The Three Caballeros

This one was new to me, and I knew it was one of the older ones.  Different in style from Snow White or Dumbo, this has more of a feeling of the early Disney shorts than the full length animated features.   It really consists of three segments or shorts that are grouped together by a fairly weak storyline.  First there is a tale of a penguin that wants to live where it's warm, then a story about a flying donkey, and finally we have the adventures of the three caballeros.

I actually really enjoyed the first two segments.  They were short, sweet, and funny.  Everything that you'd expect from a Disney short.  However, I didn't really love the second half of the movie, which was the main focus.  Basically, Jose and Panchito take Donald Duck on a tour of Latin America, stopping in various cities and learning a few tidbits.  It's really about the music - and if you had to pick a storyline there, you could say it's about Donald's quest to find a woman.  Really, Donald Duck came off as quite... horny, really.  He was chasing down women left and right, desperate for a kiss, didn't really matter from who.

And once he gets his kiss the movie turns really freaky.  I mean, it had a storyline and for the most part made sense up until then, but all of the sudden things just go psychedelic.  Basically Donald is high from the kiss that he received, and sees singing women in flowers, in the sky, and starts dancing with some cacti.  Basically the whole time I was sitting there wondering, "What the heck is going on?"

There were two bonus shorts at the end, which I really enjoyed.  The first one was about Donald finding the fountain of use, and it was hilarious.  The other was about Pluto and it was pretty good.

The Music
It was okay.  The goal was to make it ethnic, which they did, but it's just a very old fashioned feel.  Not surprising, since it's from the 1940's, but it's not timeless like the songs from Snow White either.

The Villain
Not really applicable to this film.

The WDW Connection
The Three Caballeros have a much greater presence in Walt Disney World these days, now that the Mexican boat ride in Epcot has been rethemed as the Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros. The three can also be seen for meet and greets in the Mexican pavilion at times.  There is also topiaries of them at the Coronado Springs Resort, and a Fountain of the trio at the All Star Music Resort pool.

Becky's rating:  5.5 out of 10
Jason's rating:  6 out of 10