Fred Shields

A whimsical blend of live action and animation, "Saludos Amigos" is a colorful kaleidoscope of art, adventure and music set to a toe-tapping samba beat. From high Andes peaks and Argentina's pampas to the sights and sounds of Rio de Janeiro, your international traveling companions are none other than those famous funny friends, Donald Duck and Goofy. They keep things lively as Donald encounters a stubborn llama and "El Gaucho" Goofy tries on the cowboy way of life....South American-style.

For Donald's birthday he receives a box with three gifts inside. The gifts, a movie projector, a pop-up book, and a pinata, each take Donald on wild adventures through Mexico and South America.

Goofy shows us the national pastime. After a brief overview, we have a demonstration of the many possible pitches. On to the World Series, where we go through an eventful inning, culminating in a baseball that disintegrates when being hit.

This generous collection includes 46 of the 48 shorts that starred Goofy between 1939 and 1961 (but none of the great Mickey-Donald-Goofy films from the mid-'30s). The "How to Ride a Horse" sequence in The Reluctant Dragon (1941) set the pattern for many of these cartoons. An elegant narrator (artist John Ployardt) explains a sport that Goofy attempts to demonstrate. The character that animator Art Babbitt described in a 1935 lecture (quoted in the DVD bonus material) as an easygoing dimbulb gave way to an enthusiastic but spectacularly maladroit figure. One of the funniest entries in the series, "Hockey Homicide," contains several studio in-jokes: dueling stars Icebox Bertino and Fearless Ferguson, and referee Clean-Game Kinney are named for artists Al Bertino, Norm Ferguson, and director Jack Kinney.

Donald Duck deals with income taxes and their benefit to the American war effort in this inspirational documentary short animated film.

Big game hunter Goofy and his trusty elephant search for a tiger to hunt.

Goofy shows us, in his inimitable way, the fundamentals of golf, guided as usual by the somewhat sarcastic narrator.

Mickey and Pluto make a short stopover on a South American flight. Mickey throws Pluto's ball into the jungle, and he chases it but it looks exactly the same as an armadillo that's rolled up into a ball. This, of course, greatly confuses Pluto for a while. But he eventually makes friends with the armadillo. He chases the critter into a cave right behind his ball, and rips the ball apart thinking it's the armadillo, which makes him very sad until the armadillo shows up again.