Although billed as a two-movie collection, the set is actually composed of two shorts that play host to a number of shorter cartoons tied together by an overarching story. The first, Saludos Amigos, is presented as a Disney travelogue through South America. As is featured in the DVD's extras, "Backstage Disney" and a CBC interview with Walt, the cartoon was a product of a good will trip Walt was asked to make to Latin America. Each segment is book-ended by film footage of Walt and other Disney artists as they studied the culture of various South American locales, such as Lake Titicaca and Rio de Janeiro. It's really neat to watch the artists translate what they're seeing into cartoons. The live action segments are short, but manage to squeeze in a lot of information about each area. This information is later expanded upon with a cartoon sequence.
Donald Duck plays a major role in two of the shorts, one describing Lake Titicaca and another musical number that has a real Fantasia-like feel to it. This cartoon also marks the debut of Joe Carioca, a little-known Disney character who is later featured alongside Donald and another lesser-known character, Panchito, in The Three Caballeros. Goofy also makes an appearance in a piece that describes the lifestyle of the South American gaucho, which is the equivalent of the American cowboy.
The Three Caballeros follows a similar short-within-a-short pattern, though the main "plot" doesn't hold together nearly as well, so it feels a bit random. The concept is that Donald has received a birthday present from his "Latin American friends" and is going through the various gifts. Many of the gifts have some connection to South America, though others - like the first one about penguins - do start to stray. Eventually The Three Caballeros are reunited and the show becomes a bit time musical number that, like its counterpart in Saludos Amigos, is reminiscent of Fantasia, only with a Latin American twist. Although it gets a little crazy at times (maybe even disturbing depending on how you approaching these sorts of things), it is hard to not get into the music, have fun and witness a level of creativity that seems to have been lost in modern animation.
Even though the shorts featured in The Classic Caballeros Collection aren't the most well-known of Disney's work, they are worth the time, especially for fans of Walt's older stuff.
