The Legend of the Three Caballeros, Episode Two: "Labyrinth and Repeat"

The one obvious thing that I should've mentioned last time: whatever else you want to say about this show compared to New Ducktales, my goodness it LOOKS so much better. I mean, good on them for trying a new look with Ducktales, I guess, but the results...ain't great. I really, really appreciate the traditional look on display here, and also just how...non-ironic it is, mostly. April May and June (who again play a very small role here) add a little of that millennial feel, but not, so far, an intolerable amount. Their character designs look very Quack-Pack-esque, but thankfully, they are nothing like the nephews in that show. We'll see what role they actually serve, but there is definitely something to be said for having female characters like this at all. It would've been easy to just put HDL in here, but I think and hope that going in this other direction is a bold choice that will pay off. We shall see!

Anyway. As people noted in the comments last time, yes, obviously, these characters--José especially--are indeed well-rooted in Brazilian comics, especially. It's easy to see why, too; it's gotta be pretty cool to see a native son rise to prominence like that. But...I think it's still fair to say that, from the original movie, there's no particular reason, other than geographical interest, why these characters should be anything, and in any case, this cartoon is definitely introducing them to a new audience, so it has work to do. I'm not sure it quite has yet, but I'm optimistic.

RIGHT. So the warrior woman is "Zandra, Goddess of Adventure," and she takes our heroes off to do labyrinth stuff with a minotaur while she sits on a beach and gets quietly smashed on piña coladas. It's pretty fun (and I like the way the Three Caballeros theme appears as instrumental music while they're Learning To Work As A Team™). I must admit, I kind of zoned out when Zandra was presenting the backstory: I feel like it's sort of contrary to the spirit and honestly not that interesting to me to ground the Three Caballeros in actual...context, as opposed to the zany anarchism that they represented in the original. I suppose it was inevitable, though. It's okay! Maybe I'm still just high on the novelty, but I AM enjoying this, more than New Ducktales. We shall see what we see!

Oh, and more of Ari the Aracuan Bird, please! He is deeee-lightful, but we only get a small glimpse of him in this one.