Enforced Method Acting: Bakshi would intentionally give Terri Haven vague directions to make her more irritated while recording her lines for Ida. He would sketch her when she was especially pissed and pass the drawings onto her animators.
Executive Meddling: It dodges the bullet from this. During production, Ralph had a bit of a fallout with the producer for not getting paid much from Fritz the Cat's success. Ralph was then fired from the film and the direction was given to animation legend Chuck Jones. Chuck declined the offer believing that the film was better off in Bakshi’s hands. You can say Ralph was lucky on this one.
Troubled Production: This marked the last time Bakshi would work with Steve Krantz due to the latter's extreme Executive Meddling and off-the-wall antics. During the middle of production, Bakshi realized that he was never paid for his work on Fritz, with Krantz claiming to him that "The picture didn't make money" (even though Krantz had just purchased a new BMW and a mansion in Beverly Hills after the smash box office success of Fritz). Krantz would also issue memos requesting various changes to the movie, such as censoring/deleting several sex scenes. When Bakshi refused to talk about his next movie Harlem Nights with Krantz, the producer locked Bakshi out of the studio, wire-tapped his phone, and even fired him from his own movie, calling several directors to replace him, and only rehired Bakshi when co-producer Samuel Z. Arkoff threatened to pull funding from the film; all because Krantz was becoming paranoid about Bakshi's loyalty towards him as an employee.
Write Who You Know: Some parts of Ida were based on Bakshi's own mother, who, apparently, was named Ida, Likewise, some of the photos of her and her family were actual ones of Bakshi's family and his mother.
Other Trivia
Like with Fritz, this film was originally given an X rating despite attempts by its producer to get it an R, but home video releases give it an R rating instead.
