FOOTROT FLATS: THE DOG’S ---TAIL--- TALE

New Zealand/Australia, 1987, 71 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: John Clarke, Peter Rowley, Rawiri Paratene, Fiona Samuel, Peter Haydon, Marshall Napier.
Directed by Murray Ball.

Footrot Flats and its characters are a byword in New Zealand. Whether they have travelled much further than the Southern Hemisphere is open to question. However, this animated film version was welcomed in New Zealand and won a number of awards for 1987.

Murray Ball, the creator of the comic strip on which the film was based, wrote the screenplay and directed the film as well. He was able to get a number of very strong New Zealand voices for his characters, especially John Clarke for Wal, Peter Rowley for Dog.

The film brings the characters alive, the focus on the Dog, his friendship with Jess and his trying to start a family as well as trying to keep Wal and Cheeky, his girlfriend, apart. There is also some philosophising in the background, the meaning of life, as well as how to deal with the human menaces in the Dog’s life.

The film is episodic and shows Wal and his trying to get the affections of Cheeky and the rivalry from Spit Murphy. Dog, of course, is trying to win the affections of Jess. Local colour is given with Wal trying to make a good impression with the All Blacks selectors at one of the rugby matches on the weekend. Rangi and Pongo also have to save Wal’s prize stag from the Blackwater Station where the Murphys live – with their vicious dogs and deadly croco-pigs. These are all part of the life of the small town of Raupo which is the scene for the comic strips.

Audiences will enjoy the New Zealand aspects of the film – but it has the capacity, with its humorous mixture of stories of humans and dogs as well as philosophy, of bringing enjoyment on a universal scale.

1.The impact of the comic over many years in New Zealand. The popular comic strip? The particularly New Zealand character, tones, backgrounds?

2.The style of the layout, the characters, bringing the characters to life? The skill in the voices? The musical score?

3.New Zealand, the town of Raupo, a sense of place?

4.The farms, out in the countryside, the farmers? The helicopter, disasters? Socials in the town? Football matches?

5.The creation of animals and their life with people?

6.The farmer and his story, a New Zealander, his voice, life and work, the property, the Dog, the shearing of the sheep, the weekend football match, the girlfriend, the helicopters, the disaster, the football?

7.The range of people, the types, on the farm, the shearing etc?

8.The Copter family, their mania? The Murphy family?

9.The kids, their help, play, Rangi? Work? The football selector?

10.The dangers, the flood, the sheep and the cattle? Stranded and rescued?

11.The various dogs, Dog and his friends? Dog’s story? His going away, the river, the rats?

12.The sheep and the shearing?

13.The humorous detail of incidents, comic strips coming alive?