The Three Caballeros 720p - (1944 Lang: English)

South America-mania! Disney goes surrealist!

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.

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.

The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American animated musical package film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on February 3, 1945 and in the UK that March. The seventh Disney animated feature film, the film plots an adventure through parts of Latin America, combining live-action and animation. This is the second of the six package films released by Walt Disney Productions in the 1940s, following Saludos Amigos (1942).

The film is plotted as a series of self-contained segments, strung together by the device of Donald Duck opening birthday gifts from his Latin American friends. Several Latin American stars of the period appear, including singers Aurora Miranda (sister of Carmen Miranda) and Dora Luz, as well as singer and dancer Carmen Molina.

The film was produced as part of the studio's good will message for South America. The film stars Donald Duck, who in the course of the film is joined by old friend José Carioca, the cigar-smoking parrot from Saludos Amigos, who represents Brazil, and later becomes friends with a pistol-packing rooster named Panchito Pistoles, who represents Mexico.

The film consists of seven segments, each connected by a common theme. In the film, it is Donald Duck's birthday (namely Friday the 13th), and he receives three presents from friends in Latin America. The first present is a film projector, which shows him a documentary about birds. During the documentary, he learns about the Aracuan Bird, who received his name because of his eccentric song. The Aracuan also makes several appearances throughout the film.

The next present is a book given to Donald by José. This book tells of Bahia (spelled "Baía" in the film), which is one of Brazil's 26 states. José shrinks them both down so that they can enter the book. Donald and José meet up with several of the locals, who dance a lively samba, and Donald ends up pining for one girl, but fails. After the journey, Donald and José leave the book.

Upon returning, Donald realizes that he is too small to open his third present. José shows Donald how to use "black magic" to return himself to the proper size. After opening the present, he meets Panchito, a native of Mexico. The trio take the name "The Three Caballeros" and have a short celebration. Panchito then presents Donald's next present, a piñata. Panchito tells Donald of the tradition behind the piñata. José and Panchito then blindfold Donald, and have him attempt to break open the piñata, which eventually reveals many surprises. Donald ends the celebration by being fired away by firecrackers in the shape of a ferocious toy bull (with which the firecrackers are lit by José with his cigar).

Throughout the film, the Aracuan Bird appears at random moments. He usually taunts everyone with his madcap antics, sometimes stealing José's cigar and trying to make José jealous. His most famous gag is when he re-routes a train that Donald and José are riding on by drawing new tracks, causing the train to disassemble. He returns three or four years later in Melody Time (1948).

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!"