The Three Caballeros was aired in 1944. If you noticed it is in COLOR! This was a big deal in the 1940s. Disney picked a great time to introduce this film in the United States. During the late 1930s and early 1940s FDR took advantage of improved relations to advance hemispheric security arrangements in successive Pan-American conferences. This would later be known as the "Good Neighbor Policy."
We can also look at what came before the making of this film to help establish why it has such an impact. Latin America from 1850-1910 was in a stage of "Progress". What is progress exactly? To sum it up in one word it is INDUSTRIALIZATION! This is the time when factories, movement to urban areas, and steam powered transportation began to rise. During this time members of the Democratic Party (liberals) were highly interested in European business. They wanted to plug into world market. Technological innovations began to occur such as; railroads, steamships, cable cars, electric lighting and telegraphs. All of which was embraced and promoted by liberals, who advocated free trade and embracing world market. During the stage of "Progress" we are also introduced to the idea of "Neocolonialism", which occurred between 1880-1930. Chasteen defines "Neocolonalism" as a powerful and very pervasive foreign influence. "Because of high capital requirements, installations such as refineries for Cuban sugar, oil wells pumping Mexican and Venezuelan crude, and deep-shaft mines in the high Andes were usually foreign owned." (Chasteen 188) By this time 90% of Latin American wealth came from what was sold (exported) to European and U.S. markets. The wealthy Latin Americans traveled to Europe, bought imports, and above all valued EUROPEANESS.
Feliz cumpleaños Donald!!! Abre los regalos muy rapido!
For fellow Disney lovers you will know who Donald Duck is, but what about his fellow amigos? Watching the trailer you see that Panchito, the Mexican rooster, is all over the place. Not to mention his love of guns. POW! POW! There is also José Carioca, the Brazilian parrot. Together you have The Three Caballeros! Time to open presents and get on with it. By the way I would love to have a box show up that contained all the wonderful gifts Donald received. Now, it is time for our adventure. There are many messages in this film. When we encounter The cold-blooded penguin we see that he is always trying to get away from his natural habitat, yet once completing this task he realizes he misses home. Well you can't have your cake and eat it too. The Flying Gauchito is quite entertaining! You see a young boy, guacho, High in the mountains is where we first meet our young guacho. He is hunting wild ostrich and condor when he sees the rare "flying gauchito". With the help of a bolas he is able to catch a flying gauchito. The young guacho enters a race for reward money, only his competition is not aware of the trick up his sleeve. Everyone loves to see the underdog win, or at least I do.
Bienvenida a Bahia!
Although I love Disney films, I was not impressed by the way women are depicted in this film. We (women) were overtly sexual and objectified, which was directly reflected from Donald's actions. His obsession with Latin American women was just too much. Donald's behavior promotes the ideas of machismo, yet he is from the US. You would think that Panchito or José Carioca would have more of a machismo behavior. Then again they both are around beautiful women all the time. To me this is a way to show that even in those days men were still unable to respect women and treat them as more than just a pretty face on the street.
I give the film ten thumbs up, but then again I'm a sucker for Disney movies!
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