Interview with Walt & El Grupo Director Ted Thomas Coming

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann Sep 3, 2009

I just got off the phone with documentary director Theodore "Ted" Thomas (Frank and Ollie), where we had a "wonderful" (his word) discussion about his upcoming film Walt & El Grupo.

In this interview, Thomas – the younger son of legendary Disney animator Frank Thomas – talks about the documentary, which followed Walt Disney and his animators as they went on a "goodwill tour" of South America in 1941. The trip not only was an extension of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy – to counteract the rise of Fascist influence within Latin America – but served as an artistic rebirth for Disney, who had been battered by the box office failure of Pinocchio and Fantasia, plus a bitter Animators' Strike.

This South American tour not only inspired two of Disney's classic films, Saludos Amigos! and The Three Caballeros, but had larger artistic implications for the studio, which reached as far as Mary Poppins.

In this wide-reaching interview, Thomas discusses making Walt & El Grupo, some of the technical breakthroughs featured in the film, his favourite moments, and its role within the larger issues of cultural imperialism, "Coca-Cola diplomacy," and the myths and legends surrounding Disney himself.

So stay tuned for yet another exclusive for Suite 101 readers.