Kristopher Kolumbus Jr.

WARNING! This article contains content that may not be seen as age appropriate or upsetting for some readers. It may contain outdated stereotypes aimed at Native Americans. Reader discretion is advised.

Kristopher Kolumbus Jr.
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Production company	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributor	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	May 13, 1939
Run time	6:45
Starring	Mel Blanc
Producer(s)	Leon Schlesinger
Music composed by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation	Norman McCabe I. Ellis
Director(s)	Robert Clampett
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Title card
File:Kristopher Kolumbus Jr. title card.png

Kristopher Kolumbus Jr. is the one hundred and twenty-first Looney Tunes theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on May 13, 1939. It was Leon Schlesinger and directed by Bob Clampett.

Porky, playing the part of Kristopher Kolumbus Jr., plans on discovering the New World while carrying Queen Isabella's treasure.

Detailed summary

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Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Kristopher Kolumbus Jr.	Mel Blanc
Isabella I of Castile	Unavailable

Locations

• Earth
  • Spain
  • United States
    • New York
      • New York World's Fair (travel sticker)
    • Ohio (travel sticker)
    • California (indirectly mentioned)
      • California World's Fair (travel sticker and sign)
      • Santa Catalina Island (travel sticker)
    • Hollywood (indirectly mentioned)
      • Hollywood Hotel (travel sticker)
  • China (travel sticker)

Objects

• Kris's baseball
• Queen Isabella's treasure

Vehicles

• Kris's ship

Music

The score was composed by Carl W. Stalling.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: May 13, 1939

Behind the scenes

• The MPAA number of this short is 5061.
• The short's plot is a parody of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas.
• After Kris throws his baseball and catches it from behind, the ball contains two stickers related to the World's Fairs for New York and California, which were both held in 1939. Similarly, the California World's Fair is mentioned by a sign when Kris' ship makes its departure from Spain.
• Because Native American stereotypes play a prominent role in the short's second half, it has rarely aired on U.S. television.

Errors

• Despite being played for laughs, the short contains historical inaccuracies related to its main subjects:
  • The short explains that people up until 1492 believe that the Earth was flat. In reality, a majority of people (mostly Europeans) no longer held such beliefs, as it became nearly nonexistent in the Late Middle Ages (c. 1300 –1500 A.D.) onward. As such, Christopher Columbus' (or in this short, Kris') belief that the Earth was round would've been widespread knowledge by the time he started his travels.
  • Kris' plan to discover America is proven false when, in reality, Columbus was not the first European to set his foot on the continent. The first European to do so was said to be Leif Eriksson, who did it half a millennium before Columbus' time at around 1000 A.D. in a land that is likely believed as part of the northern region of Canada.
  • While it is technically true that the Americas were inhabited by tribal groups in both north and south continents, the United States and its modern states are nonexistent by the time Columbus arrived in the American continents.
  • The short portrays the Native American land as a pre-Columbian version of New York where giant teepees take place of skyscrapers, and a giant statue of a Native man appears as an analogue to the Statue of Liberty; none of which would've existed in real life at that time.
  • In the short, Kris made his discovery in America at a Native American land, whereas the real Christopher Columbus made his first travel to the Americas at Guanahaní, an island that existed in the Bahamas.
  • In the end of the short, Kris brings in a group of Native Americans to perform a swing dance to the Queen's court. Swing dances did not exist up until the 1920s during the Jazz Age, which was followed by the swing era of American music from around the 1930s to 1940s.
  • Additionally, while the actual Columbus did bring in indigenous people to Spain in his later voyages (specifically the Taíno people of the Caribbean), he had only done so out of enslavement to show the Spanish monarchy of what he saw during his travels.

Home availability

• In the United States:
  • September 19, 2017: Warner Archive Collection releases Porky Pig 101.