The frog dressed as a mime is named Marcel. This is a reference/homage to famed French mime artist Marcel Marceau. The frog in question is dressed as Marceau's famed character named Bip.
The film uses software that was developed for the rabbits floating around the Bun-Vac 6000 in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). The software reproduces the 'imperfections' found in clay-mation (i.e. dropped frames, thumb-prints, etc.).
According to Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman, this film's original concept involved pirates, and was pitched to Dreamworks soon after the release of Chicken Run (2000). However, Aardman were told that there was no market for pirate films (this was before Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) was made), and were told to modernize the concept. By the time the writer had done this, the project was temporarily shelved to make way for the production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).
In Tabitha's bedroom, as Roddy, Rita, and Sid are talking, there is a book behind them labeled "Animation".
The animators nicknamed one of the Kung Fu Frogs' attack moves "the Reindeer of Death".
Nicole Kidman was considered for the role of Rita.
While Roddy and Rita are in the fridge, one of the frozen rats is Han Solo, posing in his famous pose.
Aardman's first fully-CGI feature film. The reason for using computer animation instead of the studio's trademark clay animation was the large amount of scenes involving water, which is nearly impossible to do convincingly in stop motion.
In the first theatrical trailer, Roddy was not the only pet of the little human girl. There was also a cage with two small yellow gerbils, who seemed to be Roddy's menservants. However, in the final cut of the film, these two characters were removed, probably to advance the story, and make Roddy appear to be a character who is more "alone" than "spoiled". The first trailer also shows the discovery of Sid during the day instead of late at night.
The Toad wears a Freemasons ring on his pinkie finger.
At the beginning of the film, when Roddy is going through his wardrobe, the outfit he forgoes for the Elvis Presley-style rhinestone jumpsuit is a replica of the original Wolverine outfit from the comic books. Wolverine is another role that Hugh Jackman made famous.
When the stove falls through the floor of Rita's house, a cockroach that was sitting behind it can be seen holding a book. The book is Franz Kafka's novella 'Metamorphosis', the protagonist of which turns into a (non specified) insect, which is often translated as a cockroach. The cockroach appears to be reading a French translation: the title "La métamorphose" is clearly seen, while the Ka- in Kafka is obscured by the insect's 'hand'.
When Roddy and Rita are about to be 'iced' in the fridge, you can see that the controls panel the Toad is using is an early Atari 2600 game console (all the controls on the front). The game plugged into the unit is called "Froggie", a play on the old game "Frogger." When facing the Toad, the label on the back of the unit warns of "no service usable parts inside", and "opening the unit voids the warranty".
Hugh Jackman also provided the screams for the slug that Roddy first meets in the sewer.
Jean Reno beat Stellan Skarsgård, Kevin Kline, and Johnny Depp to play the part of "Le Frog".
The books on Toad's shelf are "Warts and Peace" by Leo Toadstool, "Unfinished Verse" by Long Tung, "A Brief History of Slime," and his scrapbooks, "The Tragic History of the Great Great Toad, Vol. I," followed by Volumes II through VI.
Several of the names found in the DVDs and on Rita's father's cast belong to the children of producers, directors, and other people involved in the movie.
For security reasons, early prints of the film were shipped under the title "Leech".
When Roddy is selecting a movie for the movie premiere, the following DVDs are on the shelf, from left to right (Note that those with real titles are all from Dreamworks): - Chicken Run (2000) - A Clockwork Potato - Die Again Tomorrow - 12 Angry Folks - A Few Good Puns - The Curse of the Daddy - Brief Incontinence - The Maltese Budgie - You Only Live 9 Times - Once Upon a Yime in a Vest - Death in Venice II / Zombie - The Mancunian Candidate - All the Presidents Own Teeth - Ratman Ratman Returns Ratman Returns (Again) - Puckered Lips Now - Piddler on the Roof - Goon with the Wind - In the Heat of the Fridge - My Big Fat Greek Bottom - A Fistful of Dullards - The Julianos of Boca - Courtney and Brendon - The Weisberg Chronicles - Nicky and Dylan - The Chaos of Charis - Madeline's Mayhem - Macy & Owen's Day out - Z is for Zaneta? - Kira - Forces of Nature (1999) - Galaxy Quest (1999) - Just Like Heaven (2005) - The Love Letter (1999) - Mousehunt (1997) - Old School (2003) - Paulie (1998) - The Peacemaker (1997) - Red Eye (2005) - Shrek (2001) - Shrek 2 (2004) - Over the Hedge (2006) - Shark Tale (2004) - The Last Castle (2001) - Antz (1998) - Madagascar (2005) - Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) - The Prince of Egypt (1998) - The Road to El Dorado (2000) - Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) - Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
Andy Serkis beat Robert De Niro and William Shatner to play the part of Spike.