The Three Caballeros

Plot synopsis:
The film consists of seven segments, each connected by a common theme. In the film, it is Donald Duck's birthday (namely Friday the 13th), and he receives three presents from friends in Latin America. The first present is a film projector, which shows him a documentary about birds. During the documentary, he learns about the Aracuan Bird, who received his name because of his eccentric song. The Aracuan also makes several appearances throughout the film.
The next present is a book given to Donald by José. This book tells of Bahia (spelled "Baía" in the film), which is one of Brazil's 26 states. José shrinks them both down so that they can enter the book. Donald and José meet up with several of the locals, who dance a lively samba, and Donald ends up pining for one girl, but fails. After the journey, Donald and José leave the book.
Upon returning, Donald realizes that he is too small to open his third present. José shows Donald how to use "black magic" to return himself to the proper size. After opening the present, he meets Panchito, a native of Mexico. The trio take the name "The Three Caballeros" and have a short celebration. Panchito then presents Donald's next present, a piñata. Panchito tells Donald of the tradition behind the piñata. José and Panchito then blindfold Donald, and have him attempt to break open the piñata, which eventually reveals many surprises. Donald ends the celebration by being fired away by firecrackers in the shape of a ferocious toy bull (with which the firecrackers are lit by José with his cigar).
Throughout the film, the Aracuan Bird appears at random moments. He usually taunts everyone with his madcap antics, sometimes stealing José's cigar and trying to make José jealous. His most famous gag is when he re-routes a train that Donald and José are riding on by drawing new tracks, causing the train to disassemble. He returns three or four years later in Melody Time (1948).
The film consists of seven segments:
=== The Cold-Blooded Penguin ===
This segment is narrated by Sterling Holloway, reproducing images of the penguins of Punta Tombo in Argentina along the coast of Patagonia. In the segment, a penguin named Pablo is so fed up with the freezing conditions of the South Pole that he decides to leave his home for warmer climates landing on the Galápagos Islands.
=== The Flying Gauchito ===
This segment involves the adventures of a little boy from Uruguay in the English version (with adult narration provided by Frank Graham), and from Argentina in the Spanish version, and his winged donkey, who goes by the name of Burrito (which is Spanish for "little donkey").
=== Baía ===
This segment involves a pop-up book trip through the Brazilian state of Bahía, as Donald and José meet up with some of the locals who dance a samba and Donald pining for one of the women, portrayed by singer Aurora Miranda.
=== Las Posadas ===
This is the story of a group of Mexican children who celebrated Christmas by re-enacting the journey of Mary, the mother of Jesus and Saint Joseph searching for room at the inn. "Posada" meant "inn", or "shelter", and their parents told them "no posada" at each house until they came to one where they were offered shelter in a stable. This leads to festivities including the breaking of the piñata, which in turn leads to Donald Duck trying to break his own piñata as well.
=== Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco ===
Panchito gives Donald and José a tour of Mexico on a flying sarape, or magic carpet. Several Mexican dances and songs are learned here. A key point to what happens later is that Donald is pining for some more ladies again, tries to hound down every single one he sees, and gain return affections, but once more he fails every time and ends up kissing José while blindfolded.
=== You Belong To My Heart ===
The skies of Mexico City result in Donald falling in love with singer Dora Luz. The lyrics in the song itself play parts in the scenarios as to what is happening as well.
=== Donald's Surreal Reverie ===
Several imagined kisses lead to Donald going into the "Love is a drug" scene. Donald constantly envisions sugar rush colors, flowers, and Panchito and José popping in at the worst moments, making chaos. The scene changes after Donald manages to dance with Carmen Molina from the state of Oaxaca, from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The two dance and sing the song "La Zandunga". Carmen begins by singing the song, with Donald "quacking" out the rest of the chorus with her. The "drunkenness" slows down for a second after Donald multiplied himself while dancing, but speeds up again when Carmen reappears dressed in a Charro's outfit and uses a horsewhip as a conductor's baton to make cacti appear in many different forms while dancing to "Jesusita en Chihuahua", a trademark song of the Mexican Revolution. This scene is notable for providing the masterful combination of live-action and cartoon animation, as well as animation among the cacti.
The scene is interrupted when Panchito and José suddenly spice things up for the finale of the movie, and Donald ends up battling the same toy bull with wheels on its legs the day before from earlier. The catch is that it is again loaded with firecrackers and other explosives following with a fireworks finale with the words "The End" exploding from the fireworks first in Mexican Spanish (Fin) in the colors of the Mexican Flag, then in Brazilian Portuguese (Fim) in the colors of the flag of Brazil and finally in English in the colors of the flag of the United States.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
American air bases (the largest of which was at Recife) provides home base for American aircraft, both fixed wing and lighter than air blimps, to provide air support coverage to trans Atlantic convoy operations.The State department felt it would be a good idea to familiarize Americans with the land, people, and way of life of South America, and called on Disney to produce THE THREE CABALLEROS.
The Three Caballeros is a lot of fun, using a mix of live action and animation to bring Brazil and Mexico alive to birthday boy Donald Duck.
As he's joined by Panchito and José he realises what he has been missing all these years, falls in love with Aurora Miranda (sister of Carmen), learns to dance, and much more.With eye-poppingly beautiful animation and lovely colours, it is no surprise that that was the one cartoon Disney veteran Ward Kimball claimed he was truly proud of.
I guess it just touched us, the way Donald Duck had a mexican friend (Panchito), or the wild "Piñata" scene, or the strong latin flavour of the film.Memories notwithstanding, we kept on singing...
The Three Caballeros is full of cute humor early in the movie, and the rapport between Donald Duck and Joe Carioca is wonderful.
The animated short `The Cold-Blooded Penguin' is *very* cute, and the song `Baia' is one of my favorite Disney songs of all time.
While little known, this is one of Disney's most inventive and delightful films, superior in imagination and sheer movie magic to all but a few of the studio's great classics.
I think it was less successful than most Disney films because the subject matter -- like its near-twin Saludos Amigos, a cartoon tour of Latin America -- was and is less engaging for most people than fairy tales.I've traveled a bit in Latin America, and still find that this clever little film captures something sumptuous, wondrous and oddly truthful about those distant places, even if seen through a distinctly American lens.
Though not much more than a hodgepodge of story ideas, the film mixes live-action with animation in saluting Mexican and South American cultures.
Donald Duck is the star this time, and his title musical number alongside Joe Carioca and Panchito is a head-swirling collage of colors.
The Disney animators were obviously full of inspiration, but the entire movie plays like that drunken elephant sequence from "Dumbo": manic, fruity, sometimes quite fabulous.
"The Three Caballeros" is a nice little gem of golden-age Disneyana, that could have used perhaps a little more polishing.The Disney Studios apparently produced several pieces around the time period of this animated-live action featurette; "Caballeros" is probably the best known of the series.
The basic premise here is that Donald Duck is celebrating his birthday, and a large package of presents is sent to him from friends in several Latin American countries.
The event turns into a celebration of Latin culture, focusing on Brazil and Mexico; Donald is given tours by two "colleagues," a cigar-chomping parrot-cum-boulevardier named Joe Carioca, and Panchito, a bandito rooster (complete with never-empty six-guns).Perhaps twenty to thirty minutes of the piece is made up of the cartoon characters superimposed over live action, or live actors doing carefully choreographed moves in front of a screen.
Walt Disney's outreach to the South American market resulted in a couple of films--SALUDOS AMIGOS was the first, and THE THREE CABALLEROS came next.
To make a comparison, I'd have to see "SA" again, but I do recall that it had some charming musical sequences.The same is true of THE THREE CABALLEROS, especially when the musical score includes the title song (delightully done by Panchito, Jose Carioca and Donald Duck), and repeated throughout, and ballads such as YOU BELONG TO MY HEART and HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO BAIA?
All of them are performed with some fantastic art work and animation combining live action and cartoon characters.The last fifteen minutes seems to be scrambling for a way to keep the viewer's attention with some explosive fireworks and a dazzling display of surrealism, minus any conception of a way to end the movie on a high note.
The film itself is uneven, offering typical Disney animation for the flying donkey sequence and then resorting to over-the-top fireworks that outdo the Pink Elephants number from DUMBO.
The stylized conception of a Mexican Christmas by artist Mary Blair is a standout among the art work involved here, although later the piñata sequence is a bit overwhelming in effects.The dazzling color and the music make it worth watching at least once, although it's hard to make a comparison between this and other Disney full-length features.
Even more of the fractured, surreal nature of this film is explainable when viewed in the context of other Disney animated features of this time.
"Fantasia" (of course), "Dumbo," "Pinocchio" and other movies contained what seemed like drug- or alcohol-induced sequences (maybe someone with more intimate knowledge of Disney productions of the time can shed some light on those!).
Disney also seemed eager to experiment with blending of animation and live action during this time ("Song of the South").
Disney's Donald Duck takes us on a scenic and musical tour of Latin America with episodes in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
It begins in a lively tempo and speeds up until it explodes in fireworks at the end.It was a big and necessary hit for Disney at the time but, in a way, it's too bad the film couldn't have been released about 1968, when so many youngsters were doing acid and weed, because this is one trippy movie.
Two made the Hit Parade, which was a big deal at the time -- "Baia", "Brazil", and "You Belong To My Heart." It's unsophisticated cornball resembling nothing real but you can't find the exit.President Roosevelt was all in favor of making a movie like this, for several reasons, none of them musical.
As we continue on this Latin American Disney adventure, the 1944 animated film "The Three Caballeros" should be mentioned, at least.
Donald Duck receives a whole load of birthday presents from his friends in Latin America, the first of which he opens being a film reel exhibiting short subjects concerning Latin American themes and stories.
However, the film soon deviates as Donald's eccentric friends Jose Carioca (a parrot from Brazil) and Panchito (a rooster from Mexico) arrive and via the use of some magic gifts transport Donald to their respective countries, where live-action actors and animated settings and beings interact.
In my opinion, the second and third acts of the film (the first act being the assorted short films) cannot really be viewed out of context, so in some ways, the film walks the line between single story feature (such as "Snow White", "Pinocchio", "Dumbo" etc) and package feature.For those who don't know much about the context in which the film was made (I suspect that most people who are visiting this page, however, are animation buffs who will know a bit about this film), "The Three Caballeros" was, like the earlier "Saludos Amigos" (a similarly unusual entry in Disney's library of animated features), a by-product of the American government pressuring Disney to create films based around Latin American themes in order for the USA to woo neutral South America during the Second World War away from anything Axis, and respectively also make Yankees appreciate all things South of the Border.
There are hints to the propaganda purposes (such as the general "OMG, aren't Mexico and Brazil so cool?" tone as well as the birds of South America being dubbed "Donald's cousins"), but overall, the film doesn't seem too dated, or as much as everyone says it has."The Three Caballeros" is actually rather surreal.
The main background throughout the film is vague, changing colour to suit the mood of the scene, and the animation has no limits most of the time (for example, inanimate objects and things come to life like random, the laws of physics are disobeyed very much so and characters morph and multiply at the drop of a hat).
Some of it is kinda lame - Aurora Miranda, playing a Brazilian cake seller, looks like she's simply walking in front of a screen where footage of Donald Duck is playing - however, some effects are quite good, such as animated cockerels morphing into live men.Overall, "The Three Caballeros" is a good film.
Admittedly, the first act doesn't match the second and third act very well (it actually seems like left-overs from the tamer sister-film "Saludos Amigos", and some of the surrealism gets a bit too baffling to watch (the final ten minutes or so is an example of this sort).
In a technologically advanced cartoon with stunning visuals and beautiful groundbreaking color and animation, Disney took on role as an ambassador between the citizens of the United States and their strange, dark-skinned, maybe primitive but recently allied next-door-neighbor, Latin America.
The film quickly shows that while Latin American men can have a gay time, they certainly aren't gay gay, The rooster (or was it the parrot?) adamantly make this clear by rejecting Donald's kiss.
The point is that despite these intolerant tendencies in The Three Caballeros, whether intentional or due to naivety, the brief exploration of the Latin American unknown in this visually stunning film may have been a pretty decent introduction for a 1945 United States audience..
To be honest I find it hard to remember, without looking it up, exactly which South American Disney cartoons are featured in this movie and which aren't.The linking segments with Donald Duck are weird and - now and then - wonderful.
As much as this is true, it isn't any less true that this combination in "The Three Caballeros" works out clearly better than in "Space Jam", for example.Without being a super movie and despite the fact that this movie doesn't age as well as most Disney animated classics ("Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Bambi", "The Aristocats", "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers", "The Fox and the Hound", "The Little Mermaid", among many others...), it is however a curious and peculiar little film.The most interesting thing about this movie is that it takes us through Latin America, mostly Brazil and Mexico.The story takes place on Donald Duck's birthday and he receives lots of presents: shorts about tropical Latin America, different kinds of birds, etc...
He watches several stories about a cold penguin, a flying donkey and a cigar chewing parrot who introduces him to the beauties (literally) of Brazilian and Mexican culture.This film was made in an attempt to expose American audiences to cultures other than their own and encourage understanding - apparently, back in the 1940's, America was an insular country with little tolerance or understanding of the issues regarding the rest of the world (of course, that's all changed now).
The first few are more or less cartoons that don't really comment much on the other cultures, but the second half mixes animation with live action in an attempt to show how much fun Brazil and Mexico can be.The first half is bright and colourful and may distract young children but the second half is only interesting because it is rhythmic and energetic - but did it help me appreciate Mexico?
However I suspected that as I came to it - I am more of a Loony Tunes fan as I prefer the madcap comedy that those cartoons bring rather than the more `wholesome' fun of Disney cartoons of the period.If I had to pick one cartoon duck, it would be Daffy of course, and I'm not a big fan of Donald simply because I can't understand what he is saying half the time.
Clarence Nash as Donald Duck is absolutely classic, and Joe Carioca and Panchito are too.This movie is by far the most comedic of any Disney films released, and 55 years after it's original release, it still holds up instantly as one of the greats ever produced.
This, of course, was the first Disney effort to combine live action and animation, and a better job could not be done, especially in the Baia scene with Donald, Joe and Yaya.
Eventually he hooks up with Joe Carioca and Panchito and they sing the title song before the film turns into a song filled series of travel stops.Over the years I've watched this movie in pieces as the bits  showed up on various Disney shows and compilation tapes but until recently I never watched the entire movie together.
Unfortunately who ever told me it was good never really watched it or hadn't seen it in years.The problem for me is that after a good opening segment of cartoons about birds the film becomes a music and dance fest.
Perhaps its just a dislike for the images that have been married to some nice songs, but I really don't like this movie.The mixture of live action and animation doesn't really work.
This is Walt Disney's seven full-length animated feature film, starring Donald Duck celebrating his birthday with his two Latin American friends, José Carioca, the cigar-smoking parrot, and Panchito Pistoles, the pistol-packing rooster.
The segmented stories include Donald's trips to Brazil and Mexico, filmed in a combination of animation and live action.It is fun seeing Donald in a full-length animated movie; his feisty characteristics and bad luck-prone personality always generate a lot of humor and non-stop laughs.
This film really has no plot, just a mash of animation and live action in a huge dance fest and party in Latin America.
In addition, some of the animation looked washed-out against the live action.Overall, it's nice to see Donald Duck in a motion picture, but is not one of the better Disney films.Grade D+.
One of them is a projector showcasing several different shorts on birds and winged animals, the other is Jose Carioca showcasing Donald all the wonders of Brazil and Bahia, and the last one is the Mexican rooster Panchito Pistoles showcasing all the wonders of Mexico and a crazy piñata.
In addition, this is one of the first Disney films to mix live-action with animation, and while better usages would come decades later, they actually look pretty convincing for their time.
Although, just because these musical numbers are fun to listen to sporadically does not mean mashing them together is a good idea, and that's why this film kind of fails in the long run.I'm not going to lie, I really do appreciate a lot of the small stories, animation, music and even humor of The Three Caballeros, and there's no denying how much effort and craftsmanship was put into it.
It's still mainly just an ad campaign for South America, but I like that they have a framing story where Donald is celebrating his birthday and gets a present from his South American friends.
They're fun to watch in their own way, the music is very nice, but they drag on for a bit too long and nothing much happens in them.Though at least we get the piñata scene and Las Posadas, which are some of my favourite short segments Disney has ever done.
One of them contains short stories from South America like "The Flying Donkey" and "Pablo the Cold Bloodest Pengiun", the second pops out his good friend from the 1943 film "Saludos Amigos", Jose Carioca, as I said, one of Walt's best 1940's characters shows him around South America in the storybook then the bizarreness begins when Panchito the rooster comes out of the third present with guns a blazing!
Along the way, it was the first film in history to use cartoon characters mixing in a normal world environment as Donald fall for a real life Mexican actress.
It's a nice film about Donald's birthday and his "present" is a cornacopia of a slideshow of Latin American culture, hosted by a smooth-talking macaw named Jose Carioca and a gun-wielding rooster named Panchito.
Nice little Disney film which is beautiful to look at, has enchanting music and its share of moments.
The appearances by the Aracaun Bird are enjoyable and make the film for me.Donald's friend Jose Carioca, a parrot from Brazil who first appeared in Saludos Amigos.
Panchito takes the three of them through a tour of Mexico, where Donald falls in love repeatedly with pretty girls in Mexico, lots of beautiful music is heard and lovely scenery is beheld.There are also a couple of short animated segments, one about a penguin named Pablo, who dreams of living someplace warm.
I suppose the way things are done in Mexico and South America differ greatly from this nowadays, but it's not the movie's fault that times change.
Despite a few rocky segments at the beginning, The Three Caballeros ends with energy and visual beauty.The plot is simple, Donald is opening birthday presents (His birthday is humorously on Friday the 13th.) and meeting his old friend Jose Carioca (the Brazilian parrot) and a new friend Panchito Pistoles (the gun-slinging Mexican rooster).
and it does have a tendency to make Latin Americans come off as characters in a Disney cartoon rather than real people.
Disney's 7th animated feature film combines animation and live action in a movie which purports to be a travelogue of Latin America in which Donald Duck sees the world, makes a couple of feathered friends, and lusts after a variety of comely young human women.There are a number of different sequences in the film, some musical and some not and, to be frank, not only do they not all fit well, they aren't all up to Disney's usual standard.
"Saludos Amigos" (1942) and "The Three Caballeros" (1944) are really dreadful Walt Disney productions, which were made during World War II supposedly to improve relations between the United States and Latin American countries.
All the plot offers is Donald Duck opening presents on his birthday, from two Latin American friends: Brazilian José Carioca (from "Saludos Amigos") and Mexican Panchito (Villa, I suppose).