The puppet of Pinocchio took Jim Henson's Creature Shop 9 months to perfect. It was operated by 12 people.
The villain, Lorenzini, played by Udo Kier, gets his name from the novel's author, Carlo Collodi, whose real surname was Lorenzini.
Pinocchio's singing voice during the "'IL Colosso" song was provided by Brian May, only his vocals were sped up to match Jonathan Taylor Thomas's voice and the soundtrack credits "Just William' as Pinocchio's singing voice.
Wallace Shawn was originally set to voice Pepe but was taken over by David Doyle, though the trailer for the film features Pepe with Shawn's voice and Shawn is even credited in the trailer.
Bebe Neuwirth imitates Eartha Kitt's Catwoman from Batman (1966) when saying the word "purr-fect" (because Neuwirth is meant to be The Cat from the Pinocchio book).