José Carioca
Encyclopedia
José Carioca is a Disney
cartoon character drawn as an anthropomorphized
parrot
from Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
(thus "Carioca
", a term which refers to a person born there). José was created in 1943 for the movie 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 returned in the 1944 film The Three Caballeros
along with Donald and a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles
.
. He also has a brief cameo as a member of the jury during the trial sequence of the 1951 Disney feature Alice in Wonderland
.
He also appeared in a 1960s TV special, and the Disney Channel
series Mickey Mouse Works
and House of Mouse. He also made a brief cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
.
and Donald Duck in the local Disney Comics. In Brazil he's known as Zé Carioca ("Zé" being a familiar form for Portuguese name "José", as "Joe" is a familiar form for the English name "Joseph"). He currently appears at least every two weeks in his own Brazilian comic book
s, in which he is portrayed as living with his friends Nestor (a humanized crow) and Pedro (Portuguese: Pedrão, a humanized dog), along with other characters: his nephews Zico and Zeca (also parrots), his girlfriend Maria Vaz (Portuguese: Rosinha Vaz, a humanized parrot), daughter of rich entrepreneur Rocha Vaz; and his rival Zé Galo (no English name as of 2010; a humanized rooster).
Comics featuring Joe Carioca, as he is called in the Netherlands, appear occasionally in the Dutch
Donald Duck
magazine. In these short stories, José occupies his time assuming false identities to impress girls (who usually see through him, leaving him brokenhearted), and wangling free dinners in expensive restaurants, a habit that often gets him into trouble.
Zé Carioca was inspired by an illustration of the Brazilian comic artist J. Carlos
, who had a telling illustration of a parrot Walt Disney in his visit to Brazil, Carlos was invited by Disney to draw in their studio, but he declined.
In the Brazilian comics, Zé is also part of his neighborhood soccer
team (or acts as a referee) and has a superhero
ic secret identity, Morcego Verde (Green Bat, a Batman
spoof), although he is easily and often recognized, even by his neighbors.
In recent years, José Carioca has been used alongside Panchito and Donald in two comics by American artist Don Rosa
.
The creation of a Brazil
ian animated character during the Second World War
was part of a strategy called "Good Neighbor Policy
" headed by the United States
government to improve relations and gather support amongst its neighbor countries.
In April 2007, Disney re-introduced José Carioca (along with the third Caballero, Panchito), in the newly-revamped ride at Epcot's Mexico Pavilion with entirely new animation and a new storyline. It has been dubbed "The Gran Fiesta Tour
". After being reunited, The Three Caballeros are set to play a show in Mexico City. But Donald goes missing. José and Panchito must search throughout Mexico for Donald as he takes in various sights around Mexico. The animation was apparently directed by Eric Goldberg
. He is now voiced by Rob Paulsen
.
José can also be seen in the Hong Kong Disneyland
version of It's a Small World, which opened on April 28, 2008, as well as the Disneyland
(in California
) version of It's a Small World, installed during major refurbishments between January and November 2008.
José and Panchito's costumes were extinct at the Disneyland Resort by 2011, but were re-Imagineered for Mickey's Soundsational Parade
in May 2011. They now appear with Donald Duck
and dancers with a float where Donald is trying to hit a Pinata.
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
cartoon character drawn as an anthropomorphized
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
from Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(thus "Carioca
Carioca
Carioca is a Portuguese adjective or demonym that is used to refer to the native inhabitants of the city of Rio de Janeiro - capital of the homonym state , in Brazil...
", a term which refers to a person born there). José was created in 1943 for the movie Saludos Amigos
Saludos Amigos
Saludos Amigos is a 1942 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the 6th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It is the first of six package films made by the Disney studio in the 1940s...
as a friend of Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
, described by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
as "a dapper Brazilian parrot, who is as superior to Donald Duck as the Duck was to Mickey Mouse". He returned in the 1944 film The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American animated feature film, produced by Walt Disney and distributed 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...
along with Donald and a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles
Panchito Pistoles
Panchito Pistoles is a cartoon character drawn as an anthropomorphized rooster. He appeared in the film The Three Caballeros. Later he appeared in several Disney comics, including Don Rosa's The Three Caballeros Ride Again and The Magnificent Seven Caballeros...
.
Comic strip
From 1942 to 1945 there was a comic strip starring José Carioca. José appears with Donald and the Aracuan Bird in the "Blame It on the Samba" segment of the 1948 anthology feature Melody TimeMelody Time
Melody Time is a 1948 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on May 27, 1948. Made up of several sequences set to popular music and folk music, the film is, like Make Mine Music before it, the popular music version of Fantasia Melody Time is a 1948...
. He also has a brief cameo as a member of the jury during the trial sequence of the 1951 Disney feature Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New...
.
He also appeared in a 1960s TV special, and the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
series Mickey Mouse Works
Mickey Mouse Works
Mickey Mouse Works is a television show that features the cartoon character Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated segments. It is somewhat of an update of Mickey's Mouse Tracks....
and House of Mouse. He also made a brief cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
.
Comic books
José is quite popular in Brazil, appearing alongside Mickey MouseMickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
and Donald Duck in the local Disney Comics. In Brazil he's known as Zé Carioca ("Zé" being a familiar form for Portuguese name "José", as "Joe" is a familiar form for the English name "Joseph"). He currently appears at least every two weeks in his own Brazilian comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, in which he is portrayed as living with his friends Nestor (a humanized crow) and Pedro (Portuguese: Pedrão, a humanized dog), along with other characters: his nephews Zico and Zeca (also parrots), his girlfriend Maria Vaz (Portuguese: Rosinha Vaz, a humanized parrot), daughter of rich entrepreneur Rocha Vaz; and his rival Zé Galo (no English name as of 2010; a humanized rooster).
Comics featuring Joe Carioca, as he is called in the Netherlands, appear occasionally in the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
magazine. In these short stories, José occupies his time assuming false identities to impress girls (who usually see through him, leaving him brokenhearted), and wangling free dinners in expensive restaurants, a habit that often gets him into trouble.
Zé Carioca was inspired by an illustration of the Brazilian comic artist J. Carlos
J. Carlos
José Carlos de Brito e Cunha, known as J. Carlos, was a cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer. J...
, who had a telling illustration of a parrot Walt Disney in his visit to Brazil, Carlos was invited by Disney to draw in their studio, but he declined.
In the Brazilian comics, Zé is also part of his neighborhood soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
team (or acts as a referee) and has a superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
ic secret identity, Morcego Verde (Green Bat, a Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
spoof), although he is easily and often recognized, even by his neighbors.
In recent years, José Carioca has been used alongside Panchito and Donald in two comics by American artist Don Rosa
Don Rosa
Keno Don Hugo Rosa, known simply as Don Rosa, is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other characters created by Carl Barks for Disney comics, such as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.-Early life:Don Rosa's grandfather,...
.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian animated character during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was part of a strategy called "Good Neighbor Policy
Good Neighbor policy
The Good Neighbor policy was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt toward the countries of Latin America. Its main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America...
" headed by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government to improve relations and gather support amongst its neighbor countries.
In April 2007, Disney re-introduced José Carioca (along with the third Caballero, Panchito), in the newly-revamped ride at Epcot's Mexico Pavilion with entirely new animation and a new storyline. It has been dubbed "The Gran Fiesta Tour
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros is a dark ride housed within the pyramid-shaped Mexico pavilion, at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States.-Synopsis:...
". After being reunited, The Three Caballeros are set to play a show in Mexico City. But Donald goes missing. José and Panchito must search throughout Mexico for Donald as he takes in various sights around Mexico. The animation was apparently directed by Eric Goldberg
Eric Goldberg (film director)
Eric Goldberg is an American animator and film director. He is best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He's also well known as the creator of Disney character Genie in Aladdin...
. He is now voiced by Rob Paulsen
Rob Paulsen
Robert Fredrick "Rob" Paulsen III , sometimes credited as Rob Paulson, is an American voice actor, best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr...
.
José can also be seen in the Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland
Hong Kong Disneyland is located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is the first theme park located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and is owned and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks. The park opened to visitors on 12 September 2005...
version of It's a Small World, which opened on April 28, 2008, as well as the Disneyland
Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
Disneyland Park is a theme park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the Walt Disney Company. Known as Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955, and still almost universally referred to by that name, it is the only theme park to be...
(in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) version of It's a Small World, installed during major refurbishments between January and November 2008.
José and Panchito's costumes were extinct at the Disneyland Resort by 2011, but were re-Imagineered for Mickey's Soundsational Parade
Mickey's Soundsational Parade
Mickey's Soundsational Parade premiered on May 27, 2011, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The parade celebrates songs from Disney films. The parade includes Disney characters such as Mickey and friends, Prince Ali & The Genie, Ariel, The Three Caballeros, Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle,...
in May 2011. They now appear with Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
and dancers with a float where Donald is trying to hit a Pinata.
External links
- José Carioca in Don Markstein's ToonopediaDon Markstein's ToonopediaDon Markstein's Toonopedia was a web encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation. Don D...
- José "Joe" Carioca in the HooZoo
- José "Joe" Carioca in a Who's who in Duckburg