The film was co-produced by France's Blue Spirit and Belgium's Be-Films. It took two years to finance and had a budget of four million euro. Jean-François Laguionie designed every character himself. The designs include homages to painters such as Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Pre-production took 15 months and production one year. The film was animated in digital 3D.[3]