Trivia / Hidalgo

• All-Star Cast: Viggo Mortensen and Omar Sharif in primary roles to name a couple, with Peter Mensah, Malcolm McDowell, and J. K. Simmons in supporting roles.
• Blooper: During the final stretch of the race, Frank rides Hidalgo bareback, but if one pays attention there's a brief shot where he's suddenly riding a saddle again.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $100 million. Box office, $67,303,450 (domestic), $108,103,450 (worldwide).
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Sheikh Riyadh was voiced by veteran actor Yūsuke Takita.
• Completely Different Title: The film is called Ocean of Fire in Japan, Latin America and Spain.
• Creator Killer:
  • This movie was one of several 2004 bombs that mixed together with Roy E. Disney's second Save Disney campaign and general turmoil at the Walt Disney Company to bring CEO Michael Eisner's 21-year long reign to an end. Eisner was forced out the year after this film's release to allow president Bob Iger to keep Pixar in their family.
  • It was also the biggest career setback director Joe Johnston had ever incurred. Johnston did not direct another film for the rest of the decade, but he made a tentative comeback with another film that would later be owned by Disney, Captain America: The First Avenger.
• Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Ricardo Tejedo is Jinete's voice actor as well as one of the ADR directors.
• Fake Mixed Race:
  • The leading character is played by Viggo Mortensen.
  • The real Frank Hopkins had his claim of Native American ancestry disputed as well, so YMMV on this one.
  • There appears to be some oral tradition behind the legend. John Fusco did a lot of research trying to verify Hopkins' part-Sioux ancestry and elder Sonny Richards states unequivocally that it's real. The Assiniboine actor who played Black Coyote, David Midthunder, says there are relatives of Hopkins in Montana and South Dakota. Other people have done a lot of research trying to disprove these claims. Maybe we can just say he's adopted until we know for sure.
  • DNA testing showed that Hopkins' descendant showed no signs of DNA that would match any known Native markers. However, given the nature of DNA and how it's passed along and the fact that there are still very few DNA samples from Indian people to compare with, it's impossible to prove one way or the other.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • The film is titled Hidalgo - 3000 Meilen zum Ruhm^note 3000 miles to fame in Germany.
  • The Polish and Italian releases include the Ocean of Fire subtitle.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Viggo Mortensen speaks Spanish fluently since he grew up in Argentina, so he re-dubbed his lines for the Latin American and European Spanish releases. He also learned enough Lakotah to be able to speak his lines in that language and sing his death song towards the end.