As revealed by director Ken Annakin on the DVD commentary, the trapped zebra was subjected to electric shocks to make it move about, a practice that is now illegal in Hollywood movies.
On the DVD commentary, director Ken Annakin said the man that the tiger is chasing in the scene with the fight with the pirates was actually the trainer of the tiger. The trainer, knowing how hard tigers are to train, and with the man having his back to the tiger would make the tiger naturally predatory, he could not trust the tiger to not maul the actor playing the pirate.
Fritz and Ernst fighting the anaconda in the swamp inspired the garbage masher scene in Star Wars: Episode IV - Eine neue Hoffnung (1977).
This movie took in $40 million (around $367 million in today's money), making it one of the most successful family movies ever made.
Neither Roberta nor the pirates appear in the 1812 novel on which this movie was based.