The Three Caballeros

Like “Saludos Amigos,” this film was a result of the goodwill tour in South America that Walt Disney and his animators went on during World War II, which is one of the reasons (along with both having Donald and Jose Carioca) some people argue that this is a sequel to “Saludos Amigos,” along with one of the rare sequels made by Walt Disney Animation Studios themselves. Jack Hammer said in his review, “To that, I'd probably say nah...”

Regardless, it’s a lot better. Mostly because they don’t do a lot of the narrations, and the cartoons are more enjoyable in this film.

Hammer admitted, “Maybe you already figured it out, but I'm honestly not a huge fan of package films or anthology films (which is one of the reasons it took me a while to warm up to Fantasia), when I go and watch a movie, I normally perfer to see an actual feature length film with a continuous story.”

All of that aside, “The Three Caballeros,” released in 1945, is still pretty decent, and one of Disney’s better films.

It starts with a couple of individual cartoons (which Donald Duck watches through home video). One is about a penguin in the South Pole who appears to be very sensitive to cold temperatures, and wants to go somewhere that is hot and tropical, and another about a young boy and his flying donkey. Both are enjoyable, cute, and harmless (Hammer said, “I honestly felt a little bad for that penguin”).

However, once Jose Carioca and especially Panchito Pistoles enter, the film suddenly decides to do whatever it wants to do.

Sometimes it wants to show beautiful landscapes, sometimes it wants to be a bit educational, sometimes it wants to party all over Central and South America, doing many different dances that those countries are famous for, sometimes it just wants to show Donald Duck hitting on women, chasing them (Hammer said, “something we REALLY don't often see with Donald of all characters, and I assume this was before he met Daisy.”), and sometimes it just wants to go complete pink elephant mode on audiences.

Hammer noted, “Basically, It just goes crazy and all over the place once it reaches the 30 minute mark, and don't get me wrong, it does look very colorful and creative, it's energetic, it looks beautiful at times, and the animation itself is still really good for the most part.” Not to mention a lot of the scenes that combine animation with live-action (not all of them) surprisingly still hold up to this day. However, it gets a little tiring at times.

Overall, it mostly feels like visiting all over South American and Mexico while going crazy, but despite its lack of consistency, it is still entertaining.

I still think this is another film that you should see and judge for yourself. Despite there might be stuff in here that you may think is not appropriate, think of the time that this film was released. Then you can sit back and watch some good animation and shorts.

Look out tomorrow to see what I have in store next in “Disney Month 2023.”