Continuity mistake: Prince Henry rides up to the manor to return the horse to the Baroness, and when Marguerite and Jacqueline stumble over themselves to greet the Prince, Marguerite's long hair braid ends up over her head beside her cheek, which she promptly flips to the back of her head. Yet, this braid reappears and disappears repeatedly in the following shots. (00:25:30)
Factual error: Leonardo da Vinci's painting, the Mona Lisa, was originally painted on wood, impossible for it to have been unrolled after taking it out of the canister. Also, if it hadn't been painted on wood, it would have been painted on canvas, which doesn't stay partially rolled after you take it out of a tube of some kind. It would not have been painted on paper. (00:23:55)
Continuity mistake: When Prince Henry kisses Danielle at the old castle ruins, just after she has had threatened her oppressor and left the castle, his hand switches from under her arm to over her shoulder. (01:20:40)
Continuity mistake: When Danielle's step-sisters go to church, so that Marguerite can "unexpectedly" find a broach belonging to the queen, she enters the carriage with straight frizzy hair and exits with luxuriously curled locks. (01:02:00)
Continuity mistake: In the first scene when we see Danielle serving breakfast to her stepmother and stepsisters just after the Prince releases Maurice, she leaves the kitchen with her hair pulled back, when she enters the dining room her hair is pulled forward. (00:17:20)
Continuity mistake: When Marguerite claims to find the necklace and pendant that the Queen dropped, as she hands it to the Queen, first she holds the pendant in her open palm, then pinches it between her fingers, then again in her open palm.
Other mistake: In the scene when Henry walks over to pick the glass slipper off the ledge it starts raining. All his clothes get wet, except his hair, which stays perfectly dry... (01:36:15)
Continuity mistake: During the scene where Danielle is swimming, in the shot where DaVinci walks past her and says, "It looks like rain," the bottoms of his 'shoes' are flat, but in the shot where he and Danielle are exiting the water they have a fin shaped bottom. This also proves he was walking in a shallow pool of water. (00:43:35)
Continuity mistake: When the gypsies are in the wood fighting with Henry, the head of the gypsies has a large leaf on the front of his shirt. It disappears and then reappears when he laughs. (More visible on fullscreen DVD.) (01:06:15)
Continuity mistake: When Prince Henry and Marguerite are touring the marketplace, just before they arrive at Danielle's stall, Marguerite gets Henry to feed her some chocolate. While the shot is on her, you can see his hand reaching for some chocolate. The shot switches to his face, and then back to her, where his hand goes for the chocolate again. (00:51:10)
Continuity mistake: At dinner, when the Baroness complains about it being too dark and accuses the help of stealing the candlesticks, in the first shot the two candles in front of her are about an inch high, but much taller in following shots.
Revealing mistake: When Danielle's perfectly aimed apple causes Henry to fall off the horse, his scabbard (at Henry's left) bends and flops around despite the fact that Henry's sword is supposedly in it, as seen in the following shots. (00:14:30)
Continuity mistake: When Henry stops the wedding and allows the Spanish princess to run to her real love, there's a shot where he's taking off his cape. When it switches to the shot with Henry in the background as she's hugging her real love, Prince Henry is just starting to take off his cape again. (01:43:10)
Continuity mistake: Just before Danielle is sold, she has a conversation with her evil stepmother in a narrow pathway in the garden. In the shots of the stepmother speaking, her hands are on her hips but when the shot changes to Danielle, so we see the back of the stepmother, the stepmother's hands are not on her hips anymore until the shot returns to her front. This goes back and forth a few times. (01:37:50)
Factual error: Leonardo da Vinci came to France in 1516 by the King's invitation and died there in 1519. Prince Henry would have just been born around that time. He appears least 20 years old in this film.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Danielle is brushing the stepmother's hair and the stepmother pulls her to the ground to touch her face, Angelica Huston's hand keeps on moving from Danielle's face to her own face in every shot. (00:54:15)
Continuity mistake: When Marguerite threatens to toss 'Utopia' into the fireplace, she holds the book out to her left, where the fireplace and its roaring fire are located. When Danielle hands over the glass slippers, Marguerite moves her arm from her side and proceeds to forcefully throw the book down directly in front of her (between Marguerite and Danielle, who face each other). Odd though, how in the next close-up 'Utopia' is shown having been tossed straight into the fire to burn, as Danielle screams. (01:13:35)
Continuity mistake: Before Auguste De Barbarac arrives home, from the upstairs window young Danielle is speaking to young Gustave, who is down below. The window/frame/hinge differ between exterior shots facing Danielle and the interior shots facing the courtyard. The wallpaper is an entirely different print as well, and the silver pitcher does its own vanishing act. (00:04:50)
Continuity mistake: After Danielle's father says "I love you" to her, he dies and his head falls. Then when the shot changes to Danielle and the Baroness, you see his head fall again. (00:10:40)
Continuity mistake: When Danielle and Prince Henry are just about to fight with the gypsies in the woods, Danielle is clambering up a cliff, when you see her the sky is light blue as it is daytime, but in the next shot the sky is dark (night time) and then back to light blue again. (01:04:40)
Answer: They would have become indentured servants - basically their debt be bought by someone in the Americas and they would be forced to work for the buyer until the debt had been worked off.