Plot
Donald Duck drives his nephews to the Junior Woodchucks jamboree in Mexico. After he drops them off, they feel sorry for Donald because he does not have any friends to spend time with.
However, José Carioca, an old friend of Donald's, is at the hotel where Donald is heading, flirting with a woman named Rosa. Her boyfriend, the bandit Alfonso Bedoya appears and tries to kill José, who jumps from the window into Donald's rumble seat. Alfonso tries to shoot them, but they escape. Donald and José, remembering the old days, decide to teach Alfonso a lesson, but Donald takes a wrong turn and they find themselves lost in the desert.
They find themselves being shot at by their old friend Panchito Pistoles, who stops when he recognizes them. Panchito explains that he found a map to the lost city of Tayopa, a silver mining city, which they find buried in lava except for the church's belfry. Because of his many treasure hunts with his rich uncle Scrooge McDuck, Donald is able to identify the church as the headquarters for the Tayopa silver mine, so the friends climb down and find wooden kegs of pure silver ingots in a secret store room. They carry it to a nearby village and put it on a train to the city of Divisadero.
While the train is being loaded with mine carts, our heroes enter a cantina where they meet Alfonso again. He was looking for Panchito because of his map. They perform a musical number, but get knocked off by Alfonso, who hijacks the train, but the caballeros use Donald's car to jump on the last flatcar. During their fight with Alfonso, the train engineer cuts them loose and they are on a runaway train on the world's most dangerous railroad track. Alfonso falls from the train right into the jail.
The caballeros derail the silver kegs' flatcar and escape to Copper Canyon in Donald's car. However, they find out that the substance in the kegs is not silver after all, but mercury used to extract silver from ore. There is no silver remaining, but instead of feeling disappointed, the three caballeros share a hearty laugh, agreeing that they have had a great adventure, and the fact that there is no reward at the end just makes it a better story.
They ride back to the hotel in Divisadero, where the owner is threatening to fire José unless he comes up with a very special performance.
Leaving the jamboree, Huey, Dewey, and Louie return to the hotel where they are stunned to see the three caballeros ride on stage on Panchito's horse, performing their song to riotous applause from the audience. They are even more amazed when José and Panchito tell them their Uncle Donald is the bravest, truest friend they know, as well as a better man than them for having the courage to raise three boys.
Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created for Disney-licensed comic books, first published in America by Dell Comics. Many of his stories are built on characters and locations created by Barks; among these was his first Duck story, "The Son of the Sun" (1987), which was nominated for a Harvey Award in the "Best Story of the Year" category.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro. They are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-nephews of Scrooge McDuck. Like their maternal uncles, the brothers are anthropomorphic white ducks with yellow-orange bills and feet. The boys are sometimes distinguished by the color of their shirts and baseball caps. They appeared in many Donald Duck animated shorts, as well as in the television show DuckTales and its reboot, but the comics remain their primary medium.
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company by Carl Barks. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-born American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew, Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a red or blue frock coat, top hat, pince-nez glasses, and spats varying in color. He is portrayed in animation as speaking with a Scottish accent. Originally intended to be used only once, Scrooge became one of the most popular characters in the Disney comics world, as well as Barks' signature work. Scrooge is an extremely rich duck who lives in the fictional city of Duckburg in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, whose claimed location is in California in the real-world United States.
The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (Lo$) is a serial of 12 comic book stories written and drawn by Don Rosa, lettered by Todd Klein, first published by the Danish publisher Egmont in the magazine Anders And & Co. from 1992–94 and later in English in Uncle Scrooge #285 through #296 (1994–96). The stories chronicle the in-universe biography of Scrooge McDuck before his introduction in 1947. The stories were later collected and published together in a single volume. Rosa later published additional stories which expanded on Scrooge's biography. These were released as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion.
The Clan McDuck is a fictional Scottish clan of cartoon ducks from which Disney character Scrooge McDuck is descended. Within the Donald Duck universe, the clan is related to the American Duck family through the marriage of Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck, Donald and Della Duck's parents, giving both of them partial Scottish ancestry.
José "Zé" Carioca is a cartoon anthropomorphic parrot created by the Brazilian cartoonist José Carlos de Brito and shown to Walt Disney on his trip to Rio de Janeiro in 1941. The Walt Disney Company then incorporated the idea, being introduced in the 1942 film Saludos Amigos as a friend of Donald Duck, described by Time as "a dapper Brazilian parrot, who is as superior to Donald Duck as the Duck was to Mickey Mouse." He speaks Portuguese with a Brazilian accent. He returned in the 1944 film The Three Caballeros along with Donald and a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles. José is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American live-action and animated musical propaganda anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on February 3, 1945 and in the United Kingdom in March 1945. It marks the tenth anniversary of Donald Duck and plots an adventure through parts of Latin America, combining live-action and animation. This is the second of the six package films released by Walt Disney Productions in the 1940s, following Saludos Amigos (1942). It is also notable for being one of the first feature-length films to incorporate traditional animation with live-action actors.
The Duck family is a fictional family of cartoon ducks related to Disney character Donald Duck. The family is also related to the Coot, Goose, and Gander families, as well as the Scottish Clan McDuck. Besides Donald, the best-known members of the Duck family are Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Donald's triplet nephews.
Panchito Pistoles is a cartoon anthropomorphic rooster created by Fred Moore. He first appeared in the 1944 Disney film The Three Caballeros with his friends Donald Duck and José Carioca. He later appeared in several Disney comics, including a year-long run in the Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip (1944–1945) as well as Don Rosa's comic book stories The Three Caballeros Ride Again (2000) and The Magnificent Seven Caballeros (2005). He speaks Spanish with a Mexican accent.
El Rio del Tiempo was a dark ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico pavilion, in EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The ride carried passengers on a slow boat ride through various scenes from Mexico's history. The scenes were filled with doll-sized Audio-Animatronic figures clad in authentic folk clothing, singing, dancing and playing music.
"North of the Yukon" is a 24-page Disney comics adventure story featuring Scrooge McDuck and his nephews, Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey, & Louie. It was written and drawn by Carl Barks. This was his last story involving Scrooge's adventures in Alaska. It was published in September 1965, and later reprinted in May 1993. Gemstone Publishing later reprinted the story again in 2005 for a Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge graphic novel with another story inspired by this one called "Somewhere in Nowhere". The character of Barko was inspired by an actual sled dog named Balto, who participated in the 1925 serum run to Nome. Barks had read an article about Balto in an issue of National Geographic, and was inspired to create this character.
"A Little Something Special" is a 1997 Disney comics story created by Don Rosa to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Scrooge McDuck's first appearance in Carl Barks's "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in 1947.
David Gerstein is an American comics author and editor as well as an animation historian. Gerstein has five books and countless comic book credits to his name. He has written many Disney comics stories, usually featuring Mickey Mouse and/or Donald Duck and provided American English script doctoring for Mickey and Donald stories that were originally written in a different language. Past employments include Egmont Creative A/S, a Danish comics studio, and Gemstone Publishing. His current work is with various affiliates of Egmont, and Fantagraphics Books.
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros is a musical dark boat ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico Pavilion, at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. It was the first World Showcase attraction to feature Disney characters based on an existing property. Norway followed suit in 2014 when it closed its Maelstrom ride to make room for Frozen Ever After, which opened in 2016.
"The Empire-Builder from Calisota" or "The Richest Duck in the World" is a 1994 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It is the eleventh of the original 12 chapters in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The story takes place from 1909 to 1930 and details Scrooge finishing his quest to become the richest man in the world, during which he becomes hardened and overall hostile towards others.
"The Dreamtime Duck of the Never Never" is a 1993 Scrooge McDuck comic by Don Rosa. It is the seventh of the original 12 chapters in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The story takes place from 1893 to 1896.
"The Magnificent Seven Caballeros" is a 2005 Disney comic written and drawn by Don Rosa. The story was first published in the Danish Anders And & Co. #2005-03; the first American publication was in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #663, in December 2005.
Legend of the Three Caballeros is an 2018 animated television series based on the 1944 animated Disney film The Three Caballeros and features the characters Donald Duck, José Carioca and Panchito Pistoles.
