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: "Mad Dog" Tannen's actions after shooting Marty are a perfect homage by Thomas F Wilson to Lee Marvin in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." He even gets the facial expressions, the mumbled and sarcastic thanks and the jaunty angle with which he holds the gun right.
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: Tippi Hedren actually received a cut on her face by a bird in one of the shots.
Trivia: Producers Gale Anne Hurd and Sam Mercer wanted to film the movie at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. However, the museum's administration was afraid that the film would not only cast the museum in an unflattering light, but it would also scare kids away from the museum. They were given permission by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to film there, because they loved the movie's premise.
Trivia: Professor Plum reveals that he works for UNO, the United Nations Organization, in a branch called WHO, the World Health Organization. As such, he works for UNOWHO (You Know Who).