Trivia / Gustavus

• Creator Backlash: Co-creator Marcell Jankovics was never too fond of the show, feeling uncomfortable about its humor that "punched down" at the struggling working class who had already had it hard enough in real life. He also disliked UPA's animation style that seemed to have inspired the earliest shorts, and revamped the character designs in his style when the studio called for it. When one of his friends asked if he was still working on "that stupid thing" (referring to this series), Jankovics took the remark to heart and began focusing more on serious animations. The staff in general didn't have a high opinion of the series, most of them regarded their work as mere menial exercise rather than art.
• Creator's Oddball: To Marcell Jankovics, if you take his more artistic and serious animated shorts and films, his analytical writings about religion, mythology, culture and history, and his cultural/political activities as his main field of work. While he did create some other comedic and satirical animations early on, and this series does play around with deeper themes and satire as well, it feels leagues removed from his later career-defining works.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: As the original three creators began running out of ideas, the studio encouraged their other workers and even their fans to send them episode ideas, some of which made it to screens.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Marcell Jankovics submitted a proposed script in which Gustav was, for once, a high ranking official, as his pesky everyman portrayal never sat well with him. It was rejected.
  • Gustav was a candidate for Hungary's first feature length animated film, which was conceptualized both as a simple compilation of his preexisting shorts and as an original feature where Gustav travels through motion picture history. Johnny Corncob was produced instead.
• Working Title: Emberek vagyunk, or We Are Human. Gustav himself was alternatively called Dodó, Ferenc (Frank), Ottó and Princ before the final name was chosen — Princ did make it into an episode, though.

---