The movie was the biggest flop of Hungarian animation. Angry adults and crying children would storm out of theaters, and some cinemas reportedly began playing different films just to keep audiences seated. Critics were also divided. The biggest reasons for the bad reception were the highly abstract animation style, the basic plot and the presentation that resembled old-fashioned farcical comedies from the early 20th century. The filmmakers explained that their goal was not to tell a convoluted story with exciting twists and turns but to evoke different moods and to explore societal issues like domestic life, the youth's career choices and the place of artists in a blue-collar, consumerist society. Certain defenders of the film also remarked that viewers were either too unsophisticated to appreciate the film's style and themes or they were uncomfortable with how it satirized their socialist lifestyle. Technical director Jenõ Koltai wrote a lengthy essay in Pannonia Studio's magazine analyzing the film's failure, reasoning that the mainstream audience was not ready for an animated movie with realistic, urban themes. The movie was mostly forgotten until the 2000s saw a resurgence in interest for Kovásznai's works. It is now seen as an obscure gem of Eastern European animation and a nostalgic time capsule of 70s middle-class culture. It mainly became a beloved cult favorite of urban Hungarians in their 20s and 30s. Because of this, the film is now officially categorized as a "nemzedéki közérzetfilm" or a "generational mood film".
Though produced and animated at the Pannonia Film Studio, none of the main animators were employees of the establishment. Instead, Kovásznai rounded up his own team of young, more free-thinking animators. However, Pannonia's regular in-between animators did occasionally help out to finish the film on time.
György Matolcsy Sr., head of the Pannonia Animation Studio at the time of its production, considered the picture the most innovative Hungarian feature film ever made.
The animation and visual design were deliberately made to be the exact opposite of how Disney movies looked.
The main inspiration for the film came when György Kovásznai realized that most animated movies were about bringing a fantasy-world to life with realistic animation. Reflecting on the popularity of science fiction, fantasy, disaster and adventure films of the 70s, Kovásznai concluded that these genres work better in live-action than in animation. He argued that since children are exposed to animation from a young age, they know that cartoons are not real and it is pointless to try to make them seem realistic. Instead of looking for fantasy subjects, he began to wonder if the art of animation was mature enough to tell stories of the real world, specifically the mundane everyday life of Hungary's capital Budapest. He also disliked the simplistic, stereotypical Disney fantasy characters and instead aimed to create complex, realistic human characters with deep personal societal issues.