Critic Reviews

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  The production values are first rate. But you will wait in vain to hear a good reason for this movie's existence.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  At a time when Hollywood doesn't remember last year, is obsessed with the bottom line and is run by men who often have no sense of history, Walt & El Grupo evokes a better time.

• John Hartl, Seattle Times

  [Thomas] may need more distance from the subject -- Walt & El Grupo could shed about 20 minutes -- but there's no questioning his sincerity or his instinct for revealing anecdotes.

• Anthony Lane, New Yorker

  This may be the first documentary that contains not a single American, living or dead, who is anything but merry of disposition. That cheer carries over to the on-the-spot gusto of el grupo's sketchbooks -- a more accurate tribute than the final cartoons.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  A relentlessly upbeat vanity project destined for the Disney family archive.

• Claudia Puig, USA Today

  While Walt & El Grupo could use trimming, it also is visually stunning.

• David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

  ...a niche effort that has little to offer all but the most ardent of animation junkies.

• Ryan Cracknell, Movie Views

  An intimate, albeit uneventful, story filled with flashy graphics but not a lot of substance.

• Sean Axmaker, MSN.com

  ... less probing documentary than colorful press release for the paternal Disney...

• James Plath, Movie Metropolis

  This is the 'untold story.' And apparently there's not much more to tell.

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  Above all else the film is a treasure trove of fantastic archival material, much of it never before shown.

• Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  While skimming over the troubled waters of impending war and ongoing labor unrest, it's both a vicarious vacation and a crash course in animation.

• Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion

  A bland tourist souvenir, the equivalent of an authorized biography rather than an independent one.

• Chris Foran, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

  You get a taste of what the Disney group went through and saw, and you see how that work translated into rough sketches and designs.

• Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru

  A lively, well-edited documentary brimming with insight, warmth and humor while captivating audiences both young and old.

• Cathleen Roundtree, Boxoffice Magazine

  Provides a framing device for the Disney creative process as well as the issue of the place of art in geo-politics.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  The trouble is that there's no real drama here; Walt is painted as a kind, benevolent soul whose very presence gave a lift to the poor citizens and their dreary lives below the equator.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  Hardcore Disney fans will appreciate how serious-minded and intimate this movie is, but for others, Walt & El Grupo might feel like an expensive vacation slide show, assembled by strangers.

Read all 18 critic reviews