Look carefully at the electric trolleybuses trundling around the streets (and that Valiant hitches a ride on). You'll see that although they have boom arms on top, which are usually hoisted up and connected to overhead powerlines, there are no overhead wires anywhere for them to be getting electricity from. See more...
After filming, Bob Hoskins had hallucinations, and his son became angry at him for not bringing any of his cartoon friends home. See more...
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Alan Tilvern, Betsy Brantley, Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Joel Silver, Lou Hirsch, Richard LeParmentier, Stubby Kaye (add more)
Genres: Animation, Comedy, Crime, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.
In the scene right before Valiant gets off the trolley they show a shot of men lifting a sign with Clover Leaf on it. Then when Valiant throws his mail out and runs over to the station they show the same sign in a different spot even lower than before. [No they don't. The sign is actually *higher* than before. Even if it was lower, it's not like the sign was fixed, it was in the midst of being raised on pulleys -- they could have adjusted the height.]
Corrected by JC Fernandez
All cartoons have shadows during the film, but when Eddie Valiant is in Maroon's office and looks at Dumbo right outside the window, the camera turns back to Eddie and there's no shadow over him. [When Maroon throws the peanuts out the window, the film cuts to an exterior shot of Dumbo where we see his shadow is cast on the side of the building. So no shadow would be cast over Valiant's face at the window.]
Corrected by JC Fernandez
When the weasels break through the wall into Toontown, one of them pulls out a brick and says "Toontown is on the other side of the wall, boss." When he says this, he lets the brick go, and it continues to float in mid-air above the hole. [This is by design and plays upon the long history of cartoon characters breaking the laws of physics for comical effect.]
In the Ink and Paint club, you can tell the hand Jessica uses to grab Eddie's tie is a real one, since it's lighting is so much different to the cartoon body beside it. [While true that an actor was used for much of Jessica's dance routine, the actor was painted over so there would be no lighting difference.]
Corrected by JC Fernandez
In various shots throughout the movie, you can actually see lighted backgrounds right through the toons. [So? They may be alive, but they are still are painted on transparent celluloid film (that's why 'dip' kills them). It's only natural they would be slightly transparent.]
When you're in the Benny the Taxi, picking where you want go, go to the Acme Movie Theater. In Special Features it shows a splat on a box, you can press a direction and you should see eyes, then you click Enter and special things will happen. (Found on disk 1.) [On the 20th Anniversary DVDs, these things happen in the Acme Warehouse, not the Movie Theater.]
When Eddy toasts to Earl's dismissal, he says, "Cheers to the pencil pushers. May they all die of lead poisoning." Until the 17th century (until graphite was found and first used for writing) the archetypal 'pencils' were indeed made of lead alloys, and even today, due to its color, the graphite is sometimes referred to as 'lead'. [Not really trivia for this film, as it has nothing to do with the film other than the fact that they mention a pencil in a throw-away line.]
When Roger bursts through Maroon's window blind, he leaves behind a clean outline of his body shape in it, However look at the section of blind between his legs in the outline. They are magically floating in mid-air as they are not attached to the blind's drawstrings either side. [This is an extremely common cartoon gag, and being a cartoon, Roger has the ability to effect his environment (animated or not) in such a way. Just like he can slip out of real handcuffs, but only when it's funny. Otherwise he and they are bound to the laws of physics.]
Corrected by Phixius
When Valiant grabs Roger after he is singing, dancing and smashing plates on his head, if you look carefully you can see that Roger is a frozen-stiff cardboard cut-out. This was to hide the machinery that was smashing the plates. [They made it pretty clear in the "Making of" documentary that each individual film cell was hand-painted.]
Corrected by Rlvlk
When Eddie defeats the judge by hitting the dip valve with the extended boxing glove, the judge is shown being pushed forward by the spray, however when the camera cuts it shows Eddie sitting there with the spray going past him but the judge mysteriously vanishes. [Actually, as the spray hits the Judge sending him backwards, he falls to the ground. He lands at a point on the ground before reaching Eddie. Since the spray continued after the Judge had fallen, and he fell before reaching Eddie, what you are seeing from this angle is the rest of the now unobstructed spray from the machine going past Eddie.]
Corrected by Jazetopher
In the scene where Roger is looking at the photos of Jessica and Acme playing patty cake, Roger flips through the pictures fast enough that it looks as though Valiant had just kept clicking the button on the camera. This isn't possible because when Valiant was taking the pictures, he had to wind the camera after every shot. [But since the very basic motions of "Patty-cake" repeat over and over as you play it, and he only flips through 4 or 5 pictures, it creates a "motion effect" when they are flipped in the correct order of the game.]
Corrected by Jazetopher
The drunk guy in the pub introduces Judge Doom to his imaginary friend - a bunny named Harvey. The film is set in 1947 - The film "Harvey" Featuring this rabbit didn't get released until 1950. [But the play "Harvey", on which the film is based, debuted in 1945. The guy in the bar might as easily have gotten the idea from watching the play.]
Corrected by Twotall
When Eddie, Benny and Roger are being chased by the weasels, Benny drives into an alley backwards. If you freeze as the shot changes, Eddie is not in Benny - it's a CGI model of Eddie. [If you have to use freeze-frame or slow motion to see something, it is not a movie mistake.]
Corrected by Twotall
If you go frame by frame on the DVD (because this happens rather fast) at the part when the Weasel's shoot off the lock and knob to Eddie's apartment, you can see that the wood where the bullets come through (before they actually do) is a slightly blacker colour. This means they're actually mini-explosives being set off on a track in the wood. More to the point, the bullets are not only shot in a perfect square from a 1930's Tommy gun, but when the knob and lock fall off when the weasel's enter, the space where it falls out of is a pre-cut perfect square. Not likely if it has been taken off with a machine gun. [If you have to go frame-by-frame or slow motion to see this, it is not a movie mistake.]
Corrected by Twotall
We are repeatedly told that toons don't feel pain, yet in one scene, Yosemite Sam emerges from a bar with his butt on fire, yelling in pain. [He isn't feeling pain - he is just doing what 'toons do - yelling and screaming and carrying on when his backside is on fire.]
In the secret room when Hoskins throws Dolores the picture it's folded, but when she looks at it she unrolls it. [The picture is loosely folded in three, so Dolores has to 'unroll' it. From a distance it looks as if it is folded.]
In the scene where Hoskins and Roger pull up to Maroon's office in the car look at Hoskins' pants, they're a much lighter color. But when he gets out and talks to Roger they're now much darker. [Bob Hoskin's light khaki-coloured trenchcoat covers his dark trouser legs while he is seated in the car. You can see how long the trenchcoat is when he climbs the stairs.]
In the scene where Eddie Valiant is in R.K. Maroon's office not far from the beginning of the film and Maroon writes him out a cheque to take pictures of Jessica, Maroon mentions Dumbo working for peanuts and Valiant says, "well I don't work for peanuts, where's the other $50?", however you don't see Valiant actually look at the cheque to see that he's only been paid $50. [There is a quick shot from outside of the office which shows Dumbo picking up the peanuts that Maroon threw at him. In that shot we can't see Valiant properly. He could have looked at the check then.]
The movie takes place in 1947. The Christopher Lloyd character has a plan to take out Toon Town in order for him to acquire the land, which happens to be in the path of a planned freeway to Pasadena. Construction on the Arroyo Seco Parkway (US Route 66) between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena began in 1939 and was opened to traffic December 30, 1940. It was renamed the Pasadena Freeway in 1955 and, aside from some cosmetic changes, remains basically the same to this day. [It is possible that he wanted to create another freeway to Pasadena. It is common to have more than one road going in between two cities. Also the freeway Lloyd's character is planning may take a slightly different route than Route 66.]
In the scene where Roger and Hoskins get away in the cab watch the weasels get into their van. As they pull away quickly look at the side of the van to see a reflection of a boom mic. [What we actually see is a reflection of a lamp post.]
Corrected by Mortug
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