Movies & TV Facts for Kids
Behind-the-scenes facts from film and TV
Pixar's 'Coco' (2017) took six years to make and involved dozens of research trips to Mexico. The team wanted to honor the Day of the Dead celebration respectfully, so they worked closely with Mexican artists, historians, and musicians.
The original 'Godzilla' film was released in Japan in 1954, just nine years after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The monster was created as a symbol of the fear and destruction caused by nuclear weapons.
'Spirited Away' (2001) by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was the first anime film to win an Oscar.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out that the stars shown in the night sky in 'Titanic' were completely wrong for that date and location. Director James Cameron corrected the scene in the 2012 re-release.
To prepare for 'Ratatouille' (2007), the Pixar animation team spent months in Paris eating at fine restaurants and visiting professional kitchens. The film's kitchen scenes are considered some of the most accurately animated restaurant environments ever put to film.
Actors in old black-and-white films often wore green lipstick and blue skin makeup on set. Because early cameras could not pick up certain colors well, these unusual shades actually appeared natural on screen.
The opening sequence of Pixar's 'Up' (2009), which shows a couple's entire life together in just four minutes, is studied in film schools as a masterpiece of visual storytelling. It contains no dialogue, yet it makes millions of people cry.
George Lucas's script for 'Star Wars' was rejected by every major Hollywood studio before 20th Century Fox took a chance on it. Studio executives thought the story was too weird and confusing to succeed.
When filmmakers need to show rain on screen, they often add milk or mineral water to the water to make it more visible on camera. Real rain is usually too thin and transparent to show up well under studio lights.
The James Bond film series began in 1962 with 'Dr. No' and is one of the longest-running film franchises in history. More than 25 official Bond films have been made over more than 60 years.