The production was ridden with problems, mainly due to the difficult union relationships between the artists and the company Tôei Animation (then known as Tôei Dôga). The movie was released far beyond schedule and kept in the theaters only for 10 days. Because of this, it bombed, and Isao Takahata never directed for Toei again. However, the movie became immediately an underground hit among students and young anime artists, and is now widely considered the first modern anime.
This was the first movie where now legendary Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (later founders, along with Tôru Hara, of Studio Ghibli) worked together. At the time, Miyazaki was simply an inbetween artist at Tôei Animation (then known as Tôei Dôga), but his talent brought him to the attention of Setsuyo Matoba, who was the production supervisor. In order to find a role for Miyazaki, a "chief animator and concept artist" role was specially invented.
The script was based on a puppet theater drama written by scriptwriter Kazuo Fukazawa, itself based on an ancient legend of the Ainu, the aboriginal people living in Northern Japan. The Scandinavian/Viking/Eastern Europe setting was an idea of the producers, worried that a movie too identified with a local culture wouldn't have had enough international appeal.
The official website of Tôei Animation and the movie's official roman album (a book about the making of the movie) published by Tokuma Shoten give the roman-character spelling of the name of the title character as "Hols", and it has been confirmed personally by the movie's supervising director Yasuo Ôtsuka that he believes that the similarity of its Japanese pronunciation "Horusu" to that of the ancient Egyptian deity Horus is unintentional.
However, many international releases of the movie, including in the USA and Canada, spell the character's name in subtitles and in the title as "Horus", and precisely how the filmmakers arrived at the name of "Horusu" at the time remains a point of some contention amongst fans of the movie.
However, many international releases of the movie, including in the USA and Canada, spell the character's name in subtitles and in the title as "Horus", and precisely how the filmmakers arrived at the name of "Horusu" at the time remains a point of some contention amongst fans of the movie.
Isao Takahata's directorial film debut.