Apologies for my brief hiatus, but I'll be honest – the next film in this challenge was not my favourite, and so I was putting it off. However, just like that piece of homework that you hoped would go away and never did, this movie ain't writing about itself. Not one to cheat on a self-imposed project, I've resolved that the sooner we crack on, the sooner we can get back to the true Disney magic. So, without further ado, let's dive into the exotic world of *gulp* ...
The Three Caballeros (1944)
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| 'Donald, get ready for more Samba music' |
In a nut (or taco) shell, The Three Caballeros takes Saludos Amigos to its logical extreme – when it really didn't have to. We're talking more Latin-inspired music; more Gauchos; more Donald Duck being borderline sociopathic, and just more minutes of profound strangeness.
Like Saludos Amigos, the movie is made up of a series of short segments, but this time the narrative is loosely driven by Donald Duck receiving presents from his Latin American friends. The first is the most exciting gift you could hope for – a projector, on which you can watch a documentary about birds. So there's that.
Next, we move on to 'The Cold-Blooded Penguin,' following a pretty cute little fella called Pablo, who just can't get warm in the South Pole, and decides to find balmier climes. By itself, it's a pretty entertaining short, but in the context of the movie, like Pablo himself, it doesn't really have a home.
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| When you're at uni and too poor to turn the heating on. |
Following the bird documentary and the penguin fable, we're treated to another short called 'The Flying Gauchito,' about a little South American boy who finds a flying donkey and decides to race him. So far, so bearable. But then things get really weird. Introducing...
Donald the Creep.
As it turns out, Donald Duck is one pervy waterfowl. The second half of the movie has Donald being guided around Brazil and Mexico, by his familiar cigar-smoking pal José Carioca, and a new beaked, gun-toting Mexican mate, Panchito Pistoles. Whilst José and Panchito are happy to dance with the locals and take magical carpet rides over Mexico, Donald has other ideas.
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| 'We've been dancing for 9 hours. When can we stop?' |
From the minute he sets eyes on a singer in Baia (played by Carmen's sister Aurora Miranda), old Donny has chicks on the brain – and we're not talking the feathery kind. What starts as a comic-book 'lovestruck' reaction becomes an obsession with all females. This involves literally chasing after swimsuit-clad women on a beach and culminates in a strange fever dream around Miranda, which is very uncomfortable by today's standards.
The creepiness is put into focus due to the fact that the women Donald is lusting after are real actors. Whilst the animated / live-action hybrid is impressively done, it does throw a light on the position women in Hollywood were put in at the time. It's shocking now to think that kids were being taught that women existing as the object of male sexual desire was just something to laugh at and shrug off. Although when you consider some '70s sitcoms, attitudes didn't change for quite some time.
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| Going loco down in Acapulco |
#MeToo aside, The Three Caballeros has some interesting conceptual design, some sweet animation and romantic portrayals of South America, and seemed to do its job in capturing the hearts of a nation. But I will be relieved to get to a linear fairytale with some characters other than pervy man-birds.
Villain rating: 4/5 (For Donald Duck being a complete creep).
Best Song: Saludos Amigos
Disney Detail: Mary Blair, the lead designer on 'It's A Small World,' was a key animator on this movie, and the section on Mexican children's Christmas traditions oozes her colourful, cute style.
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| 'Maybe we'll get a properly good Disney movie inside!' |
Why it's a Classic: To cut it some slack, it does showcase how Disney would use mixed media (live-action and animation) going forward, in movies like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. But it's pretty low on the rankings, tbh.
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