Rumors that this movie could never be "restored" because the original 3-panel Cinerama camera negatives were heavily water damaged are untrue. Sources close to Warner Brothers and Cinerama Inc, report there is actually very minimal water damage to one edge of one panel in only some reels, and the Technicolor color separation prints are intact for the entire film. Therefore if any of the water damage actually would show on screen or video, that footage could be replaced with new negative made from the Technicolor separations. 3 color separation reels for each of the 3 Cinerama panels means the replacement process would be costly, but not impossible.
The second major motion picture filmed in 3-camera Cinerama, although it was released before the first, How the West Was Won (1962).
One of only two movies (the other being How the West Was Won (1962)) filmed in the true three-screen Cinerama process. Other Cinerama films, such as This Is Cinerama (1952) and Cinerama Holiday (1955) were more documentary-style in nature; this movie and "West" told fictional stories. Other movies such as It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) were touted as Cinerama, but were actually filmed in a one-camera widescreen process, such as Ultra Panavision 70, and projected on a curved Cinerama screen.
Costume designer Mary Wills won the Oscar for this film. A decade earlier, she had received an Oscar nomination for her work on a movie about another teller of fairy tales: Hans Christian Andersen (1952).
Producer George Pal originally wanted Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness to play the Brothers Grimm, but MGM vetoed the idea.