Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale

Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale
New Zealand theatrical release poster
Directed byMurray Ball
Screenplay by
Based onFootrot Flats
by Murray Ball
Produced by
  • John Barnett
  • Pat Cox
Starring
Edited by
Music byDave Dobbyn
Production
company
Magpie Productions Ltd.
Distributed byKerridge-Odeon
Release dates
  • November 1986 (1986-11) (New Zealand)
  • 9 April 1987 (1987-04-09) (Australia)
Running time
71 minutes[1]
CountryNew Zealand
LanguageEnglish
Box office$6.8 million[2][3]

Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale (stylised as Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tail Tale) is a 1986 New Zealand animated musical comedy film based on cartoonist Murray Ball's comic strip Footrot Flats about a New Zealand farmer and his border collie sheepdog. Written by Ball and Tom Scott, directed by Ball, and produced by John Barnett and Pat Cox, with music by Dave Dobbyn, the voice cast includes leading New Zealand actors John Clarke, Peter Rowley, Rawiri Paratene, Fiona Samuel, and Billy T. James.

New Zealand's first feature-length animated film,[4] it was released in November 1986 in New Zealand by Kerridge-Odeon, and opened in Australia on 9 April 1987.[5][6][7] The film grossed $2.5 million at the New Zealand box office (making it one of the most successful local films of the 1980s).[2] In Australia, it grossed $4.3 million.[3]

  1. ^ "Footrot Flats - The Dog's Tale". Film & Video Labelling Body. New Zealand Film and Video Labelling Body Database. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  2. ^ a b Hiles, Tony. "Footrot Flats: Background". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Australian box office takings of Australian films" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  4. ^ "About Footrot Flats". Footrot Flats. Diogenes Designs Limited. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  5. ^ New Zealand Film, 1912-1996. Oxford University Press. 1997. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-19-558336-6.
  6. ^ Nicolaidi, Mike (January 1987). "HOT TO FOOTROT: Comic strip ready for the big screen". No. 61. Cinema Papers. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  7. ^ "NZ's Dog-led film recovery". The Sydney Morning Herald. 9 April 1987. Retrieved 21 April 2018.