January 28th- Walt and El Grupo

So, for my feature film Friday, I have been watching Disney films, and my plan was to watch them in chronological order (because that appealed to the obsessive organizer deep down inside of me).  Well, I ran into a snag this Friday, because I was supposed to watch Fantasia, but I realized I did not own the DVD (I do own the VHS, but I wasn't about to pull out the VCR, not even for my devotion to this blog).  Instead I vowed to remedy the situation (see my daily Disney devotion for January 29th!) and watch a different film instead. 

I decided to try out Walt and El Grupo, I could stream it on Netflix, and I had heard some reviews of the film last year on various Disney podcasts.  I'll admit I really didn't remember too much about the premise of the film before I sat down to watch, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I vaguely remembered that it was about Walt Disney going down to South America to do research for the Three Caballeros, and something about WWII or War Bonds or something.  Well I had it partially right, the film set the scene, starting with a strike that was taking place at the Disney studios, and then a request from President Roosevelt for Disney to travel to South America on a goodwill tour.  The film was an amazing documentary, drawing from the personal diaries and letters written by the participants of the trip and making use of the photos and films taken on location.  I really liked how they interviewed the family members of both the Disney employees who were part of the trip and the individuals they worked with in South America.

The group or "El Grupo" as they were known traveled to Brazil, Argentina and Chile and took in the flavor of the countries concentrating on recording native dance, music and clothing.  The personal interviews, drawings, film and photographs they took on the trip were used extensively in the making of Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.  The documentary also focused on how the trip effected the different members of the group, many of who went on to have long and successful careers with the Disney company.  One of the most interesting stories, in my opinion, was about Mary Blair, who over the course of the trip developed her signature artistic style.  You could see from the drawings she made of local children in Peru the beginning spark of the artwork that abounds in Its a Small World.

I really enjoyed the film, it was a portion of Disney studio history that I knew nothing about, and not only was it informative, but it was beautifully filmed.  If you havne't had a chance to watch it, I'd definitely give it a shot.