Better known as Saludos Amigos, this 43-minute animated feature is
Walt Disney's contribution to the wartime "Good Neighbor Policy" between the USA and Latin America. Opening with live-action footage of Disney and his staff (referred to by the narrator as a "group of artists and musicians") heading off to South America to glean material for a new cartoon project, the film then segues into the misadventures of American tourist Donald Duck at Lake Titicaca. Moving down to Chile, the audience is entertained by the story of Pedro the little airplane, who vows to deliver the mail through the treacherous mountain ranges between Santiago and Mendoza. In the Argentine Pampas, our old friend Goofy tries to acclimate himself to the life of a Gaucho. The best sequence is reserved for last: the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, with an animated paintbrush guiding Donald Duck and his South American counterpart Jose Carioca on a surrealistic, samba-rhythmed tour of Brazil. Though never reissued in toto (the film was considered hopelessly out of date by the end of WWII), Saludos Amigos has been distributed piecemeal, with the four main segments released as separate short subjects and as individual episodes of Disney's various TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide