When Wolf proposes the gang to pretend to be good, Mr. Shark tells the story about a brother who had an anchor falling on his head. This refers to the previous DreamWorks Animation film Große Haie - Kleine Fische (2004), which had two shark brothers: Frankie who died from an anchor dropping on him, and his brother Lenny, a good guy, who briefly pretends to be bad.
The film's opening diner scene is the longest one-shot in DreamWorks Animation history, lasting two minutes, 25 seconds and seven frames.
Wolf jokingly asks Snake if he can hear colors and see sounds. In fact, snakes have an excellent sense of smell and they actually can "smell" the air. They have no sense of hearing, however, but they are able to detect vibrations, including vibrations caused by sound. When Snake is "listening" to the safe to crack it, this is accurate as he is actually "feeling" the vibrations caused by the safe mechanisms.
The filmmakers cite Spider-Man: A New Universe (2018) as an influence, wanting to try a stylish animated film. Other influences on the film are the anime shows "Lupin III", Beastars (2019) and Die Abenteuer des Sherlock Holmes (1984); the crime films Heat (1995), Ocean's Eleven (2001), Reservoir Dogs - Wilde Hunde (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994); the Belgian animated film Ernest & Célestine (2012); the sci-fi film Das fünfte Element (1997), and the work of artists Hergé, Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, André Franquin, Albert Uderzo and Akira Toriyama.