The Three Caballeros (1944)

Not having gotten enough Latin American flavor from Saludos Amigos, Walt Disney keeps his next animated anthology film South of the border. Donald Duck receives a box full of surprises from his friends in Central and South America. These gifts entertain both Donald and the audience for 70 minutes of good fun and a little dash of impressive animation.

First, Donald opens a film projector and watched a guide to some of the regions unique birds. This includes the tale of Pablo the Penguin, who ditches Antarctica in search of the Galapagos, and the zany Aracuan. The film then segues into the charming tale of a Uruguayan boy’s discovery of a flying donkey. It’s all cute and fun and provides Disney’s animators with ample opportunities to blend their work with the orchestration.

Donald’s next present is a book about Brazil. The book opens to feature José Carioca, the fanciful parrot introduced in Saludos Amgios. Donald is magically transported inside the book to Bahia, Brazil. There, the two friends take in the local culture, colors and music. This portion of the film also includes some clever fusions of our animated characters interacting with flesh-and-blood people dancing through the streets.

After exiting the book, Donald and José open the final present, a crate from Mexico. After a fanciful music number, we are introduced to Panchito Pistoles, a gun-slinging rooster who whisks his friends off for even more Latin flavor on a magic serape ride. There’s a little more culture and a lot more music and blending of live action and animation. In Acapulco, Donald becomes smitten with beach-going gals and the nightlife of Mexico City.

The film closes with a very surreal mishmash of animated weirdness brought on by the kiss of a lovely lady. Some of it makes no sense and just seems like the animators and musicians teaming up to have a little bit of random fun. Some of it is amusing but other parts are just weird.

On the whole, The Three Caballeros doesn’t compare to Fantasia in terms of audacity and ingenuity but it does have its merits. Instead of turning out like a revamped Saludos Amigos, Caballeros does bring some new tricks along with it. The live action-animation fusion gives the film some purpose but the culture and traditions on display hardly hold up now. Maybe when Mexico and South America were less known and more exotic to Americans this film was something to talk about. That really isn’t the case anymore, so this film isn’t as likely to thrill modern audiences.

RATING: 3.25 out of 5