Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
Walt & El Grupo
Metascore
55 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
view
per page
  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    The best kind of labor of love. A documentary made with affection and intelligence, it looks at a brief episode in the life of a cultural icon and uses it to illuminate what turns out to be a telling moment in time and in the process shed some light on the man himself.
  2. NPR
    Reviewed by: Bob Mondello
    75
    This was an era when international travel was not yet common, and in 16mm home movies from the trip, you can see the excitement as 1940s cities burst into gaudy state welcomes for the creator of El Raton Mickey.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    The result: No other studio could produce historical treasure like this from its vaults.
  4. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    While Walt & El Grupo could use trimming, it also is visually stunning.
  5. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    75
    While Walt and El Grupo is less than a penetrating analysis, it's more than a Mickey Mouse advertisement.
  6. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    70
    There's a trove of movie lore in this absorbing documentary.
  7. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    67
    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.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    A disappointingly superficial treatment of a fascinating historical incident.
  9. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    50
    Both a gargantuan, multi-family home movie and a slight, if entertaining, curio that'll be of most interest to hardcore Disney aficionados.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Jeannette Catsoulis
    50
    What's really missing here is a story of artistic regeneration: by the time we encounter a dazzling excerpt from the studio's post-trip film, "Aquarela do Brasil," we are only reminded of what might have been.
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Jan Stuart
    50
    The most damning assessment comes from animator-historian John Canemaker, who concludes that Disney's ethnically neutered South American output "gagged it up so that the American influence overwhelmed the cultural" influence of South America.
  12. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    40
    This slickly packaged bit of Disneyana would probably work best as an attraction at Epcot.
  13. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    40
    There's a marked sense of retreat in this tale that's never explored--everyone goes out of the way to remember the past through rose-colored specs.
  14. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    25
    The production values are first rate. But you will wait in vain to hear a good reason for this movie's existence.
prev next
Page:
  • 1