Trivia

Michel Ocelot's directorial film debut.

Director Trademark: [Michel Ocelot] [silhouettes] In one scene Kirikou's mother is seen as a solid black silhouette backlit by fire; later in the film, Kirikou himself, for the entirety of the underground tunnel scenes, is rendered as a black silhouette with only the whites of his eyes and teeth showing.

[Michel Ocelot] had first envisioned Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998) as a silhouette animation (the medium he had been working in since 1988's Ciné si (1989)) and wrote the initial version of the screenplay with this manner of presentation in mind. Karaba's "breast jewelry" emerged during this phase as a device to prevent her having the appearance of having only one breast when her torso was turned to a three-quarter view but was retained despite the changeover to full color.

Animals featured prominently include the common warthog, striped polecat, Barbary ground squirrel and African hoopoe.