When a rock is thrown through the window of the soda shop, it goes through the face of the woman in the painting. A moment later, another item is thrown, also breaking the window in a different place, but the woman's face is intact again.
Helpful•181
The announcer in the beginning states that the Pleasantville marathon was 24 hours long, starting at 6:30 PM. The announcer at the end states that the marathon will end at noon tomorrow.
Helpful•206
In the bowling alley sequence, the scene begins with two or three 7-10 splits being picked up. Later in the same scene when the mayor is speaking with the scores behind him there are no 8-pin spares listed, only 9-pin spares.
Helpful•148
On their way to school on the first day, Mary Sue gets angry and pulls her hair clips out - just before Skip pulls up in his car. After Skip drives away her hair is suddenly clipped back again.
Helpful•109
When Jennifer and David are fighting over the remote control before the Pleasantville Marathon starts at 6:30, they momentarily go to the Prevue Channel. The time shown on that channel is 1:16, not 6:30.
Helpful•76
Various inconsistencies and plot holes (stopped clocks, phantom opposing basketball teams) with the real world are consistent with Pleasantville being a TV world, and hence consistent with the movie.
Helpful•352
When the TV repairman talks to David and Jennifer from the television after they've just been transported to Pleasantville, behind him, the test pattern's position on the screen is slightly different in the close-ups. This was done deliberately "to indicate the repairman's changing attitudes towards Bud and Mary Sue".
Helpful•181
At the restaurant in the 1950's. Skip orders a Cherry Coke. But Cherry Coke was not invented until 1985. However, for long before that (and even into the life of the store-bought version), Coke could be ordered with cherry extract added to it.
Helpful•61
When color begins to appear in monochromatic Pleasantville, people accurately refer to them by name. They wouldn't know what color is let alone the references to them. However, some characters refer to "real" colors (such as green), presumably as a contrast to their monochromatic equivalents.
Helpful•1516
Even though the weather in Pleasantville is always a sunny 72°, it's dark outside by 6:00 or 6:30pm, which suggests they are deep into the winter months. But the calendar in the Parker home says it's April. This is simply another example of Pleasantville's absurd "perfection."
Helpful•65
When Bud pulls up in the fire truck to put out the tree fire, he pulls a charged hose from the back of the truck. While some hoses in the back of an engine are connected to the engine's pump, water would not flow until the pump was engaged.
Helpful•147
The geography lesson shows city hall to be at the southwest corner of Elm Street and Main Street, and the teacher says that Elm only has houses on it and that the end of Main Street is also the start of Main Street - essentially a multidimensional loop. However, when seen from the Malt Shop, the furniture store is on the southwest corner of Elm and Main and city hall is on Elm, facing directly at Main.
Helpful•20
When the girls rush into the restroom, the door bangs against the wall, causing it to shake and the mirror to bounce, revealing that it is a standard, thin-walled, flimsy set.
Helpful•10
Jack Jones is among the singers included on a list of approved music for the town in 1958. Jones didn't make his recording debut until 1959 and didn't achieve widespread recognition until 1962's "Lollipops and Roses".
Helpful•246
The basketball court has a faint 3-point circle, which didn't exist in the 1950s.
Helpful•165
The closing credits end with "Dedicated to: J.T. Walsh 1943-1997". However, Walsh died in 1998.
Helpful•198
The scoreboard in the gym is a modern day Nevco basketball scoreboard. Most high school gyms in the '50s had analog clocks and did not show team fouls.
Helpful•124
When Bud and his girlfriend are driving down to lover's lane, she turns on the radio. The song that comes on is Etta James' "At Last" from 1961.
Helpful•2313
When the soda shop is wrecked and it is discovered that the jukebox still works, one of the boys unplugs it after Buddy Holly's "Rave On" starts. When Bud says it's okay and plugs the jukebox back in the song starts again, which would not have happened with a 1958 jukebox. It would have started up where the needle was left by the unplugging.
Helpful•109
When Bud is pulling up to his home with the firemen to put out the burning tree, he is heard yelling, "Alright, stop... stop!" At this point you can already see his face in profile and he is clearly not saying anything.
Helpful•57
Betty Parker's eyes are obviously green, and her hair is reddish, when she transitions to color. This is very evident when Budd helps her conceal her skin color with make-up. While her husband and the mayor may have simply not noticed, in later scenes her eyes are again gray, and her hair almost black, until the scene in which Bill Johnson removes it in the diner. Note that the make-up powder could not be used on the eyes, or on the hair.
Helpful•225
David puts gray make-up on Betty to conceal her change to full color. However he would not be able to change her blue eyes, or the white and pink tones of the eyeballs sclera, which all appear in perfect black and white at the end of the scene.
Helpful•61
David's gift to Bill is rather unlikely. Not only would David have to know the book from the title to be able to fill anything in, he would also have to remember which specific paintings were in the book in order to bring them all back.
Helpful•83
Betty's face changes from black and white to color. However, she is wearing full makeup, thick foundation, blusher, bright red lipstick, eyeliner, etc. Essentially no part of her skin on her face is showing.
It is therefore not clear what is actually changing color; if it is her skin, then actually removing her makeup would solve the problem. If it is the makeup itself that has changed (which is both implied and shown), then adding more makeup would not help.
Of course, the makeup is shown as grey as an attempt to get around this problem, however, it just compounds it. For example, makeup needs constant retouching which she would be unable to do as things stand, and (as the movie implies that all color changes are permanent) if she needs to reapply it on subsequent days the colors would not be available to her in her current makeup set, just the same greys.
It is therefore not clear what is actually changing color; if it is her skin, then actually removing her makeup would solve the problem. If it is the makeup itself that has changed (which is both implied and shown), then adding more makeup would not help.
Of course, the makeup is shown as grey as an attempt to get around this problem, however, it just compounds it. For example, makeup needs constant retouching which she would be unable to do as things stand, and (as the movie implies that all color changes are permanent) if she needs to reapply it on subsequent days the colors would not be available to her in her current makeup set, just the same greys.
Helpful•00
Jennifer's reaction of "Cool" to the rain makes little sense. As it is earlier established that she knows nothing about Pleasantville, she would not realize that the rain is an entirely new development.
Helpful•56