There are some movies that need to discussed, even if they are impossible to talk about. One of these type of movies is The Three Caballeros. The trouble with the film is that it makes no sense whatsoever, but it's that surreal sense of anarchy that makes the film worth discussing. It seems Three Caballeros was made by Disney -at the request of the American government- in 1945 as some sort of World War 2 propaganda film to promote good will and solidarity with the US and Latin American countries in the face of Nazi adversity. Thing is, whoever was put in charge of Three Caballeros ended up making a flick that is goofy more than anything.

The plot, for what there is of it, concerns Donald Duck hanging out with two of his south-of-the-border counterparts. I guess they chose Donald for a goodwill ambassador instead of Mickey Mouse because having Mr. Mouse meet up with other anthropomorphic rodents wouldn't of been the best image on which to build feelings of friendship between countries. Three singing birds is festive, but three singing vermin would of been just plain wrong. Another factor in choosing Donald is that, unlike Mickey Mouse, Donald has a much more outgoing personality. Not only does Mickey have an "ah shucks" personality that is so laid back it's sometimes difficult to notice, he is also seen as the company mascot and as a result has to keep up the good Disney name instead of being able to let his hair down. Donald Duck, in contrast, is short tempered, speaks in an unintelligible, spittle-filled squak, often acts like a jerk, and openly flirts with any girl he sees. If you had to party with one of the Disney characters the obvious choice is Donald.

To kick off Three Caballeros, Donald -who apparently lives in a big, empty sound stage- receives a batch of presents for his birthday. The first of these that he opens is a collection of short films that Donald proceeds to watch. While most of the shorts are pretty standard fare -a boy and his flying donkey and whatnot- it is interesting to note that not a single one of the shorts has any real resolution. Instead they all abruptly end for seemingly no other reason than the writers had run out of material.

Growing antsy for more presents, Donald opens a package that contains a book. The book contains Joe Carioca, and old drinking buddy of Donald's from a previous film. Jumping into the book, the two of them head off to Baia for a series of scenes showing them interacting with a set full of live action people. While in Baia, Donald gets involved in several dance scenes, chases after some girl, tries to pick fights and generally behaves like a sailor on shore leave.

After Donald somehow becomes trapped in the movie's sound-track, Panchito the rooster blasts his way into the movie. The three of them then don sombreos and sing awhile. Incredibly, the movie hasn't even started getting really strange yet.

Joe [who smokes cigars during the entire film] Panchito [who shoots off revolvers for fun and has a tendency to jam the barrels into the faces of his friends] and Donald [who is, well, Donald] then fly through stock footage of tourist areas in Mexico. Since they have Donald on board they end up going to both Vera Cruz for more dancing and Acapulco for more skirt chasing. While down Acapulco way Donald runs wild on a beach that is full of nothing but women. For several minutes Donald -a cartoon duck- chases throngs of real -and swimsuit clad- women around the beach in a scene that would of been odd in any respect but is mind spinning when one remembers this sequence was produced by Disney, a company that prides itself in it's squeaky clean image. One gets the feeling that the film's producers decided to showcase the part of Latin America they found interesting - namely that there were a lot of babes in that part of the world.

Donald and his friends out shooting 'em down.

After dragging Donald kicking and screaming from the beach, the film becomes a surreal musical number with Donald floating through gardens, deserts, and the cosmos itself all while surrounded by the floating heads of various women. Since the movie has no where to go at this point, it literally explodes and flashes the closing credits.

Yeah, this film is normal.

I know I'm spending far too much time trying to describe this film but I don't feel too bad about it since there's no real plot to ruin plus, no matter how hard you try, the film defies any comprehensible description. I also don't plan on making it a habit of including so many screen captures, but this film needs to be seen to be believed. But, after all this, do I recommend the film? Eh, not really. While Three Caballeros contains some of the best animation that Disney ever put out, the film itself is an incomprehensible mish-mash of different ideas that makes your average Marx Bros. movie look like a study in Neo-Realism. In many ways the film reminds me of a plot-less black and white cartoon from the 1930's; the sort where the lead character would furiously bob up and down while playing a piano until the animators ran out of jokes to tell. I don't know what audiences fresh from World War 2 thought of this film, but today it exists more as a curiosity either for animation buffs or those who want to watch a strange Disney movie that not only goes against the grain of the company's perceived image but is flat-out weird.

Questions? Comments? An explanation as to what in Sam Hill is going on in this movie? Drop me a line at gleep9@hotmail.com. Now dance on out of here to either the Second Movie or Main page.