The feature film debut of Yara Shahidi
The third time Eddie Murphy and Ronny Cox worked together following Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987).
Eddie Murphy was nominated for two Razzie awards, as he was nominated for Worst Actor and won Worst Actor of the Decade. This marks the first Nickelodeon film to be nominated for a Razzie award, an award ceremony dishonoring the worst in motion picture industry. The second was its next film, The Last Airbender (2010).
Thomas Haden Church is not Native American, either by blood or tribe. He had misgivings around playing the Native American character, Johnny Whitefeather, and did research in preparation for the role, in consultation with the Sioux Nation, and Cayuga Six Nations tribe member and actor, Gary Farmer.
This is one of three family-friendly films released by Paramount Pictures that star Thomas Haden Church, after Over the Hedge (2006) and Charlotte's Web (2006). Incidentally, Church became famous playing Lowell Mather on the Paramount-produced TV series Wings (1990).