First shot of animation: a plane flies between landmarks across South America, charting the course of the film in reverse.

How is this a feature film? Like, definitionally. TV shows are longer than this. The package films begin with Saludos Amigos, a set of 4 shorts and the story of the research trip that inspired them. It’s like the movie is also its own behind the scenes feature.

The documentary bits are in that newsreel tone you’d expect. Exoticising, but in a tone that it’s clear they don’t think they are. Llamas are described as the “Haughty aristocrat of the Andes”, for instance. It’s the same tone being parodied in all those Goofy shorts, one of which is the 3rd segment. It’s a pretty dense self-referencial web for 40 minutes or so.

The shorts are vibrant in motion and color, but simple. Done on government grants to spec for the Good Neighbor policy without the expense or ambition to impress on a technical level. I don’t expect that to return until the package films are behind us. Also notable for slots on the research trip being used to reward studio staff that didn’t support the striking animators.