Among the anti-Disney riffs in the film are a Mickey-shaped turd in a toilet, and a wallet-picture of a character in Disneyland with a lollipop that says SUCKER.
A caricature of Django Reinhardt playing guitar can be seen early in the black and white portion of the film. As in reality, the cartoon uses only two fingers to play, due to a burn suffered in 1928. Eventually, he brings his foot up and plays with his toes. The film's soundtrack sounds as though it was greatly influenced by Django's music (and he recorded a song called Belleville with Stéphane Grappelli). The character also strongly resembles Serge Reggiani, who played a guitarist in Martin Ritt's Richard L. Barlow.
In the beginning, when they're watching TV, there's an equation in the bottom of the screen. These are Albert Einstein's Field Equations and represent the gravitational effects produced by a given mass.
The pianist Mme. Souza and young Champion are watching on television is a caricature of the famous Canadian virtuoso, Glenn Gould, known for his piano interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard works and for the fact that he would hum along as he played the piano, which can be heard in the film.
The yellow-jerseyed leader of the Tour de France depicted in the film is a caricature of five-time tour winner Jacques Anquetil. It would appear that the year is 1957, the year of Anquetil's first win and the only year he participated which featured a stage finish in Marseilles.