- Most of the cast trained in dance and martial arts for ten weeks before filming commenced.
- Originally intended as a drama, not a musical.
- Although many newspaper moguls of the time hosted Christmas dinners and other holiday events for their newsboys, after the Newsboys Strike, Joseph Pulitzer even went as far as to host weekend events in vaudeville houses, the period equivalent of "Kids' night at the movies".
- Most of the newsies depicted in the film are based on real people from the strike such as Spot Conlon, Racetrack Higgins, Kid Blink. Jack Kelly, however, is a fabrication, though he may have been based on the real Kid Blink, who was accused of being bribed by Pulitzer to end the strike. David is most probably based on Morris Cohen, the other leader of the strike.
- At the time, this was one of the lowest grossing live action movies in Walt Disney studio history.
- The song "King of New York" was written as an afterthought by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman and became their favorite song in the movie.
- At the end of every week, the newsies took it upon themselves to torment director Kenny Ortega. When an upturned bucket of water missed its mark, Christian Bale and David Moscow soaked him with, as Ortega described it, "Water Uzis."
- While Jack Kelly is singing "Santa Fe", there's a part where he's riding a horse. The part when his arms are thrown out and he is bent back, he is actually riding on the shoulders of his stunt master.