You see, in 1942 it was in America's best interest to form ties with Latin American nations as means of preventing the spread of fascism. The film was actually commissioned by the US government and marketed in Central and South America a year before it ever came to the US.

We're treated to several smaller segments (that were even later separated for pieces in The Wonderful World of Disney) that begin and end with Donald Duck touring exotic locations (first Lake Titicaca and later Brazil). In-between we get a short story about about a young Chilean airplane who has to fight fierce weather and mountains to deliver the mail and another segment wherein Goofy learns the ways of the Argentinean gaucho.

It should be noted that this release -- like the previous DVD of Saludos Amigos -- has a few seconds of Goofy smoking a cigarette removed. It's a silly bit of PC censorship but it's also nothing that really affects the film in the slightest.

Amigos also introduces Jose Carioca -- a cigar-smoking Brazilian parrot who'd go down in history as one of Disney's second-tier personas, returning in the sequel, The Three Caballeros two years later.

I found Caballeros to be a lot more fun than Amigos, primarily, I think, because it's so much stranger. The plot fit loosely around the conceit that it's Donald Duck's birthday and he's received various presents from his Latin American friends. Soon Jose Carioca appears alongside a Mexican rooster, Panchito Pistoles and the Three Caballeros are born.

There's a lot of strange segments that seem to have very little to do with anything. There's a short cartoon about a penguin who loves warm weather and another about a little Argentinean boy and his winged burro named Burrito. And that's all before things start getting really strange.

Soon, Donald, Panchito and Jose are off, flying across live-action Latin America where Donald makes it abundantly clear that he's got a thing for non-animated women. It's more than a little bit creepy and absolutely fantastic.

The extras are interesting but could be so much better. We get a vintage documentary called Backstage Disney: South of the Border which features lots of footage used to study the countries in both films and gives us a glimpse at what the animators were looking at when they they came up with different segments. There are brief mentions of the war but it's glossed over for the most part.

We also get an extremely brief segment from an interview with Walt Disney wherein he explains that he was asked by the US government to make the film. Sadly it (and the documentary) would be so much more interesting if they had included a look back from present-day explaining the films' lasting significance.

There's two cartoon shorts as well. Don Donald features Donald Duck (and the first appearance of Daisy Duck) as a burro-riding sombrero-ed adventurer. The other, Contrary Condor, has Donald fighting with an ornery Condor in the Andes. These are both probably of little interest to Disney completists as they've already been released in the Walt Disney Treasures line. Still, as this set seems more aimed to families than collectors, it's a nice touch.

In the end, the Caballeros Collection is a sort of win/lose situation. These are far from the archival Disney editions that collectors will look for and the films are probably a bit too dull for children to really enjoy. The price is nice, though, and it's probably the best we're going to ever get these films on the regular DVD format.