The Russian language version retains almost all of the character names. One notable exception is the rat Pissy (Candy in the English version, Patty in Russian one), whose original name sounds vulgar both in English and Russian.
This movie was the 5th biggest Hungarian box-office hit of the 1980s.
Number 13 appears an inordinate number of times in the film. Grabowski is said to have proclaimed himself Mickey Mouse 13th. Grabowski's cabin number on the M-Lines ship is 13. The first button that the Rat Racer's computer tells the rats to push is also 13. The number appears in the sequel as well.
The movie was meant to inspire a spin-off series, Macskamesék ("Cat Tales"), set on a different planet and focused on newly-created cat characters. Twelve episodes were planned, but only two were completed. According to the creators, several television stations and foreign investors were interested in the project, they didn't receive sufficient funding from the Hungarian government for an entire series.
The film was originally going to be more adult oriented, but a Canadian producer who partially financed it vetoed many of the creators' ideas because they wanted to market it abroad. Cathy was added as a positive character because the producer thought portraying all cats as evil would make kids watching the film hate cats. The creators disliked the idea, and only used Cathy sparingly.