by The Disney Purist

#7 The Three Caballeros (1944)

  1. BACKGROUND
  2. STORY #1: AVES RARAS/THE COLD-BLOODED PENGUIN
  3. STORY #2: THE FLYING GAUCHITO
  4. STORY #3: BAÍA
  5. STORY #4: LAS POSADAS
  6. STORY #5: MEXICO
  7. STORY #6: YOU BELONG TO MY HEART
  8. STORY #7: DONALD’S SURREAL REVERIE
  9. PRODUCTION
  10. RECEPTION
  11. LEGACY
  12. FINAL THOUGHTS
  13. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After the modest success that Saludos Amigos (1942) achieved in the United States, as well as its more enthusiastic response in South America, it was decided that the movie should have a sequel, to further cement relations between the Americas.

As only a few countries, namely Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, were featured in Saludos Amigos (1942), by creating another movie with the same intentions and the same format, the Disney Studios could explore more Latin American countries. Thus, The Three Caballeros was created, with this movie having a major focus on Mexico, as well as returning to Argentina and Brazil, with some brief mentions of Venezuela, Uruguay etc.

During production on The Three Caballeros, the United States of America was formally involved in World War II, which made the film all the more important for overall relations between South, Central and North America.

The Three Caballeros is the first Disney Animated Classic to be a sequel, and also follows the “package feature” format, although not quite as much as Saludos Amigos (1942). Though it has more of a cohesive plot, as in more material linking the different sections together, The Three Caballeros can still be considered as seven separate sequences.

These seven sections are:

  1. “Aves Raras/The Cold-Blooded Penguin”
  2. “The Flying Gauchito”
  3. “Baía”
  4. “Las Posadas”
  5. “Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco”
  6. “You Belong to My Heart”
  7. “Donald’s Surreal Reverie”

I did think I liked The Three Caballeros before re-watching, and I still do, for the most part. I will say that certain sections did run on too long for me, such as “Baía”, where it felt like the dancing was never going to stop! I also felt that the Mexico beach sequence, with Donald Duck chasing lots of women around, got a bit samey after a while. But I was very happy to find that there was not as much narration here as in Saludos Amigos (1942), and it also avoided using any of the travel footage that was abundant in the previous movie.

STORY #1: AVES RARAS/THE COLD-BLOODED PENGUIN

The Three Caballeros begins with the standard Opening Credits, showing concept art and sketches of characters and backgrounds which will appear in the upcoming animated sequences. A shortened version of the title song “The Three Caballeros” plays during the Opening Credits as well. It is performed by the Disney Chorus in this case, but will be performed later on in full by the actual Three Caballeros.

After this, we see that Donald has received a huge wrapped box. He reads the tag, written in Spanish, which basically says it is a present from his friends in Latin America for his birthday on Friday the 13th. A month is not given, however, in the 1949 Disney short “Donald’s Happy Birthday”, Donald’s birthday is stated as 13th March. The only Friday 13th March around this time was in 1942, not 1944 or even 1945 when the movie was released in South America and the United States. It is supposedly meant to refer to the bad luck that Donald constantly encounters. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because later, Disney officially decided that Donald Duck’s birthday is on 9th June, referencing his Disney debut in the short “The Wise Little Hen”, which was officially released on 9th June 1934. Clarence Nash continues to reprise his voice role as Donald Duck in The Three Caballeros.

Anyway, Donald opens this big box and finds three wrapped presents inside. He opens the first one, which is a projector, a screen, and rolls of film. He assembles it together and a film called “Aves Raras”, which translates to “Strange Birds”, begins to play. The first part of this film tells the story of “The Cold-Blooded Penguin”. The narrator for “Aves Raras” passes over story-telling duties to “Professor” Holloway, or Sterling Holloway, voice of The Cheshire Cat and Winnie-the-Pooh amongst many others. This “cold-blooded” penguin is called Pablo, and unlike the other penguins in the South Pole, Pablo likes to stay warm and dreams of moving away and living on a beach somewhere. He keeps attempting to leave the South Pole, but never makes it very far, either because he’s gotten too cold or because his methods of staying warm on the journey melt the ice he’s walking on! In the end, Pablo makes a “boat”; he actually just cuts a boat shape out of the iceberg his igloo resides on – but it means he can keep all his belongings with him. He travels through the Straits of Magellan, past Robinson Crusoe’s Island, past Viña del Mar, on the coast of Chile, moves through Lima, Peru, and finally ends up at the Galápagos Islands, though his “boat” melts in the warmer waters, causing Pablo to use his bathtub to paddle over to land. Though Pablo seems to be in paradise, sometimes, he can’t stop thinking about home in the South Pole!

After this story, the “Aves Raras” film continues, which shows many more exceptional birds from areas such as Venezuela, Paraguay, and Colombia. The birds that are mentioned include toucans, flamingos, and the eccentric Aracuan bird, who comes out of the screen to shake Donald’s hand. He is so-named because of the peculiar song that he sings. The Aracuan bird is crazy and always up to mischief. Not only does he appear in The Three Caballeros, but he also appears in the short sequence “Blame It on the Samba”, featuring Donald Duck and José Carioca, in Melody Time (1948), as well as in the short Clown of the Jungle, released in 1947. The “voice” of the Aracuan bird is provided by Pinto Colvig, the original voice performer for Goofy. Frank Graham is the narrator in this section of the film; he had previously narrated numerous other shorts for Disney, such as Chicken Little (1943), as well as for other studios, like Warner Bros, during the 1940s.

STORY #2: THE FLYING GAUCHITO

After this, a different movie is played on the projector: “The Flying Gauchito”, which is narrated by Fred Shields, who narrated all of Saludos Amigos (1942). The story is told by the gauchito, who remains nameless, as an adult. The young boy likes to dress as a gaucho and go hunting for Condor birds in the Andes mountains. One day, he sees a nest, but as he waits for a bird to fly out, he is shocked to see a donkey fly out of it instead! The gauchito throws bolas at it, to try and capture it, but the donkey escapes. He eventually manages to catch it and rides on the back of the flying donkey. He decides to train the donkey to race and teaches him new tricks every day. It is soon Race Day in town, which is full of fiesta-spirit. Gauchito and Burrito get ready to race alongside the others, with the prize money standing at 1,000 pesos. After a very bad start, and a lack of speed, where the two trail further and further behind the others, Gauchito unties Burrito’s wings and they fly down the track so fast that they pass everyone. However, it is soon clear to the others that Gauchito has cheated by using a donkey that can fly, but before they can be punished, Burrito flies up high into the sky, with Gauchito still hanging on to him. The narrator says neither were ever seen again – but he’s laughing as he says it, so it can’t be a sinister end…I don’t think.

After returning from the South American tour in October 1941, one of the first stories to be developed was about a little gaucho, with a whole series about the character also being considered. The gaucho was originally going to be named Panchito, however, as the name “Panchito” was used for someone else, the gauchito ended up not having a name; he doesn’t even get to speak! Frank Thomas was the primary artist on Gauchito, having had much experience of drawing young boys for the feature film Pinocchio (1939). Many story ideas were devised for this gauchito segment, including one around an ostrich laying a golden egg, another about a singing horse, and another about magical bolas, however, as horse racing was big in the cities as well as the rural areas of the Pampas, they decided to base their “gauchito” story on that premise. A flying donkey added a twist to the story. The short was titled “The Winged Donkey” and was meant to appear in Saludos Amigos (1942), but it was developed further and added to The Three Caballeros. For the character of Burrito, the donkey, the animators found that the characters of the “Pastoral Symphony” segment of Fantasia (1940) were popular with the people of Argentina, as the Disney artists were asked to drew these characters for them. Burrito ended up being a combination of the baby Pegasus and the comic donkey unicorn in that Fantasia scene. Ollie Johnston and Eric Larson both animated scenes of the flying donkey[1].

Of the two projected films, I definitely like “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” the best; Pablo is a cute penguin and I agree that the South Pole is much too cold for him; it’s better to move somewhere warmer, away from all that ice and snow! I’m wasn’t too interested in “The Flying Gauchito”, but it thankfully wasn’t too long, so I didn’t get bored watching it.

STORY #3: BAÍA

Next, Donald’s second present begins to dance, so he opens it up quickly, to find a book about Brazil. The book opens up to find a sambaing José Carioca inside, reuniting the two from their earlier escapades in Saludos Amigos (1942).  Brazilian musician, José Oliviera, returns to reprise his voice role as José Carioca. After some brief introductions, and an appearance by the annoying Aracuan bird who rudely interrupts, José starts to tell Donald about Baía, or Bahia, one of the states of Brazil, situated on the Eastern Coast of the country. The segment moves into beautifully painted landscapes of the area, with some animated pieces of a boat and two doves flying, as the sun begins to set in the area, bathing everything in the colours of orange, purple and pink. This scene is accompanied by the calming song, “Baía”. The melody is based on the Brazilian song “Na Baixa do Sapateiro” written by Ary Barroso and first released in 1938. Another of Barroso’s songs, “Aquarela do Brasil”, featured in Saludos Amigos (1942). New English lyrics were written for “Baía” by Ray Gilbert, who contributed lyrics to many Disney songs, and co-wrote the Academy Award winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Song of the South (1946). “Baía” was performed by Nestor Amaral. I really like this part of the sequence, especially the song.

José then begins to sing to Donald, telling him he must go with him to Baía, right now. The song “Have You Been to Bahia”, which was written by Dorival Caymmi and originally released in 1941, is used, translated into English for the most part, though some of it is sung in its original Portuguese. The book then opens to a small train. Donald and José board the train and reach Baía, after the Aracuan bird tries to mess with the journey by drawing additional train tracks, which splits up the train carriages, though they do reassemble themselves in the end. The book flips its pages to the streets of Baía; Donald and José step inside. The music “Pandeiro & Flute”, originally written by Benedito Lacerda, is played here. This train sequence was animated from concept art created by Mary Blair, known for her vivid, bright colour palettes and bold stylisation. She had been invited on the tour of South America alongside her husband[2].

On the streets of Baía, the duo hears a woman singing; she is called Yaya. The live-action woman dances and flirts with the musicians and dancers who appear and surround her, but she also interacts with Donald and José, teasing Donald with a kiss, after Donald become quite jealous of Yaya’s relationships with some of the musicians! Aurora Miranda, sister of well-known Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, performs as Yaya, also singing her song, “Os Quindins de Yayá”, which was again written by Ary Barroso. It was first released in 1941. The song was left in its original Portuguese. Though I enjoyed the dancing and seeing animated Donald and José’s interactions with the live-action Yaya, making this one of the first Disney theatrical releases to use this hybrid style, I felt the section went on for far too long; I lost interest for probably the last five minutes of it. I’m not a big fan of the song either.

After the dance, the book closes, leaving Donald and José to pull themselves out of it. They also have to magic themselves back to their normal sizes, as they shrunk down to get into the book. Finally, the third and final gift is opened – and what comes out of it?! A yelling, gun-shooting rooster! Yes, it’s Panchito. He gives José and Donald a sombrero each and begins to sing the title song, “The Three Caballeros”. It’s quite presumptuous really; he hasn’t even told the other two his name, it is never spoken in the film; they don’t know him and yet, he gets them to form a band with him – what if they didn’t want to? Well, I guess it didn’t matter, because the three look very happy together, dancing and singing, playing instruments, talking about women. This song bases its melody on the Mexican song “Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!”, a Mexican song composed by Manuel Esperón. It was originally released in 1941 for the film of the same name. Walt Disney personally asked Esperón to participate in the movie. Ray Gilbert wrote new English lyrics for the song. It was performed, predominantly, by nightclub singer Joaquin Garay as Panchito Pistoles, the surname referring to Panchito’s love of guns, which he does not actually use again after his initial introductory scene. Joaquin Garay son’s played Paco in the 1980 Disney live-action film, Herbie Goes Bananas.

“The Three Caballeros” song is lots of fun, and is probably the best scene in the whole film; it’s quite an introduction to Panchito as well! Panchito’s full name is not just Panchito Pistoles, but is actually Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González III. The incredibly long name is a reference to Spanish-speaking families who historically have very long names, as they seek to celebrate and honour their family history. According to Panchito’s song “My Name is Panchito”, which appears in the House of Mouse episode titled “Not So Goofy”, he does not only have relatives in Mexico, but also in Peru, Brazil, El Salvador and Dallas, Texas. As early as 1942, Walt Disney had the idea of a little Mexican rooster explaining the custom of “Las Posadas” in film. The bird was to be called Señor Gallito, but the character then became a much bigger, louder idea and morphed into Panchito, stealing his name from little Gauchito, who ended up nameless. Apparently, Alex Buelna, Head of the Mexican Department of Tourism, wrote to Walt Disney and asked for the rooster to be more manly to represent the “he-men” of Mexico, so I guess we can thank him for making Panchito the crazy, loud rooster that he is! Animator Ward Kimball handled the animation for Panchito and the staging of their song, which was a last-minute addition to the film, in order to have a song to represent the title of the film. Walt supposedly loved the scene, as did Ward Kimball, who particularly enjoyed the animation of José and Donald trying to distract or interrupt Panchito as he holds his long high note at the end of the song[3]!

STORY #4: LAS POSADAS

After this, a piñata appears, which Panchito tells Donald is full of surprises. Panchito tells the others of the custom of “Las Posadas” in Mexico, where in the nine days leading up to Christmas, children will recreate the journey of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter. The children plea for shelter at people’s houses, but always receive the reply of “no posada”, meaning “no shelter”. They finally reach a friendly house, which does provide shelter, where they celebrate with a feast and the breaking of a piñata. This scene is not animated, but shows artwork depicting this custom. It’s a short, but interesting, scene. This leads in to Donald trying to break his piñata, though he is tricked by José and Panchito who pull it up and down so Donald can’t find it! But eventually, he does and out spills confetti, pots, toys, including one very angry toy bull, and another book, this time all about Mexico.

STORY #5: MEXICO

Panchito tells a brief history of Mexico, its flag, and the building of Mexico City. Images and sketches of Mexico are then shown, accompanied by the song “México” sung by Colombian baritone Carlos Ramírez. It is the only song in the film to be completely original, and was composed by Charles Wolcott, who wrote and directed music for many of Disney’s 1940s film releases, with lyrics by Ray Gilbert. I quite like this song, not as much as “Baía”, but it is nice. The song was later used in the Pluto short, Pluto’s Blue Note (1947).

Then, the trio take a tour of Mexico via a magical sarape, or flying carpet. Some of the sarape work was animated from concept art designed by Mary Blair. They go into the book and traverse through live-action footage of the areas. At Pátzcuaro, we see fisherman on their boats, before seeing traditional Mexican dances. In Veracruz, we see more dancing, with Donald asking to dance with one of the local women, and then they get to Acapulco beach, where Donald precedes to ogle at and chase the local women in their swimsuits…which is fine, apparently, because Donald is a duck, and a Disney one at that, so what harm can he do? Though the aerial live-action shots of Acapulco beach were photographed, the scene of Donald chasing women on the beach was actually filmed on the Disney Studio parking lot, which was covered in sand, during January and February 1944[4]. This section is another one that gets a bit samey, lots of dancing and women yet again!

STORY #6: YOU BELONG TO MY HEART

Next, we move on to talk about the nightlife of Mexico City through the book again; an aerial shot of the city lit up at night is shown. Then, in a picture of stars, Mexican singer Dora Luz sings the song “You Belong to My Heart”. The song is based on the melody of Mexican song “Solamente una vez”, written by Agustín Lara, with new English lyrics written by Ray Gilbert. “You Belong to My Heart” was later used in the Pluto short, Pluto’s Blue Note (1947). It was also covered by other well-known singers such as Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, and Engelbert Humperdinck. Donald goes crazy for this singer, and begins to dreamily dance over an animated sky. Animated lips kiss Donald as the song ends, leading to his “surreal reverie”, where he is “drunk on love”. This is a similar concept to the “Pink Elephants on Parade” sequence that appears in Dumbo (1941), though Dumbo is actually drunk.

STORY #7: DONALD’S SURREAL REVERIE

Donald starts to see José and Panchito and the singer in different forms, like flowers. Soon, more and more women start to enter this weird, trippy vision. As he begins to calm down, a new girl appears, dressed as a flower, then a cowgirl, and starts dancing. This woman is Mexican actress and dancer Carmen Molina. Lots of dancing cacti also randomly show up. “La Zandunga”, a traditional Mexican song believed to have originated in Andalusia, plays during the majority of this scene. It was arranged here by Charles Wolcott. The cacti dance scene uses the instrumental “Jesusita en Chihuahua”, written in 1916 by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés. These are definitely not my favourite songs; I don’t like how “La Zandunga” sounds at all, sounding quite tinny with its choice of instruments. Nor do I like the scene much; it’s far too weird and abstract for me!

Finally, the film ends as José and Panchito come out of a trumpet, shortly followed by Donald inside the toy bull from earlier. He is being teased by Panchito, as José lights up firecrackers which have been tied to the tail of the bull. The bull begins to light up and Donald is released from it. He then headbutts the bull, causing it to explode into a huge fireworks display. The Disney Chorus from earlier sings a reprise of “The Three Caballeros”, as the three new friends watch the display together.

PRODUCTION

After the US formally joined World War II at the end of 1941, the Disney Studios were asked by the government to make propaganda films for the military and the American public. These tended to be anti-German or anti-Japanese in nature, with one of the more infamous ones being Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943), which starred Donald Duck. Some animators had left the Studios at this time to join the Armed Forces. All of these things considered meant that “big budget” animation projects were temporarily off the table. But, as Saludos Amigos (1942) was popular enough, and since the war meant co-operation across the whole continent was still massively important to the US government, a sequel to it was pushed into production. This became The Three Caballeros. The movie is quite experimental in nature, with its mixture of live-action footage and animated material, and its incredibly surreal and abstract animation towards the end of the film. This is perhaps due to the fact that the Disney artists who remained at the studio were glad of an opportunity to work on something a bit more interesting than the same types of propaganda shorts!

Furthermore, this new movie looked to explore different countries that the Disney artists had seen during the tour of South America in 1941 but had not yet developed animation for. In actual fact, Brazil would once again feature heavily in The Three Caballeros, as it did in Saludos Amigos (1942), and the only “new” country to have much focus in this film is Mexico. Yet the Disney artists did also explore Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and Guatemala, as can be seen in the travel documentary films South of the Border with Disney (1942) and Walt & El Grupo (2008). But they did visit Mexico, which was useful for The Three Caballeros. In Mexico, they saw the floating gardens of Mexico City with their boats covered in flowers. The Disney team also experienced Mariachi music, the food and colours of Mexico, as well as the art and pottery of Guadalajara and places like that[5]. The Disney Studio artists again visited Mexico from late 1942 to early 1943, in order to audition Mexican performers for the movie and make further sketches and artwork to use as reference material. A further trip was taken in July 1943.

RECEPTION

The Three Caballeros held its world premiere in Mexico City on 21st December 1944, where Carmen Molina and Dora Luz appeared onstage. The movie was later released in the US on 3rd February 1945[6]. The movie received mixed reviews on its release, with many confused by the more surreal, “flashy” animation at times, stating that it seemed to be a case of “style over substance”. Some even commented on Donald’s distasteful behaviour, of him running around after women, thinking it was suggestive and inappropriate for Disney. That still seems to be something that is discussed by those who have watched The Three Caballeros in contemporary times! But the abstract art is something that has been viewed more kindly by audiences of today, though it is not to my taste.

The Three Caballeros was later released as a television special called A Present for Donald, which aired on 22nd December 1954. It was an edited version of The Three Caballeros, with some of the changes being that instead of the presents being for Donald’s birthday, they were actually Christmas presents, and instead of “The End” being spelled out in fireworks in the final shot, they spelled “Merry Christmas” for this special.

In 1977, The Three Caballeros was re-released in theatres, however, the runtime was cut from around seventy minutes to forty, meaning that it was edited significantly, with most of the segments of the film receiving cuts. The film was re-released due to its increased popularity and interest in its “psychedelic imagery” that appears mostly in “Donald’s Surreal Reverie”. Alice in Wonderland (1951) received similar attention from audiences around this time for similar reasons.

Some of the sections of the film were released either as standalone shorts, or released within compilation television episodes or VHS tapes, though it was more difficult to do this, unlike with other “package features”, like Saludos Amigos (1942) or Make Mine Music (1946), since The Three Caballeros has more of a cohesive plot and is much less “episodic” than the others. “The Flying Gauchito” was released as a standalone short in 1955, with “Las Posadas” being released on compilation VHS tapes of Christmas stories, and “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” appearing in television compilation episodes in the 1970s and 1980s, which included an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney (1969-79).

As is customary for the majority of Disney films, it was, of course, released on VHS and DVD for home viewing. It was first released on Blu-Ray for its 75th Anniversary in 2018.

The Three Caballeros was also released on Disney+, however, as with certain older Disney films, a “negative depiction warning” was added to it; Saludos Amigos (1942) has one too. It warns viewers that the movie contains “negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures”. This same warning is on the likes of Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). In this case, it is likely to be around how Mexican and Brazilian cultures are depicted in the movie, which are more outdated than outright offensive, in my opinion. Many other viewers don’t see specifically how The Three Caballeros is problematic, whereas it is obvious within movies like Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), but I guess it’s good to have this warning anyway, and means the movie can still be shown on Disney+[7].

LEGACY

There were plans for a third film in this Latin American-based movie set, to be named Cuban Carnival; obviously heavily based around Cuba. After the release of Saludos Amigos (1942), many complaints came in from the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries that had not been represented in the movie via a dedicated cartoon, though some individual shorts inspired by other countries were released in the 1940s, such as Pluto and the Armadillo (1943) and The Pelican and the Snipe (1944), set in Uruguay. As Cuba was a very touristy spot for Americans during this time, with some areas under supervision of American mobsters, apparently – just think of Nucky Thompson in Season 5 of Boardwalk Empire (2009-14) here, though this was admittedly in the 1930s, not 40s – Disney decided that they would represent Cuba in their next Latin American-themed feature film. A short research trip to Cuba took place between September and October 1944.

Like Panchito represents Mexico, and José represents Brazil, they wanted to create a character to represent Cuba. They considered another bird, like a scrawny fighting rooster. No final design was ever approved, though an early sketch from animator Fred Moore of this concept has been released in recent years. The idea was that Donald and José would become friends with this Cuban bird, who owned a plantation and would’ve taken them on a tour of Cuba. Lots of smoking and animated tobacco leaves with traditional Cuban music made up the majority of the story ideas. Mary Blair created some concept art for the movie of carnivals and cockfights[8].

However, as The Three Caballeros was not a success, critically or financially, and lost money, this planned follow-up movie was scrapped, meaning we were never introduced to this fourth “caballero”. As World War II ended in 1945, the European markets also opened up again, and meant that the Disney Studios could try and get back to where they had been before the war began. Still, the history of this fourth “caballero” is quite interesting.

On screen, the Three Caballeros trio did appear on television shows, such as House of Mouse (2001-03) and Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017-21). Panchito and José also featured within a few episodes of the animated television series reboot, DuckTales (2017-21), after the trio received their very own spin-off series, Legend of the Three Caballeros (2018), produced by Disney Interactive. The series sees the trio find they are descendants of great adventures known as the Three Caballeros, and must save the world from being destroyed by an evil sorcerer. I have not seen this thirteen-episode series; however, I believe it is available widely on Disney+.

The Three Caballeros have also featured in comic book form, with two sequels being written by comic book writer and illustrator Don Rosa, who designed many Disney comics stories. These are titled The Three Caballeros Ride Again (2000) and The Magnificent Seven (Minus 4) Caballeros (2005). A manga story from TokyoPop was also released in 2022, called Donald Duck Visits Japan! It saw the trio move from New York to Japan, an order from the president of the furniture business they work for, to learn all about Japanese culture. It was written and illustrated by Meru Okada[9].

Given the fact that the Disney animated “package features” aren’t generally talked about or remembered too much, you’d think The Three Caballeros wouldn’t have much of a presence within the Disney Parks. Well, in actual fact, the Three Caballeros are an incredibly popular trio, with the three characters prevalent at most of the Disney Parks across the world. The film as a whole is not referred to as much, though.

One of the most well-known references across all the Disney Parks, is The Three Caballeros-themed attraction Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, which resides within the Mexico pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World. This boat ride began its life as the opening day attraction El Río del Tiempo, which translates to “The River of Time”. It took guests on a cruise through the history of Mexico. In 2007, this storyline was changed to Panchito and José frantically searching for Donald, who has gone sightseeing whilst the group are in Mexico, to ensure he is ready to perform at their reunion concert of the Three Caballeros in Mexico City that evening. The revision of the ride was directed by George Scribner, who directed the Mickey’s PhilarMagic attraction, with Eric Goldberg, who animated numerous beloved characters such as Genie from Aladdin (1992), being the animation director. They combined character animation overlaid onto live background footage, and refurbished and enhanced the props, lighting and sound systems throughout.

Gran Fiesta Tour opened on 6th April 2007, where the final scene was a large screen showing animation of the Three Caballeros singing their well-known song. Theme Park Productions spent six weeks in Mexico to film footage of the area and cast the live-action actors who appear within the ride. There was also a lot of opportunity to include animated gags, such as Donald cliff-diving and climbing the Mayan pyramid, though images of José smoking and Panchito firing guns were not included so as not to disturb contemporary audiences. Some features from the original El Río del Tiempo were kept, such as the fiesta scene with all the dolls (my least favourite bit because I find dolls really creepy, though I have still always liked this attraction); the fibre-optic fireworks on the ceiling in the finale; and the overall track layout[10].

On 4th December 2015, three animatronics of the characters were put into the finale scene instead of the screen. These animatronics had come from the Mickey Mouse Revue attraction, that opened with Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World on 1st October 1971, before closing in September 1980 and being moved to Tokyo Disneyland, where it also opened with that park on 15th April 1983. The Mickey Mouse Revue consisted of small animatronics of Disney characters performing songs from their movies, so the Three Caballeros naturally sang their one and only song! The attraction closed in Tokyo Disneyland in 2009 to make way for Mickey’s PhilarMagic; at Magic Kingdom, the same area that housed the Mickey Mouse Revue eventually became Mickey’s PhilarMagic in 2003. Epcot wanted these animatronics as soon as the Mickey Mouse Revue closed in 2009, and took delivery of them, however, there was insufficient budget to install them at Gran Fiesta Tour so they were stored backstage. They made their first public appearance after the move at D23’s Destination D: WDW 40th in May 2011, and were finally installed into the ride on 4th December 2015[11].

As excited as everyone was to see the animatronics of the Three Caballeros appear in Gran Fiesta Tour, their constant breakdowns were a source of amusement amongst fans in recent years, because in 2020, José Carioca vanished one day and was replaced by a vase of flowers. Once he returned, the same thing happened to Donald. In January 2021, all three were replaced with cardboard cutouts, whilst the animatronics were refurbished and restored. The animatronics were re-installed in May 2021.

Also at Walt Disney World, and at the Epcot Mexico pavilion, there is a permanent meet-and-greet for Donald outside the pyramid; he is wearing a poncho and sombrero. Panchito and José have been available for meet-and-greets with Donald previously, however, that doesn’t seem to have been any earlier than 2013 when the trio were spotted at the Limited Time Magic event. But it is possible they would return as a trio for Special Events in the future. Gauchito and Burrito, from “The Flying Gauchito”, and Yaya, from “Baía”, have also been spotted at Special Events, such as Disney Dreamers Everywhere, but not for many years. At Animal Kingdom, Panchito and José were spotted at the Discovery Island Carnivale Street Party in 2018. The two do appear regularly on the Adventure Friends Cavalcade final float with Mirabel at the Magic Kingdom, however, they do not then meet-and-greet guests. The two have also been announced as appearing at the Jollywood Nights event for the 2024 holiday season at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Also at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, during the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show, the scene of the Three Caballeros singing in their film can be seen briefly on the middle screen of the Chinese Theater towards the end of the show. They also have a poster within the Mickey’s PhilarMagic queue, under the name “Festival de los Mariachis”. Finally, at the Mexican-themed Coronado Springs Resort, the hotel’s gift shop is named after Panchito, being called Panchito’s Gifts and Sundries, and a statue of the trio features in the centre of the main swimming pool at the All-Star Music Resort.

At Disneyland, small figures of the Three Caballeros can be seen in the South America section of the it’s a small world attraction. At Disney’s California Adventure, during the Festival of the Holidays event, specifically ¡Viva Navidad! and the Three Kings Day Celebration, the trio have previously had a meet-and-greet location, so it is possible that will appear again in the coming years. The three have been seen at the ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party in 2021 and 2022, and will also appear in 2023. Like Mickey’s PhilarMagic at the Magic Kingdom, Disney California Adventure’s PhilarMagic queue also features the same Three Caballeros poster. Mickey’s Soundsational Parade at Disneyland, which ran from 2011 to 2019, featured a Three Caballeros-themed float or “unit”, with Donald Duck standing on the float, and Panchito and José dancing in front of it. The music for this unit used snippets of the songs “The Three Caballeros”, “Saludos Amigos”, “Tico-Tico no Fubá”, and “Baía”, so two from The Three Caballeros and two from Saludos Amigos (1942).

At Tokyo Disneyland, as mentioned, the park was home to the original Mickey Mouse Revue from 1983 to 2009, which featured the animatronics of the Three Caballeros. Like Disneyland, small figures of the Three Caballeros can be seen in the South America section of the it’s a small world attraction here, as well as the same Three Caballeros poster within the queue of their Mickey’s PhilarMagic attraction. In terms of meet-and-greets, José and Panchito have been seen at Tokyo Disneyland as recently as at least 2022, but without Donald, with these two also having previously appeared in the Happy Halloween Amigos event at the park and the Happy Halloween Harvest Parade in 2013, though it doesn’t look like they will be appearing for Halloween in 2023.

At Disneyland Paris, there are no shows, or attractions, dedicated to The Three Caballeros or its characters, however, meet-and-greets for the characters have been available at Special Events. One of these was the Disney Dreamers Everywhere finale show in 2013, and another was FanDaze in 2018 where Yaya, Gauchito and Burrito were a meet-and-greet location. José and Panchito were seen in 2018 for Halloween here too.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, there do not seem to have been any meet-and-greets for The Three Caballeros’ characters recently, however, small figures of the Three Caballeros can be seen in the South America section of the it’s a small world attraction here, and the same Three Caballeros poster is on the wall at their Mickey’s PhilarMagic queue too.

At Shanghai Disneyland, there do not seem to have been any meet-and-greets for The Three Caballeros’ characters recently, but there are some different references to the movie at this park. Firstly, a billboard on one of the alleys along Mickey Avenue, Shanghai’s main entry land, their alternative to Main Street, U.S.A, shows Pablo the penguin from “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” segment of The Three Caballeros; it is an advertisement for his ice delivery service – which doesn’t make an awful lot of sense when you think about it, since Pablo hates the cold… Mickey & Pals Market Café, also in Mickey Avenue, is a quick-service restaurant, which has a vaguely The Three Caballeros-themed seating area. It is themed to look like a fruit warehouse, with instruments for the band being visible on a balcony, and clips from the film being shown on a screen in the room.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Given The Three Caballeros is one of the lesser known, and lesser appreciated, Disney “package features”, it might be a surprise to find that it has continued to be remembered over 75 years after its initial release. In 2020, the movie celebrated its 75th anniversary, where Disney released an ornament of the Three Caballeros, and D23 organised special screenings of the film. But when you think about it, it is the trio of characters that are especially popular, since Donald has always been a beloved Disney character. Panchito and José’s friendship with him would make them famous by association, but they are also fun and uniquely representative of other countries, not just representative of Europe or the US, as many other popular Disney characters are.

The Three Caballeros continued to further the United States’ relations with South America, which was incredibly important during wartime. It also gave the Disney artists some freedom to experiment with the animated artform. It may have gone slightly too far at times, but The Three Caballeros is a fun, strange film – and that’s what makes it memorable.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Panchito, Little Gauchito, and Burrito’, MousePlanet.com, 25th September 2013.

[2] Credit: Disney, “The Art of Mary Blair”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Panchito, Little Gauchito, and Burrito’, MousePlanet.com, 25th September 2013.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Three Caballeros’, pp. 19-21.

[5] Credit: Disney, “South of the Border with Disney (1942)”, from Saludos Amigos (1942) 1-Disc DVD (2002).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Three Caballeros’, pp. 19-21.

[7] Credit: Matt Singer, ‘Disney Plus Adds New Warning to Movies With ‘Negative Depictions’ of Race’, ScreenCrush.com, 16th October 2020.

[8] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘The Lost Caballero’, MousePlanet.com, 9th August 2006.

[9] Credit: Samantha King, ‘Donald Duck’s Three Caballeros Head to Japan in New Disney Manga’, ScreenRant.com, 18th January 2022.

[10] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘The Three Caballeros Return’, MousePlanet.com, 10th October 2007.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Three Caballeros’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

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