Walt and El Grupo

So many films, so little time!  Despite my efforts to watch a film a day, so much is released and re-released and rediscovered every day!  I love it that the industry loves itself to seek out and re-release old stuff.  This is neither here nor there to a documentary I watched a few months ago, Walt and El Grupo, but just a comment that I am trying to watch more old fims and documentaries.



This relates a trip Walt Disney and some of his studio’s key animators took during the years of World War 2 to South America. Several events brought about this trip. Snow White was a massive success, so much so that the small Disney company was able to build studios and almost triple their workforce. Unfortunately, World War 2 begins, as well as some internal labor uprising which causes a strike (some lowly animators were paid $18 a day, whereas the supreme artists were paid almost $300). The Franklin Roosevelt-government was also trying to ally with countries against Germany, and at that time the Latin American countries were not officially aligned with anyone. The U.S. government asked Disney to do a sort of goodwill tour of Argentina, Brazil and Chile, since those countries were geographically close to the U.S. Disney saw this also as an opportunity to refresh his work with new cultures, and chose a small contingent of artists, musicians and staff and toured for about three months.

Even though this took place over 60 years ago, the filmmakers of this documentary were astonished to find how far-reaching the trip and Disney himself were to the people in the South. Many surviving children and some grandchildren of the Disney group read letters and share stories about the experience, including those of citizens in the South. Disney himself seemed to have taken many young foreign animators under his wing, several who formed lifelong friendships and received mentoring.

Many of the illustrations the Disney artists sketched while they were there are shown. Old photographs come to life as they are superimposed on the corresponding modern day scene, with the filmmakers making a big effort to match the point of view of each shot and move figures around to make it lively. Several of the bigger animator names are mentioned (such as Mary Blair, who was key to Alice in Wonderland) and a few historians also add some comments. Key songs of each country were also chosen to go along with the segments. Some home video Disney took himself even ended up in those nature/travelogue live action Disney TV films years later.

There were lots of anecdotes and remembrances. The only thing I would have liked was more of Walt's own view, a bit of which was related in later interviews and also via stories told by his daughter. But it was a very interesting and entertaining inside look, a must-see for fans of Disney history.