When Geneva and Sonny leave after meeting Milly and Louis for the first time, their mother says to them, "And you guys thought you wouldn't make any new friends." Milly and Louis then look at each other at the same time; in order to get the timing right, Lucy Deakins told Fred Savage she would tap him on the back as their signal to do it. It did not occur to her that he was wearing a microphone, and it picked up the sound of her tapping him. If you listen closely, you can hear a thudding sound right before they look at each other.
Nick Castle has cited the film Dumbo: L'elefante volante (1941) as his primary inspiration for this film.
In one scene, Louis (Fred Savage) plays the "Last Starfighter" video game from Giochi stellari (1984), which was also directed by Nick Castle.
Nick Castle: , along with fellow directors John Carpenter and Tommy Lee Wallace (credited as The Coupe de Villes), as the band in the video Milly and Geneva watch while drinking strawberry daiquiris.