Trivia: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere all did their own dancing and singing.
Trivia: "West Side Story" was the first film to win the Best Picture Academy Award for two directors (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins).
Trivia: All of the creatures in baby Rapunzel's mobile are referenced later in the movie. The blue bird is the first creature she encounters after leaving the tower (it flies around her head when she sings "completely free"). There is also a white horse (Maximus), a chameleon (Pascal), a yellow duck (The Snuggly Duckling), and a cherub (the old man who dresses like an angel in "I've got a Dream").
Trivia: In order to acquaint himself with his three lead actors, director Alfonso Cuaron had each of them write an essay about their characters, from a first-person point of view. Emma Watson, in true Hermione fashion, went a little overboard and wrote an 16-page essay, Daniel Radcliffe wrote a simple one page paper, and Rupert Grint never even turned his in, as he said that is what Ron would have done.
Trivia: Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon both did their own singing for the film.
Trivia: The Captain of the Iwo-Jima who Tom Hanks talks to at the end of the movie is the real Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell.
Trivia: When Joe Dirt finds out where he lives in Louisiana, there is a guy (Framer Fran) that speaks very strangely. He is played by Blake Clarke who played the same farmer character in The Waterboy.
Trivia: Before the witch trial, you can see Sir Bedevere tying coconuts to a swallow, no doubt to test the theory people argue about elsewhere in the film.
Trivia: To make the water in the glass on the dashboard 'jump', they strung a guitar string from the underside of the dashboard to a bolt on the floor and then plucked the string.
Trivia: According to the Director's commentary, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation did not want the film to be released under the title "Independence Day" to avoid legal complications (specifics weren't disclosed as to what the problems might be, but it's also why the abbreviation "ID4" was used). Roland Emmerich (director/writer) and Dean Devlin (writer) needed to justify the title, so they added the rousing bit right at the end of President Whitmore's speech at the hangar when he ends with, "The 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday...today we celebrate our Independence Day!"
Trivia: The English translations for the majority of the German dialogue towards the end of the film, as taken from recent BBC TV airings:
(Outside the house just before Mr Brown enters back in)
Guard: Yes, Yes everything is fine.
(as Mr Brown tries to stop Cosmic Creepers yowling)
Guard: What's that?
(after the guards enter Miss Price's house after hearing the yowling)
Guard: It's just a naughty cat, poor thing.
(after capture of Miss Price, the guard sees Mr Brown as a rabbit)
Guard 1: Jagged hare, this will be good.
Guard 2: Idiot, Do you want to wake up the whole village!
(on the battlefield, prior to Miss Price casting her spell)
Guard 1: Colonel, The bridge is ready to blow.
Guard 2: The railway, road and quay are ready.
Colonel: Good. We detonate in ten minutes. Get everything primed for then.
(start of the march)
Colonel: It's got to be some kind of trick.
Guard: Pretty good trick!
(first sighting of Miss Price by the Germans)
Guard: It's a witch sir!
Colonel: Don't be a fool, there's no such thing as a witch!
(after seeing the size of the army of advancing inanimate objects)
Guard: Shall we retreat sir?
Colonel: Retreat? We are German Soldiers! We do not retreat!
(as the Germans are running away)
Colonel: Hold the line or I will shoot you! You are German soldiers!
(back at the house after having been forced to retreat)
Colonel: There is the witch.
Guard: You said there was no such thing as a witch.
(prior to blowing Miss Price's house up)
Colonel: What are you waiting for, leave nothing behind. Quick, detonate it.
Trivia: The Australian Shore Patrol Officer who breaks up the final fight is John Wayne's real-life son, Patrick.
Trivia: Although they play mother and son in this film, Bryce Dallas Howard is only eight years older than Taron Egerton.
Trivia: When Tony Manero's father slaps him on the back of the head during an argument at the dinner table, Tony replies, "Would you just watch the hair? You know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it! He hits my hair!" John Travolta ad-libbed this line. Director John Badham thought it was so perfect for the character of Tony Manero that he decided to leave it in the film.