Anastasia (1997)
1. Meg Ryan hesitated accepting the part of Anastasia, given the dark history the story is based on. So, producers put together a short animated piece using lines from Sleepless in Seattle and played it for her. Ryan ultimately accepted the role.
2. Lacey Chabert, Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls, provided the singing voice for Young Anastasia.
Balto (1995)
3. Although Balto received all the fame and glory for the 1925 serum sled run to Nome, Alaska, many believe Togo the Wonder Dog is the true hero. While Balto pulled the medicine for the last 55 miles of the journey, Togo actually pulled for over 200 miles through strong winds and snow.
4. Animator Maximilian Graenitz based the character design of Jenna on Audrey Hepburn.
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
5. Filmmakers for The Prince of Egypt consulted with Bible scholars, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish theologians, and Arab-American leaders to help keep the film as close to the original story as possible.
6. The film was banned in Maldives and Malaysia. Government officials found the film "insensitive for religious and moral reasons."
Princess Mononoke (1997)
7. When Miramax wanted to cut Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable for US audiences, Hayao Miyazaki's producer sent them a kitana sword with a stark message: "No cuts."
8. Quentin Tarantino was first approached to write the English translation of the script. Tarantino recommended horror novelist Neil Gaiman.
The Rugrats Movie (1998)
9. Reptar, the green T-rex wagon in The Rugrats Movie, was voiced by Busta Rhymes.
10. Nickelodeon signed a two year deal with 20th Century Fox in 1993. Rugrats, Doug, and The Ren and Stimpy Show were to have been made into films. However, the deal expired in 1995 and none of the films were made. The Rugrats Movie was made with Paramount, and Doug's First Movie was made with Disney.
Porco Rosso (1992)
11. Porco Rosso was originally a short film that could only be seen on Japan Airlines. Miyazaki expanded the short into a feature-length film.
12. Miyazaki's son, Gorō would depict himself as a pig in a suit when he did self-portraits. Miyazaki drew inspiration from that in the character design of Porco.
The Pagemaster (1992)
13. Roger Ebert gave the movie a 1.5 out of 5 stars in his review in 1996, claiming "The Pagemaster starts out as a promising concept, before the animation takes over." It was generally poorly received by critics.
14. Macauley Culkin garnered a Razzie nomination for his performance in the film.
The Iron Giant (1999)
15. The Iron Giant is based off the 1968 book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. He had originally written the book for his children as a way to explain the suicide of their mother.
16. The film was originally supposed to be a rock opera featuring music from Pete Townsend of The Who.
17. Vin Diesel, who plays the Giant, utters 53 words in the entire film.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
18. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut was originally rated NC-17. Every time Matt and Trey Parker sent a new cut to the MPAA to be re-rated, they would edit in longer vulgar scenes.
19. The film earned a Guinness World Record in 2001 for "Most Swearing in an Animated Movie." The film contained 399 curse words, 128 offensive gestures, and 221 acts of violence.
Antz (1998)
20. In an act of pettiness, Dreamworks rushed Antz into production and released it one month before Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life. The move was the result of a bitter feud between executives at Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks Animation.
21. Sarah Jessica Parker was initially supposed to play the voice of Princess Bala, but was replaced by Sharon Stone.
Pokémon: The First Movie (1998)
22. When KTLA 5 in Los Angeles announced a promotional giveaway for free tickets to the Pokémon movie premiere, over 70,000 calls per minute were placed into the contest line, disrupting telephone lines in the Burbank area. Warner Bros. had to temporarily shut down the contest line.
23. The Pokémon movie soundtrack featured songs by NSYNC, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Aaron Carter, Vitamin C, M2M, and 98°.
The Swan Princess (1994)
24. The Swan Princess was considered a box office bomb in 1994, only making a little over $9 million, less than half it's budget. The film faced fierce competition from Disney with their re-issue of The Lion King, a move which Variety called "a sabotage."
Perfect Blue (1997)
25. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky bought the rights to Perfect Blue, just to recreate the iconic bathtub scene for his film Requiem for a Dream.
26. Madonna used some scenes from the film on her Drowned World Tour in 2001.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)
27. All the characters in the Spanish-dubbed version of FernGully is done entirely by one actor, Ángel Garó, which earned him a Guinness World Record.
28. According to the film's director, Bill Kroyer, Disney made multiple attempts to disrupt production of this movie, because Robin Williams was involved with the project.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
29. There was some discussion about having a live-action Beavis and Butt-Head movie, where Chris Farley would play Butt-Head and David Spade would play Beavis. But, Mike Judge ultimately decided that the film would be animated.
30. David Letterman played the voice of Butt-Head's dad, but is credited as Earl Hofert.
31. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, met Isaac Hayes at the Beavis and Butt-Head movie premier.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
32. Ghost in the Shell inspired the Wachowski sisters to create The Matrix trilogy. When they pitched their idea to producer Joel Silver, they played him a DVD of the anime film and said, "We wanna do that for real."
33. The director, Mamoru Oshii, wanted to make sure the action scenes in the film looked as realistic as possible, so much so that he and the production staff went to Guam to shoot objects with different guns to see how they worked.