Review of Walt & El Grupo (2008) by David Y — 11 Sep 2009

A fine, if dry, chronicle of a time when "goodwill" trips actually mattered and of a South American sojourn that provided a stroke of inspiration for Walt and Co. and a brush with destiny for a smattering of Argentinians/Brazilians/Chileans/Peruvians.

I found the latter's salty reminiscences far more compelling than the golly-gee letters to home from "El Grupo." The film struggles mightily to balance these two plot threads, but not even a stellar segment on Mary Blair and the ubiquitous presence of Walt can provide equanimity.

More importantly, it's the beginning of an encouraging trend as Disney opens up their vault and shares rich, stunning archival materials; they've clearly learned that humanizing Walt is much more effective than canonizing him in deflecting all the anti-Semetic/racist/cryogenic rumors surrounding his legacy.