Animation director Don Bluth was told by the producers to create 900 feet of animation on a $1.8 million budget. When the producers were impressed with the first few scenes he completed, they updated their demand to 1800 feet of animation but neither increased the budget nor the production schedule. Bluth delivered the completed animation on time but was reprimanded for going $75,000 over budget.
Originally, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn were only hired to write one song, "Candle on the Water." But the studio was so pleased with the song that they decided to make it as a musical and kept Kasha and Hirschhorn on to write the score.
During the "Money" song, there is a close up on Doc Terminus and Hoagy. When Doc sings the phrase "Can't you hear that jingle-jangle sound", you can see Hoagy start to sing along with him and then catch himself and stop, since the audio only has Doc singing the line.
When Nora and Pete are singing 'It's Not Easy' and Nora sings the line 'Life is lollipops and raindrops', she mimes the word 'rainbows' instead of 'raindrops'.
During the storm in the finale, a huge wave breaks the lighthouse glass and puts out the wick. In the final scene at the lighthouse which takes place the next day (when they wave goodbye to Elliott), the glass is entirely intact.