I’m actually a pretty big Disney fan — not as big as Chase and Jenny, who visit the parks a few times a year and have virtually every film they’ve ever released on DVD (and even a few they haven’t, if you get my drift), but I am a fan, especially of the older cartoons. I was pretty happy, earlier this year, to get my hands on the new DVD, Classic Caballeros Collection. This DVD set includes two of Disney’s stranger animated films, 1942’s Saludos Amigos, and 1944’s The Three Caballeros. I’ll discuss each film on its own before talking about the DVD itself.

Saludos Amigos, although billed as a “full-length movie,” actually only clocks in at about 42 minutes long, and about half of that is composed of preexisting cartoons cut and placed into the framework of the movie, which wasn’t an unusual practice. (Check out some of the older Looney Tunes movies, like Bugs Bunny’s 1,001 Rabbit Tales, for a far more extensive use of this technique.) This movie combines cartoons with more of a travelogue, featuring Disney animators touring South America for “inspiration,” which comes in the form of the cartoons. It’s a nice little film, and actually something of a rarity.

The reason it’s probably rare is that essentially the same thing was done two years later, but far more effectively, in The Three Caballeros. Again, the film is part travelogue and contains bits of older cartoons, but the new animation is much better and there’s a lot more of it. In this film, Donald receives a birthday present which whisks him off on a tour of Brazil with his parrot pal Jose Carioca (introduced in Saludos Amigos). Jose gives Donald a tour of Brazil, with the centerpiece being a hybrid animation/live action dance sequence with Aurora Miranda (younger sister of the legendary Carmen). After their Brazilian adventure, Donald and Jose meet up with Panchito the Mexican rooster to explore his country. Panchito’s introduction comes through a truly vibrant, energetic animated song-and-dance number featuring the titular Three Caballeros song. The film goes on to feature an old Mexican Christmas tale and several other shorter animated and live-action bits.

As a Disney fan, and more specifically as a fan of the Disney Ducks, these films hold a special place for me. Poor Donald is usually the chump in his own cartoons. Everyone gets the best of him, from his Uncle Scrooge to his nephews to a couple of chipmunks, and although his temper frequently brings it on himself, it’s still kind of a bummer. Donald’s interaction with Jose and Panchito is unique in that they treat him as a genuine equal and a genuine friend, something you rarely saw in the cartoons and saw even more rarely in the comic books. (The incredible comic book creator Don Rosa explored this much more deeply a few years ago in his Three Caballeros Ride Again yarn in the pages of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. As much as I love all of Rosa’s work, that particular story is second in my heart only to The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.)

The DVD itself is… okay. There’s some nice bonus stuff, including a few short cartoons, some documentaries about the films and a snippet of an interview with Walt himself. The DVD box says the films are “digitally mastered,” but they probably could have done with a little re-mastering. The picture isn’t nearly as clean and crisp as most of the special edition DVDs Disney releases. In fact, in the Aurora Miranda scene, there are shots where it literally looks like she’s dancing in front of a screen projection of the cartoon. Just about all the scenes where live-action and animation are combined are grainy and full of contrast problems.  It doesn’t look like much effort was made at all when it comes to improving the picture.

The picture problems don’t ruin the movies for me, but it does make it hard to recommend this DVD to someone who’s out for great films to show off their entertainment center. If you’re a Disney fan, especially a Donald fan, it’s well worth getting though, if for no other reason than to own two of the more unusual films in the vast Disney library.