Figaro was Walt Disney's favorite character. Disney pushed for the kitten to appear in the film as much as possible. After the film, Disney swapped Minnie Mouse's pekingese Fifi with Figaro, starting with Pronto soccorso (1944). Figaro also got his own series of cartoons, beginning with Figaro and Cleo (1943). He would have four cartoons of his own, two appearances in the "Pluto" cartoon series, and appear in the promotional animated wartime short All Together (1942).
Working models for all of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks were built as guides for the animators.
Evelyn Venable, who was the physical model and voice of the Blue Fairy, was the model for the original Columbia Pictures logo.
The task of creating Jiminy Cricket was given to Ward Kimball, his first assignment as an animation director. He originally designed the character to look more like a real cricket, but Walt Disney found the result "too gross" and demanded he be made cute. Kimball ultimately removed all the insect-like features and turned Jiminy into a little green man with an oversized head, wearing a gentlemanly outfit the animator "borrowed" from the logo of Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky. Disney was pleased, even though the character no longer resembled a bug. In later years, Kimball expressed unhappiness with the compromises in Jiminy's design, saying, "The audience accepts him as a cricket because the other characters say he is."
Originally budgeted at $500,000, the film ultimately cost $2.5 million, one of the most expensive films ever produced at the time.