In the 1940s, Walt Disney's company was hitting a massive financial slump when their movies, besides Dumbo, were failing at the box office and the WWII army occupied the studio. So until Cinderella came around, they only ended up making second rate package films. One of them, being The Three Caballeros, is often cited as one of the better anthology flicks based on public perception and nostalgia, but I have to admit, I found this movie to be too overwhelming in a bad way. I admire it for all the technical wonder that was put into it, but this flick is a jumbled mess.
Now even though this feature does have a plethora of segments shown throughout, it does actually have somewhat of a narrative. The essential bare bones plot revolves around Donald Duck receiving three individual presents on his birthday. One of them is a projector showcasing several different shorts on birds and winged animals, the other is Jose Carioca showcasing Donald all the wonders of Brazil and Bahia, and the last one is the Mexican rooster Panchito Pistoles showcasing all the wonders of Mexico and a crazy piñata. However, even though these segments are admirable in their own regard, the best way to describe the whole structure of the feature is like being at a party; it's fun at first but then it gets exhausting after some time. The segments in the first act are enjoyable enough on their own, and the musical moments are really fun to watch. Unfortunately, a good chunk of the 2nd act is just dancing and partying without much really going on and the third segment is just Donald trying to get with a beautiful lady....riveting.
Ironically, the movie tries so hard to cram in as much entertainment value as it can that it ends up becoming an absolute chore to sit through. I will admit that plenty of the segments are fun, but there's so much going on that I find it hard to watch a whole 72 minute long feature consisting of them. Maybe if they were just individual shorts released before other films they would have been more tolerable, but cramming all of them into a movie just makes my head hurt. It doesn't help that when you get down to it, there isn't much of a proper story. All the film does is present three gifts filled with partying and Latino magic and....that's it. I'm not saying every movie needs a traditionally structured plot, but there is little to no momentum in this film at all. Maybe if it ended with Donald's gifts burning or Donald waking up from a dream I would have felt some something, but otherwise I feel as if this film forgot whatever it was supposed to be in the long run.
In terms of the animation itself, there is certainly a lot of passion shown on screen. The lighting and effects are glorious, the character animation is very cartoony and loose, and even the production design is worth analyzing. As chaotic as the film is, at least the animators knew how to have fun with themselves. In addition, this is one of the first Disney films to mix live-action with animation, and while better usages would come decades later, they actually look pretty convincing for their time. Also, I must give props to the singing and the song choices, as listening to these songs will make anyone jump out of their seat and dance to it all. Although, just because these musical numbers are fun to listen to sporadically does not mean mashing them together is a good idea, and that's why this film kind of fails in the long run.
I'm not going to lie, I really do appreciate a lot of the small stories, animation, music and even humor of The Three Caballeros, and there's no denying how much effort and craftsmanship was put into it. However, seeing all this great stuff crammed into 72 minutes worth of a movie just feels irritating, because too much of them is way too much to handle. You can have all the dancing and pizazz you want, but when you sacrifice an actual story for it all, something that every film needs to work, it just comes off as tiring and repetitive. If you want to give this a watch, just watch the segments individually, because you'll have a much easier time sitting through them then wasting 72 minutes on a pointless pasteup flick. Thank goodness Disney stopped doing package films after Cinderella became a hit, because the more we would get of this, the less magic would be prevalent.
Now even though this feature does have a plethora of segments shown throughout, it does actually have somewhat of a narrative. The essential bare bones plot revolves around Donald Duck receiving three individual presents on his birthday. One of them is a projector showcasing several different shorts on birds and winged animals, the other is Jose Carioca showcasing Donald all the wonders of Brazil and Bahia, and the last one is the Mexican rooster Panchito Pistoles showcasing all the wonders of Mexico and a crazy piñata. However, even though these segments are admirable in their own regard, the best way to describe the whole structure of the feature is like being at a party; it's fun at first but then it gets exhausting after some time. The segments in the first act are enjoyable enough on their own, and the musical moments are really fun to watch. Unfortunately, a good chunk of the 2nd act is just dancing and partying without much really going on and the third segment is just Donald trying to get with a beautiful lady....riveting.
Ironically, the movie tries so hard to cram in as much entertainment value as it can that it ends up becoming an absolute chore to sit through. I will admit that plenty of the segments are fun, but there's so much going on that I find it hard to watch a whole 72 minute long feature consisting of them. Maybe if they were just individual shorts released before other films they would have been more tolerable, but cramming all of them into a movie just makes my head hurt. It doesn't help that when you get down to it, there isn't much of a proper story. All the film does is present three gifts filled with partying and Latino magic and....that's it. I'm not saying every movie needs a traditionally structured plot, but there is little to no momentum in this film at all. Maybe if it ended with Donald's gifts burning or Donald waking up from a dream I would have felt some something, but otherwise I feel as if this film forgot whatever it was supposed to be in the long run.
In terms of the animation itself, there is certainly a lot of passion shown on screen. The lighting and effects are glorious, the character animation is very cartoony and loose, and even the production design is worth analyzing. As chaotic as the film is, at least the animators knew how to have fun with themselves. In addition, this is one of the first Disney films to mix live-action with animation, and while better usages would come decades later, they actually look pretty convincing for their time. Also, I must give props to the singing and the song choices, as listening to these songs will make anyone jump out of their seat and dance to it all. Although, just because these musical numbers are fun to listen to sporadically does not mean mashing them together is a good idea, and that's why this film kind of fails in the long run.
I'm not going to lie, I really do appreciate a lot of the small stories, animation, music and even humor of The Three Caballeros, and there's no denying how much effort and craftsmanship was put into it. However, seeing all this great stuff crammed into 72 minutes worth of a movie just feels irritating, because too much of them is way too much to handle. You can have all the dancing and pizazz you want, but when you sacrifice an actual story for it all, something that every film needs to work, it just comes off as tiring and repetitive. If you want to give this a watch, just watch the segments individually, because you'll have a much easier time sitting through them then wasting 72 minutes on a pointless pasteup flick. Thank goodness Disney stopped doing package films after Cinderella became a hit, because the more we would get of this, the less magic would be prevalent.