"Disney+David" Episode 7: "Saludos Amigos" 1942. And we're off! One moment we were basking in the elegiac majesty of "Bambi", the next we're suddenly being treated to a broad-strokes package holiday courtesy of Uncle Sam...what causes this stylistic, tonal whiplash?

This is the first of Disney's six "package" films to be made during the wilderness years of 1940's, and one of two films to feature the continent of South America heavily. This era will prove to be a stark contrast from the high-vaunted ambition of the one that came before...

Now, I'm hoping to keep the threads on this era reasonably merciful for you, dear readers, as these films are, at best, inconsistent in quality and entertainment value. But that being said, the history behind this era is pretty interesting, so I hope you'll bear with me...

It means going back to 1941, with the Disney family in sparkly new Burbank digs but under some enormous financial and existential strain. Walt's last two costly moonshots have both failed to set the box office alight, as the United States slides inexorably towards war...

But more concerning than the pressures from without are those brewing from within. As his studio grows, so does the demand from his employees for better salaries and more screen credit. As Walt battles the Screen Cartoonist's Guild, his studio family becomes intensely divided...

Behind his avuncular persona, the prideful Disney takes the unrest VERY personally. On May 28th, 1941, it all comes to a head. A union organizer threatens to make a "dust bowl" of the studio and an incensed Disney fires seventeen pro-union artists, forcing an all-out strike...

On May 28th, hundreds of employees block the studio entrance. Signs like "Are We Mice Or Men?" and "There Are No Strings On Me" are waved around. The veneer of everyone's favourite uncle has fallen away, replaced by a callous and vainglorious employer...

Remember that dream factory full of happy worker bees from "The Reluctant Dragon" of the same year? Well, out in the real world it was the "Reluctant Disney" forcing everyone at the studio to choose which side of the picket line they fell on...

Loyalties are tested and friendships fractured. There is great animosity between the protestors and their fellow employees who either wouldn't (or financially COULDN'T) join them. For example, sexist slurs were hurled at single female employees who couldn't afford to strike...

So, with trouble at home, abroad, AND in his wallet, Disney will be lucky to finish up "Dumbo" and "Bambi", let alone get another animated feature off the ground in the current climate. So how, then, does "Saludos Amigos" and this next phase of films come into existence?

One man had brought a new cinematic medium into being, through the force of his charisma and leadership, only to see it all grind to a halt. And, ironically, it would take another great man to bring his studio into its next, fateful chapter. And that man....

.....WAS ONLY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED FREAKING STATES!!!!! FDR, BAAAAAAAABY!!!!!!!!!

A few years earlier, Nelson Rockefeller had told Roosevelt that the United States had to secure its interests in Latin America or run risk of losing their grip over the region, both politically, economically and strategically...

With South American rulers being courted by the Nazi's (and frankly welcoming gifts from both sides), FDR made the Office of the Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and tasked Rockefeller with securing interests and cultivating cooperation for the eventual war (and beyond).

Integral to the OCIAA's mission: saturating Latin American countries in American culture, using all the propaganda at their disposal, magazines, advertising, and, of course, MOVIES. This was known as America's "Good Neighbour Policy" and it needed celebrities and ambassadors...

And it turned out there were no more powerful celebrities in Latin America than Mickey Mouse and his compatriots, and no better ambassador than the great raconteur himself, Mister Disney! This image of Walt and Mickey's likeness next to Churchill's iconic visage kinda say it all.

And so, right when Disney needed it the most, the State Department decided to whisk both he and a select group of his artists away on a goodwill tour of the hemisphere, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru, a powerful assault in their charm offensive of the continent...

This trip, they reasoned, would not only help to cement relations between their countries, but also provide Disney and his team with enough material and reference to create new feature films, celebrating Latin America, that could then be distributed in both territories.

The federal government would cover the travel expenses for the trip, but they also agreed to underwrite any films that resulted from it, meaning they would pay for any expenses that weren't recouped upon release. The POTUS was now, ostensibly, the Producer!

So, right when the strike was shuttering his studio, Walt was escaping to the tropics, to be wined and dined with his wife, along with a core group of faithful collaborators, AND being given the chance to produce a new movie with the US Government picking up the check!

And this trip would prove most revelatory, to Walt and his collaborators, even if that revelation does not necessarily translate to the package films that came out of them. But the incredible context behind this trip is something I think is worth talking about...

...not least because it affords me the chance to finally rock this EPIC Disney gif! So let's take off...

Their first stop on the tour, by way of San Juan after leaving Miami, is Rio de Janerio. This is long before the rise of globalization, so the sights, sounds and smells experienced by Walt and his team the moment they disembarked were all brand new...

This skeleton team, comprised of story and concept artists, one animator, and musicians, would almost immediately begin to refer to themselves (as described by the stewards in the lobby of the hotel they stayed at) as "El Grupo". More than anything, this is El Grupo's story...

Over the course of their adventure, the members of El Grupo bond, both with Walt and each other, and while he goes to multiple state dinners and parties every day, they are more free to properly explore the hustle and bustle of the city, soaking up all the inspiration they can...

They roam, they laugh, they dance through the night...and all the while, they're sketching and painting everything around them. Check out these evocative watercolours from Lee Blair (we will be hearing a LOT about his wife Mary's work later in this thread)....

They open themselves up to the vibrancy and energy of the country, especially its rhythmic music and dance...

...while at the same time keeping a lookout for potential opportunities to create Latin characters to add to their Disney stable when it comes time to make a product aimed at the continent...

From Rio, El Grupo fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Whereas Walt and his wife had previously been treated to the Copacabana Palace in Brazil, this time the whole party stays together at the Alvear Palace Hotel...

There, they convert an entire penthouse space into a miniature studio, where they work at their desks and easels, surrounded by sketchbooks and cork-boards bedecked with storyboards, a microcosm of the studio experience that was anything but as the strike rages on back home.

On an adjoining terrace, they host folk music and dance, inviting Argentinian artists and celebrities to come and join them in their cultural exchange, before venturing out further afield to the countryside to learn about the gauchos, South America's answer to the cowboy...

Sidenote: I'm going to get to reviewing the film soon, but can I just say that it boasts the most helpful set of traveling Gifs this side of an Indiana Jones montage...

El Grupo drive two hours to a ranch in El Carmen where they participate in an asado (or outdoor barbecue) with a crowd of Argentinian artists, drink cocktails, listen to live music and even watch Walt dress up in classic gaucho attire and ride a horse...

Walt throws himself into all of this with gusto, all too painfully aware that the success or failure of the endeavour will determine the course of his ailing studio back home.

For the rest of El Grupo, the trip is a necessary escape from their own anxieties. With scarce news reaching them about the strike, they let themselves revel in a daydream of an utterly united Disney family, a family on HOLIDAY, no less. Reality could wait, but a little while.

After Argentina El Grupo splits up, a handful flying across the Andes to Bolivia, some traveling to northern Argentina, and the rest going to Chile. Walt and his wife leave early, but the rest of El Grupo push on to Peru and Mexica City after that...

Now, the artwork that comes out of this immersive experience feels beautifully tangible, tactile even. It's hard not to look at some of their renderings without being wildly excited for what a proper combining of these two cultures would look like in a full feature film...

The talented artists that made up El Grupo undoubtedly threw themselves into every intoxicating moment South America had to offer, and the wealth of visual material they brought back reflects their dedication to celebrating the culture in all its vibrancy...

We in the future, however, are therefore obliged to ask the next, somewhat unfortunate question: How then, from this intense explosion of unbridled creative intimacy....do we get, erm, "Saludos Amigos"?

Because, for all its diligent research, this film is not a classic Disney by any stretch of the animation. Much like "The Reluctant Dragon" it is an anthology of "Silly Symphony"-style shorts, with a Latin American paint job. Some lovely moments, but nothing transcendent...

To understand what got lost in translation, we have to fast-forward to the end of the studio strike, and the long-reaching fallout that would define Disney's package film era and even some of the features that would follow...

After lasting all summer, the strike finally ended and not in a way that anyone was entirely satisfied by. Wages were increased only for strikers, and those who had remained loyal got no increase at all and were even threatened with immediate dismissal for discussing unions...

Disney, in serious debt to Bank of America, is unable to greenlight any features outside of those subsidized by the government. So he "temporarily" lays off 1,200 artists, keeping only 288 to work on the South American films, and closes much of the spacious studio building...

Those who remain find themselves sharing the building with a US aircraft manufacturer preparing for war production, a skeleton crew surrounded by security and barbed wire, working on what essentially amounts to government-funded propaganda for the national interest...

Walt Disney Animation Studios, up until recently a shining palace of artistic and technical innovation, is now gutted, both in terms of its facilities and its workforce, and yes, maybe, its soul.

As a consequence, two things adversely affect the quality of "Saludos Amigos": Firstly, the staff culling meant that El Grupo returned to a mostly empty Story department and animators whose talents lay mostly in gag humour as opposed to anything deeper on a narrative level...

Add to this the fact that the majority of the crew in charge of creating scenes from El Grupo's raw materials had NOT been to South America, and we are left with a film that feels, culturally at least, like a copy of a copy.

So, with this context in mind, let's wade into the warm waters of "Saludos Amigo", and see El Grupo can't provide with some choice insights and pleasures along the way...