The producers wanted to have all the voice actors from The Rescuers (1977) reprise their roles for the sequel. However, in the original, Orville the albatross was voiced by Jim Jordan, who died two years before this film was released. The producers didn't want to replace Jordan, so Orville was replaced with the character's brother Wilbur, voiced by John Candy. This is a reference to Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, the inventors and pilots of the first functional airplane.
This was Eva Gabor's last film before her death in 1995. A third Rescuers movie was planned for 1996, but after her death, all future Rescuers movies were scrapped. Neither reviving the third film nor replacing the voice of Miss Bianca could be done. The plot to this film ties all loose ends as well, so it serves as a finale to the series.
The flying scenes with Marahute were inspired by the films of Hayao Miyazaki, which typically feature elaborate aerial scenes.
McLeach would serve as an inspiration for several later Disney villains for years, including Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (1991), Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas (1995), Clayton from Tarzan (1999), and Commander Rourke from Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001).
This was the first 100% digital feature film ever made. The animation and backgrounds were done traditionally but all of the coloring, many effects, and the final film printing was all done digitally. This was the first film produced with Disney's Academy Award-winning "CAPS" production system, developed for the film. It cut the production time for an animated movie down by at least six months.