Which film did Walt Disney produce first, Saludos Amigos or Hot Lead and Cold Feet?
Saludos Amigos Saludos Amigos (Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action animated package film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the sixth Disney animated feature film and the first of the six package films produced by Walt Disney Productions in the 1940s. Set in Latin America, it is made up of four different segments; Donald Duck stars in two of them and Goofy stars in one. It also features the first appearance of José Carioca, the Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot. "Saludos Amigos" was popular enough that Walt Disney decided to make another film about Latin America, "The Three Caballeros", to be produced two years later. "Saludos Amigos" premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. At 42 minutes, it is Disney's shortest animated feature to date. It garnered positive reviews and was theatrically reissued in 1949, when it was shown on a double bill with the first reissue of "Dumbo".
Aleksandr Ptushko Aleksandr Lukich Ptushko (Russian: Алекса́ндр Луки́ч Пту́шко , Ukrainian: Олександр Лукич Птушко ; 19 April [O.S. 6 April] 1900 in Lugansk, Russian Empire (now Luhansk, Ukraine) – 6 March 1973 in Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Soviet animation and fantasy film director, and Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR. Ptushko is frequently (and somewhat misleadingly) referred to as "the Soviet Walt Disney," due to his prominent early role in animation in the Soviet Union, though a more accurate comparison would be to Willis O'Brien or Ray Harryhausen. Some critics, such as Tim Lucas and Alan Upchurch, have also compared Ptushko to Italian filmmaker Mario Bava, who made fantasy and horror films with similarities to Ptushko's work and made similarly innovative use of color cinematography and special effects. He began his film career as a director and animator of stop-motion short films, and became a director of feature-length films combining live-action, stop-motion, creative special effects, and Russian mythology. Along the way he would be responsible for a number of firsts in Russian film history (including the first feature-length animated film, and the first film in color), and would make several extremely popular and internationally praised films full of visual flair and spectacle.