"Felicitaciones al Pato Donald en su cumpleaños, viernes 13, de sus amigos en Latinoamérica"- Handwritten note attached to Donald's gifts in The Three Caballeros
Initial thoughts before viewing: I'd heard the titular song and been on the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot -- that's it. Never seen any part of this movie, ever.
The Three Caballeros has a run time of about 71 minutes and consists of 7 segments strung together by the device of Donald Duck opening birthday gifts from his friends in Latin America. If you've never seen this movie or need a refresher, here is a link to the movie's Disney Wiki page where you can read the entire plot summary.
Highlights:
Baia segment
Okay, I think I'm definitively a fan of José Carioca. Just like with my previous review of Saludos Amigos, the segment featuring José taking Donald on a tour of Brazil was my favorite in this movie too. This segment also has the very first instance of a feature-length film mixing live-action with traditional animation. The music is super catchy and the performance by the live-action actress Aurora Miranda is mesmerizing.
Aracuan Bird
This little guy is loco in the best sort of way. He pops up randomly throughout the movie to cause mischief and be silly. I'm also obsessed with the Aracuan Song.
Disliked: Girl-crazy Donald. There are several moments in the movie when Donald is frankly, a horny bastard. There's a whole segment where jumps off a flying sarape (you read that right) to a beach of bathing beauties. He literally says when he lands amongst the startled women, "Hello, my sweet little bathing beauties!" I love Donald as a character, but I have never seen him act so girl-crazy in any other cartoon. The girl-obsessed behavior is gross and taints the movie since it's a fairly consistent theme throughout. There's something really unsettling about seeing a beloved cartoon duck lust over grown women. WHAT HAPPENED WITH DAISY?
Closing Thoughts: They don't call it the "Package" era for nothing. This movie does a better job with cohesion as its attempts to link all the animated segments through the Donald Duck birthday story line. Still, it's my number one complaint so far with these package era films -- they're tough to rate and compare to the other animated feature length films that have dedicated, thoughtful plots.
Given the fact that this movie was produced in the middle of WWII while Disney had to contend with all sorts of roadblocks that forced them to use shortcuts in the animation process, the final product is delightfully fast-paced, colorful, and entertaining. And like with Saludos Amigos, the soundtrack is banging and worth a listen on its own.
The lasting legacy of this film is that it gave us The Three Caballeros group comprised of José Carioca, Panchito Pistoles, and Donald Duck. I never really gave these guys a second thought, but after watching the movie and getting to know their characters, I'd be super pumped to see them walking around at Disneyland!
My Rating: 5.5/10
Next up, Make Mine Music!
My Rating Scale/System:
10 - Masterpiece / Award Worthy 🤩
9 - Almost perfect / Exceptional 🥰
8 - Great / Well-crafted 😁
7 - Good / Noteworthy 😊
6 - Above average / Memorable 🙂
5 - Solidly average 😐
4 - Mixed feelings / Mediocre 😕
3 - Uninteresting / Struggle bus 🥱
2 - Barely watchable 😡
1 - Failure / Why is this a thing? 💩
