Although The Tale of the Fox (1937) completed all of its animation in 1929-1930, well before this film was made, it wasn't released until 1937, making this 1935 film the first stop-motion feature-length film to be released.
First released in 1935, this was the first animated feature film to be made in the Soviet Union. Among the few animated feature films preceding it, 3 were created in Argentina, 1 in Germany, and 1 in France. Two years later, in 1937, the first American animated feature film was released.
This was the only known film role for teenage actor Vladimir Konstantinovich Konstantinov (1920-1944). He died in World War II.
Due to the critical success of this film, the production company Mosfilm allowed director Aleksandr Ptushko to set up his own department for the making of stop-motion animated films.
A total of 3,000 different puppets were used in the film.