The film was first released and exhibited theatrically in the USA in 1976 under the METAMORPHOSIS title.
Although the animation was impressive (especially a scene obviously inspired by animator Bill Tytla's work of the huge demon in the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence of Disney's FANTASIA), there originally was no narration or dialog to explain any of the film's story, nor was Ovid mentioned in any of the advertising for the film, and so bewildered audiences had no idea what was going on in the film plot-wise.
The original soundtrack was also odd in that it had a pop-rock score compiled from unreleased throw-away tracks from such artists as the Pointer Sisters and even The Rolling Stones, which made no sense to the film's story, either, and was merely trying to capitalize on the musical artist's names to hype the film.
After the film failed to find its audience from its first American release, a whole new soundtrack was created with new music, Peter Ustinov's narration, an explanatory opening credit about Ovid, and the WINDS OF CHANGE title change to try and save the film, which still did not do well in its second American theatrical release in 1978.
Even now, the film is sometimes hard to follow, and seeing the film is still helped if you're made familiar with the details of the original Ovid stories ahead of time.
Sold to American cable TV in 1979, and randomly cable-cast for the next few years, the film started to find its cult audience, which grew when the film was released to VHS video a few years later, but has yet to see any official release on non-bootleg DVD or Blu-Ray.
