Sunday, February 1, 2015

Disney's Saludos Amigos: First impressions

Six movies in. These go by so fast. And already I'm puzzled... I could have sworn it was Disney that was all fairytale princesses, but there's been a total of one so far, and that's out of five movies. Over the course of their, what... thirty? Twenty five? that would add up to something like five or six princesses maximum, which... ehh, I suppose it's a large enough group, but doesn't seem to fit what I'm thinking of. Anyway, Saludos Amigos doesn't sound like any fairy tale I know, so I guess the trend of not doing that at all continues.

Over the run of the Disney first impressions so far, I've been feeling kinda... I don't know, smug? Cold? Condescending? Artsy-fartsy movie critic? I should be more enthusiastic about getting to see these movies. Is it a problem with me? Am I overstressed from school, or overdickish from getting my education polished up? Or is it an issue with these movies themselves? I'd really like to know what you guys think, so put up your commends and we'll see what's up.

Anyway, it's time for me to move on from Bambi, so let's go to... what, would that be Spain? Sounds Spanish. I don't know Spanish. Amigos is friends, though, and saludos sounds like salut which is hello, so it's Hello Friends! in some language or other. I still think Spanish. Maybe Italian.

I'm out of clever things to say and pizza twists to snack upon. (This one is definitely "upon.") So without further ado!

Buena Vista. Not RKO

SALUDOS AMIGOS

A greeting to you

Lake Titicaca these are viciously fast titles

WITH A GAY SONG IN YOUR HEART

Yeah, this is all very hey a dedication to Latin America

very 40s. Musically.

the crap this is live action

THIS is animated and we're in Brazil and apparently Argentina

to where

Cordoba, Mendoza, Lake Titicaca, Bolfuckit

now we're live action again. Inca history and folklore.

the woven boats are interesting but why am I watching a documentary

what exacly consitutes a conservative hat, does it try to chase women into the kitchen

walking nope nope you're gonna explain ahhhhh okay

"walking haystacks" I ask THE HAUGHTY ARISTOCRATIC LLAMA hehehe the cartoon version

so this is like a documentary about the Disney animators finding inspirations for

Is that DONALD DUCK OH MY GWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAT THE FUCK WAS THA

PAUSED

HOLY SMOKED HAMS ON A TRUFFLE WAGON is that his VOCIE?

THAT IS HE FUNNIEST AND MOST INCROMPEHENSIBLE THING I HAE EVER HEARD

just

just how do you even I mean I guess he does sound like a duck

okay then. That's... that's Donald Duck

that's what he sounds like

like a zipper mated with a kazoo

ahhhhhhhhhh it's gonna hurt to laugh

unpased

AH PHOOOEY

annnd his heart goes nuts

so is balsa wood actually reeds thehahahaa that was fail

bye Donald HELLO Donald hello duck pie

that was a pun. "Loaf around"

It's like a documentary that occasionally gets sidetracked by no seriously do they actually navigate mountsins like that

this flute music sounds sort of Chinese

ITSHAMAJING

So the animation is HAHAHAHA and Donald soaks himself

pretty sure he's playing the llama equivalent of the Jaws theme

noope, but this is just as funny

the animation is a lot simpler in this one.

Going through clouds like that is something I'vr always wanted to BUT NOT A BRIDGE LIKE THAT HOLY SMOKES

nicely done, Donald annnnd the llama AHAHAHAA Donald's berserk squawking isjust I dont even

WHAT IS HE annnd now the llama is riding the duck on a single plank make that NO planks nicely done Donald

and now we're done with Lake Titicaca and back to live people

Well if no cameras are allowed then how are you filming oooof pretty art

it's amazing how they can visualize the character inside that outlined space

Three planes, eh? So one day a little golden jet shows up and invades their hangar?

Hello Pedro. Hehehe the hat.

they have a school for airplanes

hehehe airplane skeleton

and the MOUNTAIN OF GOZERY DOOM

hehe the tower's a character too

just pronounce it MOUNTAIN OF GOZERY DOOM like I do

Pedro is a fun design

as a character, anyway, from an avionics perspective he's shit

Downdraft? Mama told you stay clear of those, bud

The background art is niiiice. I mean, everything's clean, it's just not complex. annnd there's a AN AIRPLANE DISGUISED IN A CLOUD

and dropped it like a chump

as much as any airplane is "natural born": but sure

A CONDOR. "I was afraid of that" why is he being the Millennium Falcon and oh my, GOZER DOOM MOUNTAIN is here and SHOOTING RAIN LASERS AT HIM

get away Pedro, get away!

kind of don't like the inside-cockpit perspective there, it goes against what do you mean nevermind the mail, Narrator? Pedro's a mail plane. This is a matter of HONOR

downdraft again

uh oh. Well that ain't good

Pedro my buddy where are you going

OH COME ON this shouldn't have been perilous. Cute airplane, no stress, oh you dicks found a way.

Well yes, that IS Pedro. AHAHAHA ONE POSTCARD

happy plane :D

the pampas?

And now we are in Buenos Aires. Where they are intorducing landmarks in live-action whose names I cannot spell.

What is a gowcho? Goucho? Goucho. Looks like a NAtive American on a horse

those are some REALLY "fun" horses

damn I could go for some carne asada now

Interesting dance rhuthm ACCORDIAN

they really do, I was gonna say, there are a lot of basic underpinnings in our East Coast music too

You know what? I really love topological maps. Topographical? Topographical I think

OH HEY THAT'S FELLA that's the other one it's guy

he's there's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and he's being stripped nude and attacked by a raggamoffyn.

haHA, poncho pun and that is one ridiculous-looking hrose and it kissed him and ran away

"easily subdues" yeah right score 1 point for the horse

who gets booted away by the next screen.,

yes, we must add the goucho

Look what happens when you tell a horse things

GODDAMMIT I WANT MEATNOW thick juicy tender steaks

I know thay guy's name who is th echaracter

oh this will go bad "one two bite cut chew"

huh

I mean it DID but not how i expected. watch out for that ostrich bud, they do mad ballet

"DID HE SAY BOLAS?"

love a bolas. DING!

the exaggerated slow motion is loads of fun

WHACK WHACK WHACK wait wait wait how did rewinding end up with a differenr result

hahaha horse tears

ohhhhh sold out by a skipping record

HORSE IN A DRESS because why not

what kind of animal is Goucho, anyway? cause he doesn't look too much and there go his pants

too much not like the horse

or a duck,,,

haha love the dumb laugh

HAHAHAA fire in the hole

Adios already? That was really short.

Ah, we still get to do Brazil. :D

Live action again. WWWWWOW those mountsins are incredible

it all loos so slick those sidewalks look fantastic, the zebra swirls

I kind of want to go to Brazil now

PARROT :D

that's a cool float

Let's hear this hit song then :D

I kind of like Latin music anyway so

Joe Carioca the parrot guy they just drew?

loving the painting animation
 oh this music jumps :D

even though the lyrics are just BRAZIL

BUM-BUM-BUM BUM-BUM-BUM I've heard this before FLAMINGOS

not with lyrics Tiger lilies? think so

odd looking plant allo bird well that woud do it I suppose BANANAS :D

are now toucans that's clever

o t hat's so obbously a bird

BUT NOT THAT BIRD HI DONALD :D

whatshgoinonaroundheeah wakawakwak

A PAWWOT?

Bird's got style. He's like 40's Brazilian Lando

hehehe oh man Joe's got your noises pegged doesn't he

tell him to speak English

AHHAHAA THE DICTIONARIES

HAAAAH?

okay that is just a MAD AWESOME FLUTE RIFFF. Umbrella or no I am on board with this

okay apparently he can jjust turn objects into musical instuments. Hell of a talent

the land getting painted in annnnnd Donald's butt just rebelled against him

join the crowd, Don

THAT was booze

spicy booze well that's one way to get a light I suppose

is Joe speaking Spanish? Cause it sounds not Spanish

rhythm section :D I remember getting to play with random percussion stuff in music classes back in grade school. Always fun

Samba has a fantastic rhythm

URCA

Braziiiiiiil Braziiiiiiil...

HOLD THE EXCUSE ME THE END?

Um... well, I just confirmed with Lacy that we didn't miss anything. THAT was a short movie. Huh. Welllll flub. Eh screw it I had fun. Suppose it's just as well, I have second thoughts posts do do before I run any further behind. Thanks for reading, as always, and again - please throw in comments about how I've been doing lately. If I'm bugging people I wanna know. 

10 comments:

  1. Oh wow, so you had heard of Mickey and Donald but had never heard their voices before? That's really something. I guess they don't find as many occasions to run old Disney cartoons on their main networks as they did when I was a kid, as they can push it all off onto some minor cable channel or old video collections now.

    I looked up the "Brazil" segment once, probably just to see the first appearance of Jose Carioca, and I had heard that song in a Terry Gilliam film of the same name.

    Last I checked, we'll be back to the stuff Disney feature animation is really known for in the 1950s, but enjoy Mickey's gang and the other short stories until then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (And isn't the Gaucho supposed to be Goofy? Had you heard of Goofy before?)

      Delete
    2. GOOFY that's his name I knew I'd seen him before.

      Delete
  2. It looks like you're going through all of them in order? There are about 54 in the official list.

    (And I don't know if this counts as spoilers but these 'anthology' films starting with Saludos are that way because of a lot of the animation studio personel being sent off to WWII. But Walt wanted to keep the feature length theatrical releases running.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also just read that one reason Disney made a few films about Latin America was to sway some nations away from the Axis. As for censorship on this one, they say a scene of Goofy smoking was cut. Huh.

      Delete
  3. Fifty-four. Of which eleven have capital-P princesses (and one that has two! can't wait for that review), a few others have princesses that aren't merchandised so extensively, and one by Pixar that also has a capital-P princess.

    They're works of art, Jeremy, I'm personally happy to see you treating them as such.

    I just want you to know, your reaction to being introduced to Donald and his magnificent voice made me grin like an idiot.

    A gaucho is the South American term for what up here we'd call a cowboy-- a working cowherd with lots of trail skills and stuff.

    Joe, being Brazilian, speaks Portuguese. And yes, he's definitely an old-school smoothie like Lando.

    Yeah, okay, so Ryan cleared things up about Goofy, so I don't have to. For the record, he's technically supposed to be a dog, but also kind of just a generic... person-critter-thing.

    So some backstory, World War II is happening when the next couple of releases are being made ,so it's more feasible and economical to tie together short subjects into package features. There's three or four more of 'em before we get back to conventional features at which point things really kick into gear for the entire 50s. This one in particular, as well as another to come, were made as part of the President's "Good Neighbor" policy, a series of outreaches meant to foster positive ties (and ideally alliances) with the various Latin American countries in the face of the war.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the main "problem" here is that you're in the elementary school of animation watching teacher explain A, except you're a middleschooler and already know how to alphabet. Since the actual content isn't all that engaging, you're focusing a lot more on methods/details and coming off as (what you think is) overly critical. You're not though. I've seen plenty of overly critical nitpicky killjoy analysis and this isn't it. You're still fine and should keep doing what you're doing.

    Also, are they gonna sit you through the entirety of Disney's roster? I mean sure, Disney is cool, I'm looking forward to the top shelf stuff (Lion King, Aladdin, etc), but too much of a good thing is a thing that exists. Every single thing Disney threw onto the screens for eight decades will probably be far too much.

    Also someone should probably alter that nexts list above.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +1 to all of this. Disney was kind of inventing an art form here, which means it isn't hugely sophisticated yet -- and other people have explained the WWII thing. I kind of hope Roomie and Lacy aren't planning on running you through every Disney movie, because you'll probably burn out before you get to the stuff people think of when they hear "Disney." (Saludos Amigos isn't even on the C-list of Disney movies in my head: I didn't even know it existed before this post. Though I imagine it was worth it just to introduce you to Donald Duck's voice -- "a zipper mated with a kazoo," indeed.)

      I cannot WAIT for you to get to Sleeping Beauty which, along with Snow White and Cinderella, basically created the association between Disney and princesses. But I'll resist the impulse to tell you why, except that it ain't the princess who makes that film. :-)

      Delete
    2. I can't wait for him to get to The Black Cauldron! >=D

      Delete
  5. As-of this point there's a string of films made up of shorts like this. I'd skip forward to Cinderella, personally.

    ReplyDelete