The Three Caballeros was one of my favorite Disney VHSs as a kid, I remember my mum having a really hard time tracking this down. Over the years, this and its predecessor, Saludos Amigos have become Disney movies that I have watched many times so I am very excited to share my thoughts on this with you today.
How to Download The Three Caballeros
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
This was released in 1945 and was part of the 10 years of Donald Duck celebrations that Disney was doing. This is such a great follow-up to Saludos Amigos. Whereas the first film only had four shorts, The Three Caballeros has seven. Also, this mixes live action with animation and it was one of the first movies to do this.
Like Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros is about celebrating South American culture, but at the same time, it is also celebrating Donald Duck’s birthday. Actually, the premise of the movie is that it is Donald’s birthday, and the various gifts that we see him open up will lead into one of the shorts.
Now, I cannot talk in detail about all seven of the shorts, but I will tell you what my three favorite ones are. The first one is called The Cold-Blooded Penguin and this is an adorable story about a little penguin who hates how cold it is at the South Pole so he makes his way to South America. This is such a charming little story and it is special to me because I have the book of this from when I was a kid and my son loved having it read to him at bedtime.
The next short that I want to give special attention to is called, Baia. In Baia, Jose Carioca who was introduced in Saludos Amigos shrinks down with Donald so that they can go into a book. Inside the book, Donald and Jose meet a lovely lady called Yaya and Donald takes a liking to her. This is just a really fun story and anytime we get to see Donald and Jose together is cool in my book.
Now, my favorite short here is called, Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz, and Acapulco. The reason I love this one is that Jose and Donald are joined by Panchito Pistoles a wisecracking gun-slinging rooster from Mexico and the trio make up The Three Caballeros. In this short, they take in the sights of Mexico and once again, Donald finds a cute girl that he takes a liking to.
This is such a fun time. Unlike Saludos Amigos, I like all of the shorts here. I like how we get a bit of “educational” value to things here. As a kid, I learned about South America for the first time because of this! I think that the mixture of animation and live-action is done very well for such an early example of it.
This movie also has a fantastic and very catchy Latin America soundtrack too. Also, it does feature some major Latin American stars, which at the time I am sure was a big deal, but if I am being honest. I have to say that I had no clue who any of these people were! Still, it was cool how Disney managed to get and showcase these stars in the movie.
As someone that grew up loving The Three Caballeros, I have to say it is awesome how Disney brought them back. They were part of the amazing Ducktales reboot and they also got their own show, Legend of the Three Caballeros which was a lot of fun too. I highly recommend that you check this one out, it is one of my favorite Disney movies from the early days!
