Disney Movie Challenge: The Three Caballeros (1944)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

The Three Caballeros

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.  I will be watching each film in chronological order. 

With WWII still going on and manpower and money still in short supply Disney released “The Three Caballeros'' in 1944.  Coming two years after  “Saludos Amigos” this is another package film that aims to showcase South America.  

The film it’s based around Donald Duck’s birthday (which is Friday the 13th). He receives a big package and each present in that package takes him on a new journey.  The first present is a home movie set up and contains a few stand alone shorts. One is about a penguin that doesn’t like the cold and one about a flying donkey.  Then Donald opens a gift from Brazil and he reunites with his old friend Jose Carioca from “Saludos Amigos”.  Jose once again takes Donald on a journey through Brazil.  Finally Donald opens up a third present which is a pinata and he is introduced to a Mexican Rooster Panchito Pistoles. Panchito takes him on a tour of Mexico and teaches him some Mexican traditions and also introduces him to some female Mexican dancers.  

Similar to “Saludos Amigos” this film was made with the help of the U.S. Government which was paying studios to make propaganda films.  Once again this was made to help relations with South America.  While this film is better than “Saludos Amigos” it’s hard not to see it as just a continuation.  The short about the flying donkey was even originally conceived for “Saludos Amigos”. 

Like “Saludos Amigos” the best part of the film is the one that takes place in Brazil. The song “Baia” is a fun song and was written by Ary Barroso who also did the song "Aquarela do Brasil" from “Saludos Amigos”. The short about the flying donkey was funny and I did enjoy that.  I will be honest I had trouble paying attention to the film as the rest of the time the shorts didn’t have much of a story to them and I didn’t find it really interesting.  The one thing I did notice is that Donald Duck is a real horny bird in this film.  Everytime they are around dancing girls he gets all googly eyed and turns into a horn dog (guess him and Daisy were on a break).  There is a part of the film called “Donald's Surreal Reverie'' and it’s definitely surreal.  I went to the kitchen to get a drink and came back and there was some trippy stuff going on. I think I might have missed the part where Donald does some Peyote.  

Overall: I think this will be a common theme for the next few movies but each package film is going to have hits and misses.  This one is more enjoyable than “Saludos Amigos” but it just didn’t keep my interest.  It was nice to have characters like Panchito Pistoles and Jose Carioca to give Donald some fun interactions but wish there would have been more story about the three of them.   After watching this film Disney+ recommended the Three Caballeros TV series.  I didn’t even know that existed.  If anyone has watched it let me know what you think. These three characters could be a lot of fun in a series together. 

Random Facts:

Second of 6 package films to be released in the 40’s.

Last Disney animated film to be released during WWII

First feature film to mix animation with live actors.  While it might not be up to today’s standards it still looks pretty good.