Haley Joel Osment was attacked by the pig during filming. The lion had numerous trainers and handlers, but no one thought the pig might be a menace.
Since Haley Joel Osment went through puberty during filming, this movie was shot in sequence. As the movie progresses, his voice can be heard getting deeper, especially at the end.
In the fight scene with Robert Duvall against the four teens, Travis Willingham was hit three times in the face by Duvall. This was due to a miscommunication. Duvall reportedly told him afterwards that he thought Willingham was a stuntman and that he, Duvall, was supposed to hit him. The cut used was the final one, when Travis' nose finally started to bleed.
Writer and director Tim McCanlies wrote the lion as a female because he thought it would be easier to keep under control than a male lion. It was not until production began that he found out female lions were actually much more ferocious than male lions.
Sir Michael Caine said that early in his career, he once held Sir Sean Connery's hat while he fought and beat four men in a nightclub single-handedly. This may have been the inspiration for the scene in which Hub (Robert Duvall) also fights and defeats four men single-handedly, while Caine and Haley Joel Osment's characters watch.