The broadcast television premiere of this film earned German broadcaster Pro 7 the highest rating in its history (12,2 million viewers, 32%).
When the Indian Chief - Listiger Lurch - asks for a war hatchet, one of his assistants responds - in a fake Apache dialect - that it got broken because the one they bought had a very cheap quality. The last word he utters in this fake dialect is "Tchibo". Tchibo is a chain of stores very popular in Germany, which is characterized by selling a handful of generic items at low prices.
The horse named "Jacqueline" is actually a male horse. Horses in general cannot vomit, as they lack the esophagus muscles.
"Ich hab' schon Pferde kotzen sehn" - "I have seen horses vomiting" is a German slang metaphor for something very unlikely, mostly used in the sense of "anything can happen" ("This should be safe, but keep an eye on it, I've seen horses vomiting").
The whole scene in the cave near the end is dubbed because of street noises.
Generally considered as being the most successful German movie ever with 12 million viewers. Another contender is Holly - The Movie (1984), which had 14 million viewers in West Germany and in the GDR, but since there weren't any records about viewers' attendance in the GDR, the number of 14 million could be ambiguous. Holly - The Movie (1984) had 11 million approved viewers in West Germany making Manitou's Shoe (2001) technically more successful.