Corrected entry: When the children are told to take off their uniforms, one second they are on, the next second they are off. This is unrealistic based on the fact that if you listen to Rita singing her solo, it doesn't skip in time at all. In fact,the song plays at its normal place in time. Therefore the children could have never taken off their uniforms that quickly. (01:32:35)
Corrected entry: When the choir is just about to start the final song, with Rita already performing her introducing solo, the other kids get a message to change their clothes (to take their robes off). When Rita finishes her solo, we see the piano player with changed clothes too. It's not possible for him to take his robe off - the piano music never stops long enough for such an action.
Correction: Just after Rita finishes her intro and before the other kids come on, the hip-hop backing track begins playing and you can see the piano player stand and begin to take off his robe. Look around 1:33:25.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Whoopie asks them to sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," about four students sing it. When she asks the blonde girl to sing, she says she doesn't know "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Yet she just heard four people sing it, so why wouldn't she know it?
Correction: You can hear a song on the radio, but that doesn't mean you've now got it committed to memory, especially if you're nervous.
It is those 5 words. Most of them sing only the words "Mary had a Little lamb"
She couldn't memorize 5 simple words (Mary had a Little lamb) to memory? Really, come on.
It's not just those 5 words, it's the whole verse/song. The girl was stressed and didn't remember it.
Corrected entry: In the singing contest at the end, Sister Mary Clarence says that the kids should be comfortable. When the choir goes out, Frankee and Sketch are doing back-flips and other acrobatics. Later on in the song, they are all dancing as they are singing. Can you imagine them doing all that in robes? And even if it was a last minute plan, how would they all know what to do?
Correction: You can see them rehersing the dance routine backstage. While they are all getting ready you can see some of the choir practising the arm waves and such. The flips could have been simply improvised as they go on.
Correction: Maybe the performance was improvised?
Corrected entry: When the kids get onto the bus to go to Hollywood they're all in school uniform. When they're getting ready to go on stage, they're all in uniform or robes. Right before they go on stage the stagehand tells the children to take off their robes. The scene then switches to the other side of the stage where we see Whoopi tell the kids that if they're going to go on stage they're going to go on feeling comfortable and that they're to wear anything they want. At this point though, the song has already started so the kids have very little time. All of them somehow manage to get changed into hip trendy outfits in practically no time at all (and none of them took luggage onto the bus) and Rita, who is singing already even has an outfit under her robe although she didn't know she was going to be told to take her robe off. And while it's often permissable to wear informal comfortable clothing under choir robes, we see the choir members in the dressing room just prior to their performance - not many seem to be wearing the same clothes they show up in moments later onstage.
Correction: They were already wearing the clothes under the robes, so they just had to take the robes off. They would have changes into these clothes the same time they put the robes on, as you can see one or two of the kids have normal clothes on while getting ready and their robes are open still. As for luggage, they all take bags with them, remember they are staying over night there (they have to raise money for a hotel) and you see at least Rita with a bag, as well as one or two others.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the "Joyful, Joyful" performance, Rita stalls twice before she actually starts to sing. If you look in the background, you will see the girl who is supposed to be doing the sign language doesn't do anything. But on the third time, she starts to sign before Rita even begins to sing, how did she know that Rita would actually start singing the third time?
Correction: When something like this happens there is usually a cue that the two will go by to note that something is going to happen. It is a safe bet to say that the girl doing sign language knew not to do the sign language until Rita brings the microphone up to sing. If you notice the first two times Rita kept it low, but the third time she brings it up and the girl in the background follows suit a second afterwards. (The girl was looking at Rita for the cue to start.)
Corrected entry: All choirs except for the lead singers do not have microphones in the Hollywood contest. Yet everyone has the same amount of voice of the St Francis Choir even during jumping around and showing their backs to the stage.
Correction: There are normally microphones off to the side to bring out a projection of the choir voice. If you remember from the first time they sang as a choir the lead singer had to learn to project to the audience without the aid of a mic. It is possible that the other individual voices knew that they had to project well to be heard. This is common practice in choirs (and theater productions) where it is harder to have microphones on stage or not enough microphones to go around.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Whoopi Goldberg is in front of the music class for the first time, she tells the boys to take their caps off and they do so. When the girl who is rebelling wants the others to leave the class, she goes to the front and asks them if they will follow her and the boy at the front has his cap back on.
Correction: When Rita gets up to leave and tries to get everyone else to join her, the guys put there caps back on, then when they decide to stay they take them back off.
Corrected entry: In the final moments of the film, the class gets ready to perform a song in a festival. At the beginning of the performance Rita is standing straight in the camera, and the piano player is at an angle to her left. When the class starts singing the piano player is at the classes right.
Correction: Just watched it twice. At no point does the piano move from its position - the front of the stage on the left side.
Correction: There are two sides to the stage - so the one side where the children are told to take of their uniforms, the teacher is on the other side to where they switch to. Being with one half of the group, she was able to tell them in person while the message was being provided to the other half across the stage.