'Saludos Amigos (1942)' is clearly Disney's weirdest 'classic', acting as a live-action travelogue with an anthology of animated shorts peppered throughout. At the time it was released, it apparently enlightened a lot of North Americans about life in South America; now, the information is more than common knowledge. That's perhaps why this piece has aged more than its peers. The actual animated shorts aren't particularly bad, but they don't exactly grip you, either. Still, they're a decent amount of fun in their own right. The best is probably the musical finale, which introduces José Carioca - essentially the Brazillian Donald Duck - and features some inventive 'real-time painting' visuals. As a whole, the movie is rather uninspiring. It's odd and poorly paced, sticking out like a sore thumb in the studio's catalogue. It isn't terrible, of course, but it isn't particularly good, either. 5/10
Review of Saludos Amigos
