with the first reissue of Dumbo.
The film returned rentals to RKO by 1951 of $1,135,000 with $515,000 being generated in the U.S. and Canada.[2]
Home media[edit]
In 1995, the film was released on Laserdisc under the "Exclusive Archive Collection" series.
It was later released on both VHS and DVD on May 2, 2000 under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection banner,[16] and again on DVD on April 29, 2008 under the Classic Caballeros Collection banner.[17] The film received a third DVD release on November 30, 2010, as a bonus Feature on the Walt & El Grupo DVD.[14] A fourth release, the first on Blu-ray, was released on January 30, 2018 as Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros 75th Anniversary Edition 2-Movie Collection).
Reception[edit]
The film holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews, with an average score of 6.40/10. The site's consensus reads, "One of Disney's lesser-known animated films, Saludos Amigos may be slight stuff, but it's still a spirited, energetic travelogue."[18]
