Produced on vintage cel equipment during the early 1990s,[4] this was the third feature from Croatia Film's animation unit and director Milan Blažeković, after The Elm-Chanted Forest (1986) and The Magician's Hat (1990).

Lapitch remains Croatia's most successful production in terms of viewership,[5][7] and became that country's official selection for the 1997 Academy Awards (in the Best Foreign Language Film category).

[9][10] In February 2000, it first appeared in North America as the initial entry in Sony Wonder's short-lived "Movie Matinee" video series.

[11] Lapitch (Šegrt Hlapić), an orphaned mouse, works in a small town as the Scowlers' apprentice, who consist of a mean shoemaker (Majstor Mrkonja) and his kind-hearted wife (Majstorica) with his dog, Brewster (Bundaš).

The two of them visit a young squirrel named Marco (Marko), who lives in a house with a blue star on one of its walls, at where they round up some geese that went astray while he was tending to the flock.

Hearing of an artefact stored inside their house, he runs off to tell his boss, the evil Dirty Rat (Crni štakor), about the goods.

In addition, the group encounters a poor cat-like warthog named Yana (Jana), whose magic powers give Lapitch the courage to face Dirty Rat.

It was revealed that Dirty Rat made a deal with Lisa's ringmaster in which he vows to reach Marco's house by horse to steal the family chest.

The next day, Lapitch and the rest arrive at Marco's house, where his mother shows them the family's valuable treasure, along with Melvin's coin.

[2] The film was produced at a time when Croatia faced a slump in its animation industry,[15] and had just begun to undergo its War of Independence.

The film featured a roster of well-known Croatian actors, among them Relja Bašić, Emil Glad, Tarik Filipović and Ivana Bakarić.

[10][17] The film's English-language dub was recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, at Koko Productions and Airwaves Sound Design; Rainmaker Digital Pictures handled post-production.

Croatian musician Petar Grašo contributed to the production with the uncredited "Ljubav sve pozlati", part of which was heard in the end credits.

[18] The song also appeared as the last track of Grašo's 1997 debut album, Mjesec iznad oblaka, published by Orfej and Tonika.

[22] In its revised form, Lapitch the Little Shoemaker was Croatia's sole competing entry in the 1997 edition of Portugal's Cinanima, a film festival focusing on animation.

[23] It was also Croatia's contender to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1997, and was one of two animated submissions in that category, along with Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke from Japan.

He concluded that despite the film not being on par with Disney, he called it charming, entertaining, and full of good ideas for young kids.

[31] Lapitch the Little Shoemaker was followed by a spin-off television series of 26 episodes, entitled Hlapićeve nove zgode in its native Croatia.