User Reviews

Most everything about this neat little movie has been said by previous posters, except this.

The motivation for making it was, of all things, the US State Department! The US was deeply involved in fighting World War Two. At this point in time the average American knew almost NOTHING about South America, and the Nazi government was busy making business and political connections there, especially in Paraguay... there, transplanted Germans were a well established colony. They were aiding Hitler's war effort with the operation of industrial concerns, as well as providing espionage support.

South America promised to become a new battlefront if German successes and infiltration continued. The region produced vital strategic raw materials, key among them rubber.

Our strongest ally in the region was Brazil. The US Navy had a number of installations there, both sea and air. The Brazilian Navy worked closely with US forces in hunting U-boats in the Atlantic narrows; a number of US Navy vessels were transferred to them. American air bases (the largest of which was at Recife) provides home base for American aircraft, both fixed wing and lighter than air blimps, to provide air support coverage to trans Atlantic convoy operations.

The State department felt it would be a good idea to familiarize Americans with the land, people, and way of life of South America, and called on Disney to produce THE THREE CABALLEROS. The movie was, first and foremost, a TEACHING TOOL for both military forces and the general public during a global war.

BTW... I love the crazy little bird too! HE'S the best part of the film!

There are two other Disney films made for the Government that I'd LOVE to find copies of.

One is VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER, another WW2 product.

The other is one that I saw back in Basic Training in the 1970s. Believe it or not, the Walt Disney studios produced a military training film on the prevention of VENEREAL DISEASE!!! The unfortunate Lady dispensing said commodity bore a VERY striking resemblance to Snow White!

Because of that film I can never view SNOW WHITE in quite the same way ever again!

"The Three Caballeros" is a nice little gem of golden-age Disneyana, that could have used perhaps a little more polishing.

The Disney Studios apparently produced several pieces around the time period of this animated-live action featurette; "Caballeros" is probably the best known of the series. The basic premise here is that Donald Duck is celebrating his birthday, and a large package of presents is sent to him from friends in several Latin American countries. The event turns into a celebration of Latin culture, focusing on Brazil and Mexico; Donald is given tours by two "colleagues," a cigar-chomping parrot-cum-boulevardier named Joe Carioca, and Panchito, a bandito rooster (complete with never-empty six-guns).

Perhaps twenty to thirty minutes of the piece is made up of the cartoon characters superimposed over live action, or live actors doing carefully choreographed moves in front of a screen. The techniques are apparent to the eye, and dated by modern standards, but they were reasonable attempts to fuse the two worlds together. More problematical to this correspondent is the last 10-15 minutes; while having a few interesting sequences, the lack of a plot (becoming a dream of random images in Donald's ever-confused thoughts) makes the section drag down the rest of the film. Less importantly, politically correct types may object to the "Hollywoodization" and "Disneyfication" of Latin culture/music that turns it into a progression of scenes from a folkloric or idealized mariachi show. Of course, shows like "The Three Caballeros were never meant to show the actual grit of much of Latin American life....

If you're looking for that reality, avoid this like the plague. If you're looking for fun, good Hollywood-Latin music, and "poorty girls," head out and rent it.

A lot of things can be said about this movie, but no one can say it is dull. Disney's Donald Duck takes us on a scenic and musical tour of Latin America with episodes in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. It begins in a lively tempo and speeds up until it explodes in fireworks at the end.

It was a big and necessary hit for Disney at the time but, in a way, it's too bad the film couldn't have been released about 1968, when so many youngsters were doing acid and weed, because this is one trippy movie. It belongs right up there with "2001: A Space Odyssey." A live figure may begin to dance and sing through a cartoon village. Soon Donald Duck joins the dance. Then the lamp posts begin to sway rhythmically, and soon the buildings are bouncing up and down, and then the moon darts from side to side. The viewer may twitch a bit too, because some of the rhythm is very catchy. America gave the world jazz, and Latin America gave us the samba, the conga, the bossa nova, the tango, Carmen Miranda, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the transplanted Manuel de Falla. And the piñata.

It's a pageant of color and music. All but one of the tunes are converted from earlier Latin American songs and they're very catchy. Two made the Hit Parade, which was a big deal at the time -- "Baia", "Brazil", and "You Belong To My Heart." It's unsophisticated cornball resembling nothing real but you can't find the exit.

President Roosevelt was all in favor of making a movie like this, for several reasons, none of them musical. He called it "the good neighbor policy." South American countries were a supply source for the Allies. We needed access to airfield like Recife in Brazil to shorten the hop to Europe. And few of us found is a sound idea to encourage the pro-Nazi population of countries like Paraguay and Argentina.

See it -- and have yourself an extended myoclonic spasm.

Wildly colorful, almost hallucinogenic offering from Walt Disney plays like "Fantasia" on speed. Though not much more than a hodgepodge of story ideas, the film mixes live-action with animation in saluting Mexican and South American cultures. Donald Duck is the star this time, and his title musical number alongside Joe Carioca and Panchito is a head-swirling collage of colors. The Disney animators were obviously full of inspiration, but the entire movie plays like that drunken elephant sequence from "Dumbo": manic, fruity, sometimes quite fabulous. Entertaining to be sure, and better than its predecessor "Saludos Amigos", but certainly odd and never very popular from the 1940s through the 1960s since Disney rarely circulated it as a whole. *** from ****

Walt Disney's outreach to the South American market resulted in a couple of films--SALUDOS AMIGOS was the first, and THE THREE CABALLEROS came next. To make a comparison, I'd have to see "SA" again, but I do recall that it had some charming musical sequences.

The same is true of THE THREE CABALLEROS, especially when the musical score includes the title song (delightully done by Panchito, Jose Carioca and Donald Duck), and repeated throughout, and ballads such as YOU BELONG TO MY HEART and HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO BAIA? All of them are performed with some fantastic art work and animation combining live action and cartoon characters.

The last fifteen minutes seems to be scrambling for a way to keep the viewer's attention with some explosive fireworks and a dazzling display of surrealism, minus any conception of a way to end the movie on a high note. The film itself is uneven, offering typical Disney animation for the flying donkey sequence and then resorting to over-the-top fireworks that outdo the Pink Elephants number from DUMBO.

But it's hard to resist the bouncy South American flavor of the score and the charming characterizations of Donald, Panchito and Jose Carioca. The stylized conception of a Mexican Christmas by artist Mary Blair is a standout among the art work involved here, although later the piñata sequence is a bit overwhelming in effects.

The dazzling color and the music make it worth watching at least once, although it's hard to make a comparison between this and other Disney full-length features. Some of the action is fast and furious but the sort of thing that will appeal to very young children.

Summing up: You will either love it or hate it, but if you're a Disney fan you should see it at least once.

Donald Duck celebrates his birthday opening several presents from his Latin American friends and with his friend Jose the Parrot from Brazil, and Pachito the Rooster from Mexico is given a vibrant energized look at Brazilian and Mexican culture and music with several strange and surreal tangents.

Following the success of Saludos Amigos which had come about from the State Department's Good Neighbors Policy to improve relations between neighboring South American countries whom had diplomatic and commercial ties to Axis powers such as Nazi Germany, Walt Disney Animation studios returned to produced a spiritual follow-up with The Three Caballeros which basically serves as a sort of expansion on the Saludos Amigos. While not a direct follow up, the film did feature the return of Jose the Parrot as well as the same mixture of Live-Action and animation footage, but this time the film gets more experimental with many sequences built around the concept of Live-Action characters interacting with animated characters in one of the earliest attempts at doing so that would later be revisited with more technical polish in Song of the South. Caballeros was a solid success upon its release making more than Dumbo's run and raking in $700,000 in Mexico alone. There's a lot of energy in Three Caballeros and on a technical level it ambitiously (but roughly) mixes Live-Action and animation to good immersive effect, but with a rather anemic plot and repetitive structure the movie begins to feel its length.

The animation and art direction while not the pinnacle for a Disney feature film is still really strong probably falling just shy of the level of Dumbo in terms of technical craft. The characters and designs are lively and energized, and there's a surreal but colorful and party like atmosphere to the film that immerses you into the songs, dances, and environments. While the live action/animation hybrid style is still very much in its infancy with certain sections with the characters not as well incorporated as the filmmakers want(some scenes feel like the characters are floating in the foreground), it's still a very strong effort regardless and show's the possibilities with the medium in such a format. Some sequences such as the Acapulco sequence where Donald not only has a drop shadow, but also interacts with elements in the environment including beach blankets and bodies of water.

Story wise it's a pretty thin set up with Donald celebrating his birthday and each present leading to a different segment. The first present is a film strip which is basically a bunch of four to seven minute shorts tied to Latin American culture in some fashion. The shorts are varying degrees of okay playing like standard Silly Symphonies that just happen to be loosely strung together. The next present he opens is his Brazilian present with a pop up book that contains Jose the Parrot that serves as our framing device for the Brazil segment, and lastly Donald's present from Mexico with Pachito the Rooster which is pretty similar to the Brazil segment save for the final 15 minutes where the segment goes off the rails with surreal imagery of dancing flowers and cactuses that seems like it's trying to out do the Pink Elephants scene from Dumbo in terms of "wha?" and basically forgets any plot the movie might've had at one point instead going through a series of increasing bizarre and exaggerated imagery until the film's final crescendo.

You could watch any twenty minute stretch of Three Caballeros and feel entertained and engaged, the problem is with all these segments strung together playing at the same jubilant level for nearly the entirety of the film's running time it becomes quite exhausting to sit through and the film's constant energy became more draining than exciting as the film went on. Disney chopped pieces of this film up for broadcast on TV programs like Mouse Works or Mouse Tracks and given the structure of the film that's really the best way to experience this movie, in small manageable segments rather than taken as the gauntlet it is. In terms of its historical value and technical merit there's a lot here to appreciate from the dances, to the music, to the crude but innovative mixture of Animated characters in live-action environments, but with its thin plot and near constant levels of exuberance Three Caballeros is like a party that starts out fun, but as time wears on your looking for an excuse to leave and head home.

'The Three Caballeros (1944)' is the second of Disney's attempts to repair relations between the USA and Latin America, with Donald Duck joined by previous companion Zé Carioca and newfound friend Panchito on a journey into the cultures of various countries which make up that region. Despite some inventive animation - which includes a couple of properly psychedelic set-pieces - and a generally good intention, the piece just doesn't really entertain. It's far too long for what it is and, frankly, it drags almost all the way through. That's it; there isn't else much to say about the thing. It's boring despite its solid visuals, which is a shame and, ultimately, what makes it one of the worst Disney 'classics'. 4/10

The Three Caballeros is a lot of fun, using a mix of live action and animation to bring Brazil and Mexico alive to birthday boy Donald Duck. As he's joined by Panchito and José he realises what he has been missing all these years, falls in love with Aurora Miranda (sister of Carmen), learns to dance, and much more.

With eye-poppingly beautiful animation and lovely colours, it is no surprise that that was the one cartoon Disney veteran Ward Kimball claimed he was truly proud of. The idea of the three birds as international musketeers living the good life is inspired and the running time is just about right.

I find it hard to believe that this was a World War II propaganda film. It doesn't really seem to fit that mold. Propaganda of the time was pretty heavy-handed, and most of it isn't all that entertaining today except as an artifact of the period. This movie is a joy to watch in its own right, and if there's an anti-fascist message embedded within, it's awfully subtle.

My understanding was that this was Disney's attempt to open up Central and South America as a market for their films, since the war had pretty much eliminated the European market. Whatever its pedigree, though, this is one of the few Disney videos that I don't mind watching endlessly with the kids, especially the parts that involve the titular Caballeros.

The movie is somewhat disjointed and episodic, but what holds it all together is good music. My least favorite episode is the story of the flying donkey, which gets old quickly, particularly since (and this is my one complaint) they chose to have a North American announcer attempt a Mexican accent. Why they could not have simply found an actual Mexican actor is beyond me - Los Angeles being in Mexico's backyard, after all. But Disney seemed to enjoy mixing and matching nationalities even into the 1960s, hiring, for example, US actors to play English characters in Mary Poppins, Treasure Island, and 101 Dalmatians; or Hayley Mills, who was a British actress who always seemed to be playing an American. In fact, the latter is something seen commonly nowadays, when it seems half the working actors in Hollywood are British subjects putting on American dialects (Hugh Laurie, Damian Lewis, Christian Bale).

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.

While little known, this is one of Disney's most inventive and delightful films, superior in imagination and sheer movie magic to all but a few of the studio's great classics. I think it was less successful than most Disney films because the subject matter -- like its near-twin Saludos Amigos, a cartoon tour of Latin America -- was and is less engaging for most people than fairy tales.

I've traveled a bit in Latin America, and still find that this clever little film captures something sumptuous, wondrous and oddly truthful about those distant places, even if seen through a distinctly American lens. What's more, it's the most sensuous G-rate movie I've ever seen. Sambas, wild orchids, wow.

I was four when it came out, and it immediately became my favorite movie. Indeed, I was obsessed. In the 40s and 50s, I kept up with movie-theater schedules for miles around just on the off-chance that this, and one or two other favorites, might be playing somewhere, usually at a Saturday matinée within driving distance. Every few years, my vigilance paid off and I would bug my mother to chauffeur me miles from home to see my beloved Caballeros.

When I had children, in the early days of VCRs, we bought all the Disneys as they were released. When The Three Caballeros came out, I brought it home. I was careful not to tell my three young daughters how much I loved this old treasure, but when I played it for them they all shrieked, "This is our favorite movie, Pop!"

And it still is, for all of us.

Funny, people nowadays don't seem to realize that this was a World War II propaganda film -- only one comment below makes that point. Many such features and shorts were turned out during this time, and not just from Disney; Warner Bros., MGM and others did as well. Keep this in mind and it makes a little more sense. Even more of the fractured, surreal nature of this film is explainable when viewed in the context of other Disney animated features of this time. "Fantasia" (of course), "Dumbo," "Pinocchio" and other movies contained what seemed like drug- or alcohol-induced sequences (maybe someone with more intimate knowledge of Disney productions of the time can shed some light on those!). Disney also seemed eager to experiment with blending of animation and live action during this time ("Song of the South"). Anyway, this was aimed primarily at engendering better relations between North Americans and our ostensible allies in Latin America. The animation is very good and some of the music (especially the title song) is memorable. Watch it for what it is and enjoy!

People who went to see Disney's compilation features of the 1940s expecting another "Fantasia" were always disappointed - however good the material in some of them. They weren't really films. This one is just a collection of beads from the studio's Latin American years on a pretty string. Some of the beads are short cartoons, not really any different from Disney's other short cartoons of the period - which is, although I don't need to say this, praise. To be honest I find it hard to remember, without looking it up, exactly which South American Disney cartoons are featured in this movie and which aren't.

The linking segments with Donald Duck are weird and - now and then - wonderful. Disney seems to have tried every possible way of combining animation and live action (the live action is usually Carmen Miranda). Some of the attempts fall flat - many shots are obviously Miranda walking in front of a movie screen onto which Donald Duck is being projected; and the section featuring Donald Duck flying on a magic carpet over South American countryside is just a cheap and gruesome mis-match. But other times it's dazzling. The transformation of animated cacti into human dancers, or human dancers into animated roosters, are technical marvels which made me gasp. Perhaps if I saw them on the big screen I'd be able to work out how they were done - but they'd still be spectacular. More so.

In short, this certainly has its moments - some of the most anarchic moments Disney or any other studio had produced. People who aren't fans of animation will probably find it unendurable. (I don't blame them. It's not really a film.) People who are fans HAVE to see it.

All the fully animated segment of this film are enjoyable and look good, however, the live action segments either go on longer than they should've, or have Donald duck flirting with a live action woman, which is weird.

I bought this DVD because Donald Duck is my absolute favorite cartoon character. As a kid, I thought this was a very weird movie, and I still do! As a grown-up, though, I can appreciate the artistic and groundbreaking visuals. Donald is just absolutely hilarious in this movie, but can be at times, a little creepy in his constant womanizing. Was he a little lonely during a separation from Daisy or something?!

Nevertheless, the movie is still entertaining. I especially liked the animation shorts at the beginning. The title song is fantastic. The story just gets a little trippy and cooky near the end, but that sort of ambitious and unique story-telling is somewhat of a rarity nowadays.

All in all, a solid good film. Plus, with the DVD, you get the hilarious Donald short, "Don's Fountain of Youth." Good stuff!

My IMDB Rating: 7/10 My Yahoo! Grade: B (Good)

This is Walt Disney's seven full-length animated feature film, starring Donald Duck celebrating his birthday with his two Latin American friends, José Carioca, the cigar-smoking parrot, and Panchito Pistoles, the pistol-packing rooster. The film is storied in segments, each one starting when Donald unwraps each of his presents. The segmented stories include Donald's trips to Brazil and Mexico, filmed in a combination of animation and live action.

It is fun seeing Donald in a full-length animated movie; his feisty characteristics and bad luck-prone personality always generate a lot of humor and non-stop laughs. His adventures throughout Latin America was potentially a treat to watch and the featured music (courtesy of singers Aurora Miranda, Dora Luz and Carmen Molina) was somewhat catchy and enjoyable. However, I thought the overall movie was a little on the dull side and not very magically captivating like you would expect in many of Disney's feature films.

While Fantasia was also filmed in segments (like this movie) and consists of music and animation only and no dialog, that movie will make you at least appreciate classical music and beautiful animation and, while no dialog, each segment is filmed in a way that represents charm and personality where you could actually follow its purpose. This film really has no plot, just a mash of animation and live action in a huge dance fest and party in Latin America. It's like a never-ending parade with nothing too intriguing to grab your attention. In addition, some of the animation looked washed-out against the live action.

Overall, it's nice to see Donald Duck in a motion picture, but is not one of the better Disney films.

Grade D+

It was a cold January Saturday evening. The park was beautifully lit. People were cheery. We could see the Matterhorn on our right hand side. Magical is the best description I could find.

Suddenly, I started singing...

"Somos los tres carros, los Tres Caballeros, y nadie es igual a nosotros..."

What do I know. My friends all knew the words. 4 guys, ranging from 27 to 31 years old, began forming a chrous line and singing off the top of our lungs...

I don't know how this happened. This is not, by any stretch of imagination, a popular or wildly succesful film. I guess it just touched us, the way Donald Duck had a mexican friend (Panchito), or the wild "Piñata" scene, or the strong latin flavour of the film.

Memories notwithstanding, we kept on singing... and singing... and singing.

People around us seemed to enjoy the show, too.

"Valientes brillamos, como brilla un peso

-Quien dice?!?

NOSOTROS, LOS TRES CABALLEROS!"

The songs and the animation are fun and enjoyable. But the general 'story' is non-sensical and kinda gets forgotten toward the end of the film and everything just sort of becomes a psychedelic-Hispanic mess of color and music.

Very strange and confusing, but a great time if you're not expecting too much.

Let me explain my summary. When you are a kid and it's Christmas, think of what it would be like if ALL the beautifully wrapped presents under the tree are actually nothing but underwear! After all, you have very high hopes....only to be bitterly disappointed. As a child, I saw this film and was psyched when it began. The film DID star Donald Duck and like all sane kids, I loved the duck. But then,....it all struck me. It was about as fun as the underwear! Singing, dancing and a travelogue! That was NOT what I'd anticipated. Years later, I rented the film again...assuming my childhood memories must have been wrong. They weren't. The film is a dull and only good to be used as a means to punish misbehaving children. I could imagine a parent saying "If you are good, I'll buy you BEAUTY AND THE BEAST...but if you're bad, THE THREE CABALLEROS!!!". Proof that not everything Disney is good.

Aside from nice animation and a catchy theme song, this is dull from start to finish.

Among his birthday presents, Donald Duck finds a projector, a screen and a roll of film. He puts them on and finds it is a film about his Southern relations - a subject Donald would confess he knows very little about. He watches several stories about a cold penguin, a flying donkey and a cigar chewing parrot who introduces him to the beauties (literally) of Brazilian and Mexican culture.

This film was made in an attempt to expose American audiences to cultures other than their own and encourage understanding - apparently, back in the 1940's, America was an insular country with little tolerance or understanding of the issues regarding the rest of the world (of course, that's all changed now). Anyway, in trying to do this, it is difficult to fault the film for it's intensions but it is a lot easier to fault it for it's accomplishments. The basic plot is split into several sections based around several characters. The first few are more or less cartoons that don't really comment much on the other cultures, but the second half mixes animation with live action in an attempt to show how much fun Brazil and Mexico can be.

The first half is bright and colourful and may distract young children but the second half is only interesting because it is rhythmic and energetic - but did it help me appreciate Mexico? Nope! For me, the bigger failing was that this film wasn't very funny. However I suspected that as I came to it - I am more of a Loony Tunes fan as I prefer the madcap comedy that those cartoons bring rather than the more `wholesome' fun of Disney cartoons of the period.

If I had to pick one cartoon duck, it would be Daffy of course, and I'm not a big fan of Donald simply because I can't understand what he is saying half the time. The various other players here are colourful and do what they are required to do but again I prefer a bit of an edge on my characters - and Disney is not the place to get that. The real people are OK but are not really the people you would have seen in these place at the time (or even now!). They are very airbrushed and more often than not they are have had `ethnic' qualities reduced to costume in an effort to show how `they look just like us'.

Overall this is a bright and colourful feature that will distract young children. It doesn't achieve it's aim of enlightening about other cultures, nor does it have much of a story or laughs to keep adults interesting. It is a worthy try and will appeal to Disney fans but most others will have pressed `stop' before the end.