Factual error: When Sweeney is sharpening his blades, most noticeably during the shaving contest, he is sharpening toward the blade, which you simply can't do with a razor blade and leather strop. A razor will slice right into the leather. He also doesn't even have the blade flat to the leather so again they're not remotely sharp as a sharp blade would easily sink right into the leather. Pirelli is using roughly the correct technique, even though they're trying to portray him as sloppy. (00:35:50)
Factual error: There's a scene where Belle's father is riding away in the snow on his horse - the tracks left behind by the horse are exactly backwards. The round part of a horseshoe is at the front, not the back. (This was a deliberate 'in joke' done by the animators.)
Suggested correction: It is Belle who rides the horse in the snow, not Maurice. If we're talking about this being a mistake, then it could be a deliberate mistake, but if this was truly done as an in-joke, then I think it falls more under trivia. The tracks being backwards is factually incorrect, but it doesn't really fall under the category of "mistake" if it was deliberately done as a joke.
Factual error: In the birthday party scene Sebastian gets thrown into the air and lands in the birthday cake. A couple of shots later we see that the cake is completely obliterated. There is no way a crab Sebastian's size could create that much damage to such a large cake.
Suggested correction: This is an example of cartoon physics that isn't supposed to reflect reality.
Factual error: When Young Hercules makes the pillars fall in a Domino effect, they go both ways. However, if this were to happen, they would stop the domino effect when they reach the entrance to the market, which doesn't have pillars. The pillars are not in a circle, so there's no way they can both stop at the top of the ring, where the pot seller is. The only way for this to work is if Hercules started the Domino effect at the entrance of the market, with pillars directly across from each other, which he doesn't.
Suggested correction: He throws the pillar he holds towards the opposite side causing it to fall as well.
They do a pulled back shot that shows it falling from the top of the ring.
Factual error: When Chitty Chitty Bang Bang arrives at the Potts' house, Grandpa Potts is sitting in a deckchair reading a very modern colour edition of National Geographic magazine.
Factual error: Jane Russell and others say several times that they are sailing from New York to Paris. They might have been sailing to Cherbourg or Le Havre, but they couldn't have been sailing to Paris. The producer seems to assume that if they referred to Le Havre or Cherbourg, viewers wouldn't be able to sort it out.
Factual error: When Edgar the Butler directs the Old Solicitor upstairs they have a bit of a struggle with the steps. Before this you saw the Solicitor arriving in his car and this gave you an impression how high the first floor of the building of the Old Spinster was. Judging by the amount of steps on the stairs the pair would have ended up on the roof.
Factual error: Towards the end of the song "Out There" Quasimodo climbs onto the large spire on the roof. That spire was added in the 19th century and thus didn't exist when the movie was set.
Factual error: During the riots and the start of the film a model of armoured car and grenade launcher are seen, which were not manufactured until the 1970's.
Factual error: When Fievel is being dressed by the pigeon there are two American flags in the background. The flags have too many stars for the mid 1880s, when the movie is set.
Factual error: Hot Air Balloon's have no lateral control. They fly in the direction the wind is blowing, so it's rather impossible for two hot air balloon's very close to each other to be flying in different directions, let alone fly exactly to the desired locations.
Factual error: Professor Harold Hill asks the mothers of River City about their sons, "Is he starting to memorize jokes from 'Captain Billy's Whiz Bang?'" While the film is set in 1912, the first issue of the pulp magazine, "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang," did not appear until 1919. "Whiz Bang" was a term coined by soldiers in World War I (commencing in 1914), which referred to a rocket that "whizzed" by and exploded with a "bang." (00:20:00)
Factual error: When Cable calls his mother in Phoenix from his desk in Chicago, he only dials seven digits, as if making a local call.
Factual error: Near the end of the song "One Of Us" when Kovu is exiled, the beisa oryx at the front of the animal chorus (the one shaking her head slowly) has incorrect facial markings for her species. The other beisa oryx in the background has the correct markings. When she sings "He is not one of us," solo, she has correct facial markings, but lacks the correct leg markings, which she had when her facial markings were incorrect.
Factual error: In the two "live" concerts, the one at the beginning and one at the end, both show the seven original members, not the six shown in the movie.
Factual error: John Smith's (voiced by Aussie, Mel Gibson) accent changes and also fades in and out during the course of the movie.
Factual error: After the VW van hits the tree stump, steam is coming from the front of the vehicle. Those vehicles have the engine in the rear. (00:05:53)
Factual error: When Sally and Bryan are in the street, we can see, at their back, election posters. These posters appeared in 1932, one year after the movie is supposed to take place.
Factual error: When a young Steve Mills is struggling for conversation topics with Lisa in 1962, he comments that her black eye makes her look like the Tareyton commercial. However, those "I'd rather fight than switch" ads weren't aired until late 1964.
Factual error: In the 19th Street Parade, it shows the Budweiser Clydesdales pulling their famous wagon. Even though this movie is set in 1897, Budweiser did not start using Clydesdales until April 1933 when the sons gave their father, August Busch Sr., the owner of Budweiser, a 6 team team of Clydesdales to celebrate the end of Prohibition.