"Saludos Amigos" (1942) and "The Three Caballeros" (1944) are really dreadful Walt Disney productions, which were made during World War II supposedly to improve relations between the United States and Latin American countries. Luckily in "The Three Caballeros" the action only takes place in Mexico and Brazil. Of course, there are some attractive things, such as the proto-psychedelic animation of Mary Blair that would flourish in "Alice in Wonderland" (Disney's most "stoned" feature, if you ask me), but almost by rule all is offensive: stereotypes, ridiculous characters or cultural mockery. All the plot offers is Donald Duck opening presents on his birthday, from two Latin American friends: Brazilian José Carioca (from "Saludos Amigos") and Mexican Panchito (Villa, I suppose). Each time a box is open you watch an animated sequence of native songs (including a horrendous English version of maestro Manuel Esperón's "Ay Jalisco no te rajes"). Donald Duck (who looks a lot like Donald Trump in his arrogant behavior) even harasses several Latin women, anticipating the days of his namesake. The only thing that seemed fantastic to me (and it's personal taste, of course) was Carmen Miranda's sister, the sinuous Aurora Miranda who sings and dances in a beautiful and colorful musical sequence composed by Ary Barroso. If Disney has kept "Song of the South" out of circulation because of "offensive treatment of African-American" this film could deserve the same medicine. However, the only thing Disney executives seem to find objectionable is that the characters smoke, so in the DVD edition cigars and cigarettes were deleted, except the one in José Carioca's peak... As "Saludos Amigos", it is a schematic, silly and ugly Disney you can ignore.

The 7th animated Disney classic is clearly not one of Disney's best works. Nevertheless, it is one of their most different. I guess I can say that this movie has something to offer.This must have been the very first movie that combines live-action with animation... or at least one of the first movies to do so. This combination works out reasonably, but some movies are more successful in this "marriage": for example, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Pete's Dragon", "Mary Poppins" and the documentary "Man, Monsters and Mysteries". As much as this is true, it isn't any less true that this combination in "The Three Caballeros" works out clearly better than in "Space Jam", for example.Without being a super movie and despite the fact that this movie doesn't age as well as most Disney animated classics ("Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Bambi", "The Aristocats", "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers", "The Fox and the Hound", "The Little Mermaid", among many others...), it is however a curious and peculiar little film.The most interesting thing about this movie is that it takes us through Latin America, mostly Brazil and Mexico.The story takes place on Donald Duck's birthday and he receives lots of presents: shorts about tropical Latin America, different kinds of birds, etc... and he's joined by José Carioca aka Zé Carioca (the green parrot) and later by Panchito Pistoles (the pistol-packing red rooster). José Carioca represents Brazil and takes Donald Duck to Baía, while Panchito represents Mexico and takes both Donald Duck and Zé Carioca to Mexico.During its last 15 minutes more or less, the movie gets gradually less interesting, becoming somewhat empty and lame, with things that don't make much sense to me.By the way, this movie has some fabulous artwork. The "three caballeros" are very well designed (Donald Duck is very well drawn now) and the artwork of Latin America is spectacular. For example, Baía is very beautifully drawn, with gorgeous sunset, life, great monuments and a romantic atmosphere at the sound of a beautiful song with the same name as the city/village.There's also some great voice actors: the inimitable Clarence Nash as Donald Duck, José Oliveira as José Carioca and Joaquin Garay as Panchito. Just for the record, Joaquin Garay is the father of Joaquin Garay III (Paco from "Herbie Goes Bananas").

Yippie-ey-ya! This has got to be one of Disney most best ever short story movies! Not only is it educational but it is also fun and dazzling with colours. The fiesta starts when Donald gets three presents from his friends in Brazil. One of them contains short stories from South America like "The Flying Donkey" and "Pablo the Cold Bloodest Pengiun", the second pops out his good friend from the 1943 film "Saludos Amigos", Jose Carioca, as I said, one of Walt's best 1940's characters shows him around South America in the storybook then the bizarreness begins when Panchito the rooster comes out of the third present with guns a blazing! It all turns into a Topsy-turvy South American Mania!! Yowee! Along the way, it was the first film in history to use cartoon characters mixing in a normal world environment as Donald fall for a real life Mexican actress. That must have been big new sign of technology back in those days. In remember as old photo in England from July, 1945 when people were sadly queueing up for rationing and the Three Caballeros was up on a billboard behind them being advertised. That must of brought them joy during the most hardest of time. I strongly recommend this movie and if you don't like it, then you're a bean-head! 10/10

As we continue on this Latin American Disney adventure, the 1944 animated film "The Three Caballeros" should be mentioned, at least. Here, we have Donald Duck taking center stage in this movie, along with two other bird characters: Jose, and Panchito. In this movie, we see four short segments that take us from Antarctica all the way up to close to here (Mexico). What makes this movie so impressive? The Spanish (and maybe the Portuguese), of course! What great way to say "Disney = It's Educational!" than to watch a movie immersed in the culture, history, and of course, the languages, of Latin America!Now, I say, this is very impressive Disney. What I just mentioned, plus the magic that our man, Walt Disney, has provided here makes "The Three Caballeros" one of the animated greats. Again, iDiez estrellas!