Was made to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of poet Sándor Petöfi who wrote the original epic poem János Vitéz (John the Valiant) in 1845. Petöfi is considered Hungary's greatest poet and is sometimes called "The Greatest Hungarian", he was a fiercely nationalistic and hopelessly romantic writer as well as a revolutionary fighter who lost his life during the failed uprising against the Hapsburg oppression of 1849. His folktale hero Kukorica Jancsi (Johnny Corncob or Johnny Grain o'Corn) is one of the most significant characters of classic Hungarian literature. Due to the importance of Petöfi's poetry, the movie received considerable political and cultural backing and was met with huge anticipation, especially since the nation's people had begun to lose touch with their cultural roots during the country's Communist rule. Both the poem and this film are regarded as Hungarian cultural milestones.
The first Hungarian feature-length animation film.
The main hero, Kukorica Jancsi and the other hussars are the only characters drawn in the style of the disproportionately large-legged humans from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine (1968). According to director Marcell Jankovics, there was no reason for the characters in George Dunning's film having large feet, but in his movie, this design choice played a vital part in the presentation. It is an example of forced perspective, which ensures that they would always look like towering folk heroes.
The movie was picked up by the American Hanna-Barbera animation studio, but did not get released in the United States until 2021. Marcell Jankovics believes that American distributing companies often purchased lesser-known films without releasing them, so that there would be less competition for their domestic releases. This is however not entirely true, as Hanna-Barbera did intend to release a drastically re-edited version of the movie in 1978, under the title "Forever Like the Rose", featuring the music of the now inactive rock duo Seals and Crofts (a la the Beatles' Yellow Submarine (1968)). Kimmer Ringwald was hired to pen the script rewrite. Certain online film databases claim the film was completed, but the only thing known for sure is that it was never released. Scenes from the original film were however used in a pair of Hanna-Barbera's HBTV music video segments from The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera (1985). Italy was the only Western nation that released the film, and it didn't reach other Western countries until 2021.
Much like in Hungarian folklore, masculinity in the film is represented by a heart (actually a pair of testicles turned upside down) and femininity by a tulip. Marcell Jankovics claims he wasn't aware of the significance of these symbols while making the movie, and it was only by coincidence that they matched the symbolism of folk art.