Anecdotes

For a preview screening on 6 June 2000 in Atlanta, this movie was transmitted in digital form from the studio, across the Internet, to the digital projector at the theater. It never once touched film, and was the first major Hollywood film to be publicly previewed that way.

To tie in with the film, there were a series of prequel novels released, as well as a prequel comic book mini-series.

Because this film didn't do well at the box office, 20th Century Fox closed its animation studios in Arizona after only two feature films (the other was Anastasia (1997)). Fox then contacted Blue Sky studios to produce animated films using 3D computer graphics, including L'ère de glace (2002) and Robots (2005).

The film was originally pitched as a live-action film.

This is the first and only film directed by Don Bluth to be rated PG by the MPAA, despite some very dark and occasionally violent imagery and content in his other films.