The original release date was in May 1993. Disney moved it to July so teens, the target demographic, would be out of school and more likely to see it. Disney wanted to offer audiences an alternative to Jurassic Park (1993) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993) which were dominating the box office at the time.
Crawl was originally named Snake in the first draft of the script.
Early in the film, Crawl sings about the Hungry Man TV dinner he is about to eat. Mason Adams, who plays the grandfather, was a voice over announcer at the time the film was released.
Although he had some reservations about making this movie, Pauly Shore has gone on to say it's probably the movie he was most proud of making. It had done decently well at the box office upon release but over 30 years later Shore has said he is very pleased that the movie still remains a popular cult favorite and is also a beloved Thanksgiving classic.
Brendan Fraser: Link, his character from Encino Man (1992). Crawl sees Link at a party dressed as he appeared in the last scene of the movie, and says "great costume." Link eats a plastic frog and walks away as Crawl tries to figure out where he knows him from and says "Nah," implying that Link and Crawl had met before.