Dragons live by the Nazi's standards of racial purity, not allowing half-bloods such as Nepomuk into their city of Sorrowland. In the city, Mrs. Grindtooth teaches racial superiority to the abducted children. Author Michael Ende chose these topics because he has disagreed with this ideology since before World War II.
With a budget of almost 25 million EUR, this film (as of 2018) is the most expensive German motion picture ever made.
Possibly the most famous interpretation of the book by Michael Ende is the version by the Augsburger Puppenkiste titled Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer (1977), starring marionettes instead of real people.
The misspelled address on the parcel that Jim arrives in is due to the fact that each of the thirteen pirates that make up the pirate gang called the Wild 13 only know one letter. Whenever they have to write something, the Captain reads out the message slowly and when a pirate recognizes the one letter he knows, he writes it down.
The books by Michael Ende have a social structure that is rooted in British colonial culture.
- Mr. Sleeve is a stereotypical Englishman with a bowler hat and an umbrella. His name comes from the German word for the British Channel: Ärmelkanal, which translates literally to "Sleeve Channel".
- Mrs. Whaat's shop is being supplied goods from all over the world, mirroring the delivery system by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's global supply system.
- Luke is a proud blue-collar British Worker, complete with left-wing political leanings.
- King Alfred the Quarter-to-Twelfth is a monarch with very limited powers, being more of a celebrity rather than a regent, similar to the British Royal Family.
- Jim Button is an immigrant who ends up being accepted and loved in society.