Arguably the rarest film in the Disney canon because it was initially funded by the studio as a direct-to-video promotional tool for The Seeing Eye and Guide Dogs of America organizations. The film's broadcast premiere was on the Disney Channel on October 7, 1984, and it was aired two years later on The Disney Sunday Movie on ABC on May 4, 1986. Unlike most Disney films, it was not circulated beyond this, and was released on home video only briefly in the late 1980s. As such, VHS and beta copies of the film continue to sell upwards of $200.
The scene in which Buddy rescues Morrie from the burning car is not as far-fetched and 'Disneyfied' as one might imagine. In 2017, it was reported that a man in Seattle, WA, who was paralyzed from the neck down, started to fall forward in his chair. As the man's home health aide had stepped out to run an errand, the man's service dog had the presence of mind to wedge himself between the man's upper and lower body to ensure that he could keep breathing. When the man's home health aide returned, the dog waited until the man was returned to sitting and only then extricated himself, at which point he walked to a corner of the room and collapsed in exhaustion. The man estimated that the dog had maintained his position for the better part of an hour.
Buddy, the German Shepherd who became the first seeing-eye dog, passed away on Christmas Day in 1938.
The parts of the film taking place in Switzerland were filmed in Leavenworth, WA, chosen because it had been converted to a mock Bavarian village in 1962, and therefore required few embellishments to achieve the desired setting.
While the film movingly explores Morris Frank's period of adjustment to blindness and his relationship with his guide dog, the bulk of the script focuses on Frank's efforts in the movement to educate American vendors about the necessity of honoring the role service animals play in facilitating the independence of their humans.