The Discovery Of America

Content

‘The Discovery Of America - Year 1492’ is the full title of this charming short film. Typical Geesink humour is used. The voice over starts with ‘This is the story of Christopher Columbus, who wanted to discover America at any cost.’ A mishmash of historical and modern props. Good visual gags that elicit a smile from the viewer in pre-calculated places. This begins as early as the title in which the fictional year 1492 is mentioned. Skillful use is made of props that every viewer immediately recognises as not of that era. And that works. The film is given added value by Cor Icke's fluid animation.

Trivia

This film is English spoken. Presumably other language versions were also made, as the word ‘Strike’ appears in several languages. This was a convenient way to save costs of ‘retake’ in language variants. Simultaneously, this was a visual joke.

Several puppet films were made by Dollywood that featured an old ship. The ship was repeatedly taken from the props stock and slightly modified where necessary. See also ‘The Nightmare (1953)’. Experts can also see that several extras appear in other films.