Bill Kroyer, the original director of this movie, intended to make a darker movie, more faithful in tone to the original book. Following the phenomenal successes of the movies of the Disney Renaissance, Warner Bros. among many other studios, moved into Warner Bros. Feature Animation hoping to replicate similar successes with their own animated movies. At Warner Brothers' behest, Kroyer's vision for this movie was rejected, in favor of a more Disney animated musical movie-style, and the movie was put into production before the story was even finalized. The complex plot and dark nature of the novel, The King's Damousel, were replaced with several animation trademarks of the 1990s-era: musical numbers, a strong female heroine, a power hungry antagonist who wants to usurp the kingdom, a romantic subplot where the couple lives happily ever after, talking animal sidekicks, and family-friendly comedy gags.
In July 2019, Eric Idle said on Twitter that he and Don Rickles "ad-libbed for days" but the filmmakers "didn't use a single line."
Ruber's potion bottle says "Acme".
The scantily-clad girl, who briefly appears during Devon and Cornwall's song, is "Red Hot Riding Hood, featured in Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) and several other 1940s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon Studios cartoons.
This movie was originally scheduled for a theatrical release for the 1997 holiday season, but Warner Brothers later pushed the release date to May 1998, to avoid competition with Alien: Resurrection (1997), Anastasia (1997), The Borrowers (1997), The Fearless Four (1997), Flubber (1997), Home Alone 3 (1997), Mousehunt (1997), Mr. Magoo (1997), Titanic (1997), and the re-release of The Little Mermaid (1989).