"The Three Caballeros"

Shapely senoritas, south-of-the-borderish tunes that send you away humming, and easy-on-the-eyes technicolor partly atone for incoherent plot and questionable symbolism in Walt Disney's current full-length animated feature, "The Three Caballeros," but the-final product falls short of the usual Disney standard.

Second in a series of "good will" productions directed at betterment of Pan American relations, "Three Caballeros" tries too hard to suggest political and social meaning and in the process loses much of the charm and simplicity which characterized "Snow White," "Bambi," or even "Pinocchio."

Live subjects and animated caricatures do not mix, and it is this fusion of flesh and fantasy which tends to create lopsided sequences, most notably in the last reel. As a result, "Three Caballeros" emerges as a somewhat confused, aimless travelogue on Mexico with Donald Duck or the sadistic penguin sharing the spotlight with Aurora Miranda or a beachful of Mexican bathing beauties.

Despite all this, "Three Caballeros" has whirling color and throbbing, tropical music ("Baia," "You Belong to My Heart" and others) together with several animated caricatures and some well-rounded Latin American beauties. And it's still Disney, which places it above similar material on the market today. snc