[2] The action takes place in a fictional Central European country, Karistan, where the beautiful Alta lives with her young blind daughter Jewel.
The novel White Horse, Dark Dragon is described by The Science Fiction Chronicle as "an interesting juxtaposition of fantasy and modern politics", and has become something of a cult due to its dry political humor satirizing late-era communism and U.S. corporate boardrooms - mixed with action, historical romance and nuanced characters.
It was a decision that makes for an uneasy blend of target marketing vs. reality, since the result was a movie that at least one reviewer, Michael Medved, thought was "too intense for children."
Polish-born U.S. producer Alina Szpak, using her recently completed family feature, Brothers of the Wilderness, as an entrée to return to Poland, and with the aim of helping to ease the thaw of Cold War relations as the country was just coming out of martial law, in 1984 she and her husband/partner Robert Fleet approached the country's official film agency, Film Polski and, in co-operation with Film Unit Perspektywa (Zespoł Perspectywa) developed the first U.S.-Poland feature film co-production (not services-for-hire), producing White Dragon (aka Biały Smok aka Legend of the White Horse aka White Horse, Dark Dragon) for her own company, Legend Productions under the aegis White Dragon Productions, Inc.
The fantasy-adventure feature, valued at a 1985 budget of US$11 million and starring American and Polish actors (Christopher Lloyd, Dee Wallace, Soon-Tek Oh, Kazimierz Kaczor), was purchased in pre-production by CBS Theatrical Productions.