Movies & TV Facts for Kids
Behind-the-scenes facts from film and TV
'Tangled' (2010) cost around $260 million to make, making it the most expensive animated film ever made at the time. Rapunzel's long hair alone required new simulation software and took years of development.
Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest — and lost. He did not even make it into the final round.
The cast of 'Apollo 13' (1995) trained with NASA astronauts and filmed some scenes aboard a real zero-gravity aircraft nicknamed the 'Vomit Comet.' The plane would dive steeply to give the actors about 25 seconds of genuine weightlessness.
The famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) used chocolate syrup for blood because the film was shot in black and white. The scene took seven days to film and used 70 camera setups — yet it lasts less than a minute on screen.
The Minions in the 'Despicable Me' films speak a language called 'Minionese,' which was created by the filmmakers using a mix of Spanish, French, English, Korean, and random food words. The language grew more complex with each film.
'The Jazz Singer' (1927) was the first full-length feature film with synchronized dialogue, effectively ending the silent film era. When audiences first heard the actors speak, many were stunned and burst into tears.
'The Lion King' (1994) follows a story very similar to Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' — a young prince whose father is killed by his uncle, who then takes the throne. Disney animators have always acknowledged the play as a major inspiration.
The technique of using a colored screen to replace backgrounds in films was first developed in the 1930s and originally used a blue screen, not green. Green screens became more popular later because digital cameras are more sensitive to the color green.
The real-life inspiration for 'Finding Nemo' came from Pixar director Andrew Stanton's observation that his own father was overprotective. He wanted to make a film about letting go and trusting the ones you love.
Anna and Elsa from 'Frozen' (2013) were the first pair of sisters to both be lead characters in a Disney animated film. Before 'Frozen,' Disney princess films typically focused on a single heroine.