Chico Marx plays his trademark song "I'm Daffy Over You" for the first time in this film.
Zeppo Marx was one of only two of The Marx Brothers to play a recurring role in their films (not counting when they used their own names). He played the role of "Jamison" in both The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers.
Animal Crackers did not appear on television until fifty years after its release. When it finally did reach the small screen, it was via a prime-time broadcast on the CBS network in summer 1980.
After this film, the Brothers always thought of Margaret Dumont as "Mrs. Rittenhouse".
Animal Crackers opened at the 44th Street Theater on October 23, 1928 and ran for 191 performances starring the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont.
During a rehearsal a test was made for a color movie process called Multicolor (a predecessor of Cinecolor) and the result was the first known footage of the Marx Brothers in color! The clip is silent and lasts only 15 seconds. The Marx Brothers also appeared in color in the film The Story of Mankind in which they appeared separately.
For this film, Harpo Marx switched to a lighter red wig which actually photographed as blonde. In the film, he is referred to as a redhead. He would use the lighter wig in all future Marx Brothers movies. He went back to the darker red wig for The Story of Mankind which was filmed in color.
In 1957, Paramount forgot to renew the soundtrack rights which reverted back to the authors of the play (the studio did renew the picture rights, though). As a result the film could not legally be seen in the USA until 1974, when Universal, which had since purchased Paramount's film library, was persuaded by fan requests to re-release it.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. However, because of legal complications, this particular title was not included in the original television package and was not televised until the 1970's when rights were cleared.
One of the few Marx Brothers movies in which the fact that Chico Marx is not truly Italian is referenced. When Chico is questioning Abie the fish-man (alias Roscoe W. Chandler) about his new identity, Chandler suddenly replies "Say, how did you get to be Italian?"
Several of Groucho Marx lines were cut on demand of the Hays office, including "I think I'll try to make her".
The film was re-released to theaters before being released to television. Groucho Marx attended the premiere.
The movie's line "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." was voted as the #53 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
The violin part of Harpo Marx's harp/violin duet was played by Mischa Mischakoff who was later concertmaster of the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini.
When Chico says he recognizes Chandler from somewhere, Chandler replies, dismissively, "Well, after all I'm one of the most well-known men in America. The newspapers will keep on running my photograph." Chico then says, "You're not Abe Kabibble?" "Abe Kabibble" was the full name of the popular comic strip character Abie the Agent, whom the Chandler character resembles.