Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, who was the creator of the original manga, also did the character designs for the movie, co-wrote the screenplay and directed it.
The film was released in cinemas in Japan in March 1989, on VHS in June the same year and on LaserDisc in July, all within a few months of each other. It then became unavailable in its home country for most of three decades - though there were releases on DVD (from 1998 onward) and Blu-ray Disc (from 2011 onward) in some western countries, the film was not re-released on any format in Japan until its 30th anniversary, in 2019.
Joe Hisaishi's last score for an animated feature not produced by Studio Ghibli for 30 years. He would return with "Children of the Sea (2019)" and then "NiNoKuni (2019)", both premiered in 2019.
Is as of 2021, the last film shot entirely in the 8-perf VistaVision format.
The cigarettes that Sue gives the bartender are Camel cigarettes.