Walt & El Grupo

Wednesday last week I had the good fortune to see Ted Thomas' wonderful new film Walt and El Grupo, as part of an audience that could boast of more Disney legends (or their offspring) than at any other recent event. The film is a documentary telling the story of the trip through South America that Walt and his staff made during ten weeks following their departure on August 11, 1941. Above poster will be for sale after the film officially opens tomorrow September 9th in the AMC in Anaheim! More dates on the official site!

Amazing historic footage and modern visits to the sites of 1941 are interspersed with interviews and readings of letters sent by the members of Walt's group to their family, as well as never-before-seen artwork. My favorite shot shows the group leaving the animation building in beautiful colors, with Ward Kimball, Ollie Johnston and Milt Kahl waving their goodbyes - Kimball looks like he thinks "yeah, right, why am I not coming, too?" Go see it!

The Argentinian caricaturist Ramon Columba is prominently featured in the documentary. In the July-September 1941 issue of the magazine Páginas de Columba we find Columba's own sketches of Walt and most of his staff.
The only ones missing are Lee Blair and Herb Ryman...The last image seems to caricature two of Buenos Aires' newspapers: the text, translated to English reads roughly: "Walt Disney came to Buenos Aires in search of characters to take to the screen. We presented him with the two most typical of our country: The Chronic Duck and the Creole Mule."

We also find this photo of (l. to r.) Walt Disney, the Argentinian president Dr. Ramon Maria Ortiz (who already at this time due to diabetes had given up his powers to vice-president Ramón Castillo and died a few days after resigning office the following year), Ramon Columba and Douglas S. Clark (whom I do not know more of).
Will I see you at the D23 Expo? I'll be at the Disney's Lost Chords presentation on Saturday afternoon!