The writers of the film, Steven Kampmann and William Porter, were so embarrassed by the final cut that they used pseudonyms as onscreen credit, as well as the film's marketing and publicity.
According to Martin Short, shortly after actor Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Short saw him on an airplane that the two were traveling to the same destination on and went over to personally congratulate Cage on his Oscar win. In response Cage told him that he loved this film so much, particularly the scene between Short and Charles Grodin in which their characters are in a kitchen and Grodin pretends to show Short how to play baseball with a breadstick that he broke his VCR and VHS copy of the film from rewinding that one scene and rewatching it so many times. He told Short that he was "a genius." Short was very surprised and flattered because he thought most audiences had ignored and forgotten the film at that point and was surprised to hear that from a highly-regarded peer in Hollywood.
Although planned for a 1991 release, this was one of several films Orion Pictures released in 1994, just before their bankruptcy.
Martin Short, who plays 10-year-old Clifford, was 37 during initial filming in 1990, and 40 during the bookend sequences filmed in 1993.