According to curator Tammy Burnstock at the 'Australian Screen' website, ''in an innovative distribution deal, the film was released in zoos and sanctuaries in Australia and New Zealand via Zoos South Australia, with a percentage of the profit from merchandise sold going towards animal conservation projects.''
The meaning and relevance of ''The Badness'' in the film, was that they are the movie's bad guys. According to the Fandom Villains Wiki webpage, ''- 'The Badness' are a group of poachers who are the main antagonists in the 2006 film 'Elephant Tales'.''
'Captain Johnno' (1988), a movie length film made for television, was the first family and children's feature film directed by director Mario Andreacchio. Previously, he had directed just recently the year before all ten episodes of the family and children's television series 'Pals' (1987). Andreacchio would go on to direct a number of family and children's feature films such as 'Napoleon' (1995), 'The Real Macaw' (1998), 'Elephant Tales' (2006), 'The Dragon Pearl' (2011), and 'Sally Marshall Is Not an Alien' (1999). Andreacchio has also directed family and children's television series such as the 'Second Childhood' episode of the 'More Winners' (1990) series, episodes in the 'Lift Off' (1992-1995) and 'Sky Trackers' (1994) series, and all four episodes of 'The New Adventures of Black Beauty' (1992) mini-series.
Director Mario Andreacchio approached French producer Georges Campana to co-finance and co-produce the film. Campana said: "It was a bold idea, a charming story and an important film to make. I had a feeling that this film could reach a large audience. But any great idea requires money. The challenge was to communicate the passion to our financial partners who animated us while trying to make them understand what we were planning to realize that was completely new."
It was in 1989 that director Mario Andreacchio conceived of this film for the first time when he sat in the shade of an acacia tree watching elephants play together in an orphanage for animals near Nairobi. This orphanage specialized in housing young elephants in order to reintroduce them into their natural environment.