Mattel had originally wanted to make a series of Barbie princess animated films where Barbie plays a different princess each movie from a classic fairytale (Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, etc.), but out of fear of copyright with Disney, these plans were abandoned. This is where this film materialized, as Disney (at the time of this film's release) had not yet made a Disney Princess movie based on Rapunzel. Ironically enough, Disney's Tangled (2010), which is based on Rapunzel, took a lot of inspiration from this film.