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So as you know, I stopped writing lengthy reviews on this site this year, keeping the blog as more of a film diary of sorts.  Lo and behold,...

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

The Disney Discussion - The Three Caballeros

Over the course of the year, we'll be spending our Wednesdays with Walt, having a discussion about each of Disney's animated films...

Movie #7 of The Disney Discussion
The Three Caballeros (1945)
Featuring the voice talents of Clarence Nash, José Oliveira, and Joaquin Garay
Directed by Norman Ferguson

Summary (in 150 words or less):
It's time to celebrate Donald Duck's birthday!  As the film begins, Donald receives a present.  When he opens it, José Carioca (from "Saludos Amigos") pops out to take Donald around Latin (and South) America through a series of various animated shorts and introduce him to his fellow bird relatives including Panchito who becomes the third caballero in the title.

Let the Discussion Begin...
The Three Caballeros is the Walt Disney Company's seventh full-length animated feature film and was released on February 3, 1945 in the United States.  The film was met with mixed reviews upon its release.

Surprising me once again, The Three Caballeros was nominated for two Oscars -- Best Musical Score and Best Sound Recording -- but won neither.

The film is a sequel of sorts to Saludos Amigos in that it features some of the same characters and is similarly themed with animated shorts that are focused on countries in Latin and South America being strewn together to create a feature-length film. 


While The Three Caballeros at least has three characters we could focus on, the film isn't about them in the slightest.  Once again, like Saludos Amigos, the film is about the shorts that accompany the interstitials of Donald, José, and Panchito.

After Donald opens his birthday present, José begins his tour of Latin-themed birds with Pablo, a penguin supposedly from Argentina.  Pablo despises the cold weather at the South Pole so he decides to get on a floating iceberg and travel to a warmer climate.  What I don't quite get about The Cold-Blooded Penguin short is that Pablo is introduced to us right away as living at the South Pole...which, according to my geographical knowledge is not "South America."  Yes, I'm aware that there are penguins that inhabit the southern tips of South America, but it's pretty obvious in the short that Pablo makes his home in the icy barrenness of Antarctica.  Oh, well.  A minor quibble in an otherwise enjoyable short (narrated amusingly by Sterling Holloway) that admittedly features gags we've all seen before, but still works.


And then the film starts going downhill.

Following a brief rundown of some other unusual (real and fake) birds, we move to Uruguay for the short The Flying Gauchito which details a flying donkey named Burrito.  Yes...Burrito.  This is just the first of a few slightly un-PC moments this film tosses our way.


We then travel to Brazil where José Carioca sings to us how great his country is via the tune "Baía."  Unfortunately, the song is awful and the animation is fairly generic.  Doubly unfortunate is the fact that after "Baía" is finished, the segment shifts into another song featuring a "real" woman singing some interminably obnoxious number and dancing about with Donald.  While the animators do an okay job mixing live action and animation in the segment, this one is painful to sit through thanks to the less than lackluster musical numbers.


We're then introduced to Panchito, the third caballero, who takes Donald and José on a tour of Mexico. First, he tells us a Christmas story (!) about piñatas (the less said the better), then he prances about shooting off his pistols, and finally Panchito and his buddies jump on a flying carpet and start chasing after scantily clad women on the Mexican coastline and succeeding in turning Donald into a savage horny beast.


The film's final segment is an incredibly trippy and psychedelic trek through Mexico City that would rival even the insanity of "Pink Elephants on Parade" in Dumbo in terms of craziness.  Things start off rather calmly with the nice and lovely song "You Belong to My Heart," however, after Donald becomes enamored with the live action singer, things turn Dali-esque.  The segment really is nuts, but the animation is at least interesting and different which is certainly a positive in an otherwise overly generic film such as this.

The Music
Although many of the segments in The Three Caballeros contain music, with the exception of "You Belong to My Heart," none of the songs (including the title track) are very good.  

My Favorite Scene
Although it ends incredibly abruptly, the final segment with its psychedelic nature is an enjoyable romp.

Random Thoughts
  • Donald Duck’s birthday is Friday the 13th…The month isn’t specified, though…
  • Jose Carioca has a cigar in his mouth the whole time…that would never be allowed today.
  • Although Disney certainly mixed animation and live action in his first cartoons he ever produced (the Alice series), the mix in this film is moderately impressive for the time.  In one segment, Donald dances with a “real” lady and the effect is done quite well.
  • Donald chasing after Mexican ladies in bathing suits was surprising and funny…it’s not often that Disney is so blatantly “sexual.”  Not that the segment was even remotely “sexy,” but it was all about a male chasing after females because of their beauty. 
Final Analysis
(Does It Belong in the Revered Disney Pantheon and How Does It Stack Up to Past Films?)
The Three Caballeros had less government influence so it's certainly feels less of a propaganda piece than its predecessor Saludos Amigos.  However, its length -- clocking in at 71 minutes -- is much too long considering it's just a collection of very quick animated shorts.  While there was part of me that wished Saludos Amigos was longer, having that wish come true in The Three Caballeros proves that quality doesn't increase exponentially when minutes are added.

Thanks to the interstitial segments detailing Donald's birthday which hold the film together, I liked The Three Caballeros a tiny bit better than Saludos Amigos, however, the individual segments themselves are actually better in Saludos.  Nonetheless, this is a film I'd rather forget exists and it certainly doesn't belong in the revered Disney Pantheon.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Join us next Wednesday for Make Mine Music, the eighth film in The Disney Discussion.

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