The Three Caballeros (1944)

(Disney Streaming, February 2021) Considering the difficulties that World War II created for Disney Animation, it’s a near-miracle that a production as polished as The Three Caballeros would emerge from the company’s war years. Conceived as a homage to South America, the film loosely arranges its musical sketches (each one focused on a region of South America) around a loose conceit of having Donald Duck unwrap presents and become friends with other birds. I must have seen this film during childhood or (most likely) read hand-me-down books based on it, because parts of a few sketches felt very familiar — most notably the opening segment with “The Cold-Blooded Penguin.”  White the animation is quite good, perhaps the most noteworthy technical aspect of the production are the numerous and lengthy segments integrating live action with the animation, including Aurora “Sister of Carmen” Miranda signing up a storm with the animated birds. What must have been a fun opening of the cultural frontier to American audiences back in 1942 is now preceded by a cultural sensitivity warning on the Disney streaming service, warning us about the stereotypes to come. It doesn’t feel that bad or offensive, but then again, I’m not in the audience best placed to judge. You can still see in The Three Callaberos the legacy of Disney’s early “Silly Symphonies” shorts blending music and animation — while the result is not among the top tier (maybe not even the second tier) of Disney’s animated movies, it’s still fun enough to watch and even better to listen to.