Pleasantville

Pleasantville (1998)

27 corrected entries

(4 votes)

Corrected entry: During the scenes at the diner, Mary-Sue and Skip always order Cherry Coke, which wasn't invented until 1985.

Correction: Cherry Coke was not available ready-made in bottles and cans until 1985, but it was standard soda fountain and diner fare for years before; it was made simply by adding cherry-flavored syrup to Coca-Cola. I enjoyed cherry (as well as vanilla) Cokes in childhood well before 1985, and my mother made them when she worked at a soda fountain in the 1960s, where they had been commonplace for decades.

zendaddy621

Corrected entry: You can't make clean holes when throwing stones at glass without shattering the whole pane, as it happened to Bill's front window. (01:26:30)

NancyFelix

Correction: It depends what kind of glass the window is made of, also there is a considerable amount of paint on the window which would help stop cracks from spreading.

umathegreatstationarybear

Corrected entry: In the finale it's anger that changes the Chamber of Commerce's director into colour, however when the townsfolk are working up a rage throwing items through the diner's window, they do not change colour. Also the character that Reese Witherspoon sleeps with does not change colour even though this is the main cause of the teenagers' colour changes.

Correction: Anger has nothing to do with changing to color. You have to "find yourself" then you change to color. Look how long it took Tobey Maguire to change.

William Bergquist

Corrected entry: When the mayor is talking to the men in the bowling alley, directly above his head is the score sheet. For the very top name the score has not been tallied in a couple frames but all of the other names have been tallied.

Correction: This is because the last two balls he threw were strikes, denoted by the X, in bowling you do not score strikes until you have thrown 2 more balls. The scoring is correct as shown.

Pam-I-am

Corrected entry: All cars parked at Lovers' Lane are convertibles. But when the camera is on Mary-Sue's face the car behind her is out of focus but still recognisable as a limousine. (00:31:00)

NancyFelix

Correction: When you see the out of focus car behind her the first time, it's the body of the convertible car. The second time, the camera is at a higher angle so you can see that it's the convertible car more. But certainly there's never a limousine behind her.

Bishop73

Corrected entry: When David and his friend are questioning each other on Pleasantville trivia, David is eating chips. There are continuity mistakes between the front and rear views of David - e.g. when they're asking about the name of the cat the rear view shows David eating but the front view shows him dipping a fry into ketchup. (00:06:20)

jle

Correction: I watched this frame by frame and David is eating french fries the whole time.

Corrected entry: When Bud's mom gets scared because she turned "coloured," Bud puts makeup on her to hide the colour. When he is done, she is entirely black and white again. But how did he get the inside of her mouth, irises and edges of her eyes, and hair to change back to black and white?

Correction: The irises of her eyes, if looked at closely during this scene, remain in colour.

Corrected entry: In one scene, Mr. Simpson says he heard that Bud's "dad's got a new car." Later on, when Bud is on his date with Margaret, he's driving a 1954 Buick, which would have been four years old in the show's time of 1958.

screwball432

Correction: It's "new" to Bud's dad in the sense that it's not his old car. And if it's never been owned by anyone before, it's "new" in that sense as well.

Phixius

Corrected entry: When George comes home and finds no Betty on the night it rains, Jen is upstairs reading. George yells "Honey, I'm home" four times, then shouts "Where's my dinner?" several times. Jen hears none of this and George apparently does not go upstairs to hunt for Betty. At the bowling alley he says, "No one was there" and "No lights were on," yet in a wide shot of the house we see Jen's bedroom light on and she was there.

Correction: Character mistake. He was extremely confused, then when he told the story to his buddies, he confused the details.

Phixius

Corrected entry: In the introduction to the Pleasantville marathon, viewers are tempted with a trip to the Pleasantville of their choice. The map shown does not accurately represent the Pleasantvilles of the USA. For example, there is one in Wisconsin that is not shown on the map and, more importantly, the map shows a Pleasantville in Oregon that does not exist in reality. (00:01:40)

jle

Correction: This is a fictional movie, the pleasantvilles may also be fictional.

Corrected entry: David is returning to the real world, and presses the remote. His reflection in the TV fades to black, then disappears. However, when he disappears, the reflections of the two women standing behind him are not there either.

Correction: The camera is filming from an angle, and the reflection is of another part of the room. From the TVs PoW, the camera is filming from the left side, and the women is standing to the left of the TV. Clearly the reflection won't show them.

Corrected entry: David and Jennifer transfer themselves to Pleasantville without any belongings apart from the remote control. Since there has never been rain in Pleasantville, the umbrella the "Bud" gave his girlfriend when standing outside could only be David's school prop, from "outside" Pleasantville.

Correction: They never had a fire, but they had a fire department and a truck with hoses, and hydrants, and protective gear. They even called it the Fire Department, not the Cat Rescue Department. They have books with nothing written in them. There's no reason umbrellas can't exist in Pleasantville.

K.C. Sierra

Corrected entry: At the start of the film the Pleasantville Marathon Quiz is being introduced. On a blackboard a cartoon figure is pointing at three questions. The first one says "Buds Little League Team?" Shouldn't "Buds" be spelt with an apostrophe? On the blackboard it isn't. (00:02:10)

Correction: Character mistake - or in this case, the TV show Pleasantville made a mistake. It's not a movie mistake.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the fireman are saving the cat, they put up a ladder. if you look a the top of the ladder you can see that the hooks are facing outward . as a fireman you would never allow that to happen they would get in the way and you could impale yourself.

Janlyn Rogers

Correction: Those ladders have never been used for anything but to pull cats from trees. And besides, nothing bad ever happens in Pleasantville.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: Despite what "Bud" says, the present-day television used in the movie can still be turned on without a remote.

Matty Blast

Correction: He could be referring to the satellite dish. My old reciever was run entirely by remote, except for the power button. I had to buy a new remote when my daughter lost my first one.

Grumpy Scot

Corrected entry: When the people of Pleasantville burn the books the fire is in black and white. Earlier on in the film it was clear that fire didn't exist because the fire brigade only knew how to rescue cats. Since fire didn't exist in the black and white world shouldn't the fire be in colour? (01:27:50)

Kara

Correction: Fire does exist, other things just don't usually BURN. This would allow them to have things like chestnuts roasting on an open fire but no accidents. When they first go to school in Pleasantville Jennifer lights a lighter with a black and white flame and waves a handkerchief over it. The book fire is probably black and white because it was lit by the black and white people.

Corrected entry: The thunderstom had been raging already for quite a while when Bud's father arrived at the bowling alley. Given its absolute novelty, why hadn't the bowlers heard anything before he pointed it out to them? Bowling alleys are noisy places, but not that noisy. And we can hear the thunderstorm very well inside the bowling alley. (01:14:30)

NancyFelix

Correction: You really only hear the storm outside once the bowlers have stopped bowling to listen to George's story. Even if they heard something, they wouldn't think it to be a thunderstorm since "that wouldn't happen in Pleasantville". They probably just thought it was the echoes of bowling sounds.

Ral0618

Corrected entry: How do the Pleasantville inhabitants know what green, blue and yellow is? If everything's supposed to be in black and white, plus they don't think there's anything outside of Pleasantville, how do they even know what colours are?

Correction: The basis of Pleasantville is that it is old TV show. They know what blue and rain are, but because it is an old and perfect world they have experienced neither.

jle

Corrected entry: When David is showing off his Pleasantville knowledege to his friend, he says "Why did his parents come home early from the weekend at the lakes?" If there's nothing outside Pleasantville, where did they go? (00:06:10)

Correction: They went to the lakes. They are obviously within Pleasantville - there's a lake at lovers' lane for example.

jle

Corrected entry: Just after David and Jennifer are sent to Pleasantville they are walking to school. To protest the situation Jennifer takes off her barrette and throws it into the bushes. However, when they get to school she is wearing the barrette again. She continues to wear it for the rest of the day. (00:18:20)

Correction: It only appears that Jennifer throws the barrette down, because she makes a downward striking motion with her hand, but when David turns her around to face him, you can see her holding the barrette in her right hand.

Factual error: You can see the 3 point line painted out on the basketball court, they never had 3 point lines in the 50s. (00:21:55)

More mistakes in Pleasantville
More quotes from Pleasantville

Trivia: The film was filmed entirely in color and had the color removed from the black and white portions in post-production.

Kara

More trivia for Pleasantville

Question: Wouldn't David & Jennifer's mom be worried about the sudden disappearance of her daughter, seeing as how Jennifer stayed behind in Pleasantville rather than returning to the "real world"?

Answer: We don't see much of the "real world" after David returns other than his conversation with his mother. I am sure in time she would have been worried but there seem to be many unanswered questions which might make it not so simple.

Lummie

Considering that a couple of days in Pleasantville turned out to be just an hour in the real world, it's possible Jennifer could spend 3-4 years in uni and cone back with it being just a weekend in the real world. David could just make up something in that period she's gone.

Actually if a couple of days is just an hour than 3-4 years is more than 2 weeks.

lionhead

More questions & answers from Pleasantville

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