The Three Caballeros (1944)
This, the second Disney produced film that was part of the Goodwill mission for Latin America put into execution in the 1940s. For this reason, the film, its and characters and 'plot' included, concentrate all its time on visiting various Latin American locations. Brazil is back for another segment, and some new locations that weren't seen in
Saludos Amigos make appearances, such as Mexico and the South Pole (wtf?)
This will be one of the shorter reviews I write for the marathon, mostly because I'm going to echo much of what has been written thus far and because, again like the other, this is a weak sequel (if it can be called such) to
Saludos Amigos, which was already one of the weaker entries in the franchise to begin with.
I wish to get something off my chest immediately. It turns out that I can only handle Donald Duck in small doses. As a supporting character (as was the case in
Saludos Amigos) or when he only has a brief cameo, I can handle. But a feature length film in which he is awarded the spotlight? No thanks. I find his attitude and voice become grating very quickly. Truth be told, I had to play some bits of dialogue a second time because I didn't understand what the heck he was saying. Apologies to Donald Duck fans out there, but I ain't joining your camp any time soon. He is the focus of much of the humour for the entirety of the movie and I simply wasn't that amused with him.
I think the main issue I had with
The Three Caballeros was how it took some of the good parts that were featured in
Saludos Amigos and made them drag for too long. The inclusion of song and dance numbers, while interesting because I do in fact kind of like some kinds of South American music, was oversused. I can understand that the neat part about those sequences this time around lied in the fact that both animated characters and live-action footage were combined together in individual sequences, and I won't lie, it is a neat trick. For about 5 minutes. But they milk it, and milk it, and milk it. Yes it's cool, but damn that sequence with Donald and José dancing with the Brazilian chick is long. What I liked about Saludos Amigos was how the filmmakers found inspiration for many kinds of stories on Latin American culture. Dance, music, gauchos, nature (the Andes most notably). Here it seems like they were content with giving the viewer a bunch of song and dance numbers. I know this may sound weird since only a few weeks ago I praised
Fantasia, which is essentially a series of musical numbers, but I didn't find it as impressive here. For a film that's longer than its predecessor, there seems to be less variety this time around.
The new supporting characters weren't all that amusing here either. José Carioca may have had a big mouth, but there was something smooth and cool about him. He talked a lot, but he was somewhat classy about it. This Pistoles parrot or whatever the heck is has got nothing on José. He just yells, jumps and shoots his pistols in the air. How many freaking bullets do those guns carry anyhow? Fine, that opening song when he appears is alright, I can't deny that, but I felt the quality of his presence goes way downhill from there on end. And there were these weird little touches that I couldn't wrap my head around. Magic carpet rides, Pistoles turning a picture into some kind of portal to the real world with a zap emanating from his wings (wha?..), José and Pistoles stuffing Donald with fire crackers near the end,etc. This I felt was doubly unfortunate because José pretty much gets the shaft from that point onwards. I felt the same kind of pang inside when that little singing bird makes its appearance. Wow, that wasn't funny. That's the kind of character my 6 year old brother would like. I'm not 6 years old.
As strange as it may sound, my favourite part, despite its weaknesses, was the opening episode, which actually deals with a penguin living in the South Pole who wants to go to South America. It has its fair share of funny moments, even though there were some moments I really didn't get. If he's a penguin, and from what I know all penguins can swim, why the heck does he want to take a boat to his fantasy island? You can call me out for fishing for things to criticize about the movie, but I did find that pretty silly. And what was up with that last line, something like 'It's in human nature, even for penguins'? That came off pretty weak.
Another episode I was at least lukewarm towards was the flying donkey segment. I liked the narration, which was played around with depending on what was happening on screen.
This will get people asking what's wrong with me, but I didn't buy the entire 'Donald' in love with human woman. For me that just came off as silly. Yeah, it lead to some good sequences in which animation and live-action were used in combination, but the premise had me shaking my head. How the heck do you explain that? Is this woman going to reciprocate? Maybe this is just some small part inside me that has been in a desperate search to bitch about stuff in this marathon since the beginning. So far, the movies have been good to great, so that little part inside me has gone thirsty until now. 'But Edgar, it's just a cartoon, chill out man!' Yeah, I know it's a cartoon and I found that silly. If you remember, I did point this out in my 'questions and oddities' segment for
Pinocchio by wondering why the heck Jiminy was going all goo-goo eyes over wooden female puppets and toys. I just don't get it when stuff like that happens.
Good amination (to be expected by now however), some clever combining of cartoon characters and their live-action counterparts, good music in parts, but overall this was mostly unfunny, showed less variety than its immediate predecessor, and to me, was plagued by these weird plot points (a penguin wanting a boat, Donald obsessing over human females). This was in my opinion the worst film by far in this marathon. Because I'm a decent bloke, I can't call it terrible for the few bright spots I pointed out, but overall I was very unimpressed.