Something to watch tonight: Friday 6 September

Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale (Ball, 1986)

Sep 06, 2024

Frame from the 1986 animated New Zealand film Footrot Flats - The Dog's Tale

On the 7th of September 2011, I posted this Capital Times review to the original Funerals & Snakes site.

It was a good week but a couple of the films that I’d like to recommend from it are only available as rentals so I’ll hold them back for another day.

Thanks for reading Funerals & Snakes! This post is public so feel free to share it.

In that week, a Kiwi classic celebrated its 25th birthday (making it 38 now) with a restoration and a return season in cinemas:

I’d like to commend Event Cinemas for celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the Kiwi classic Footrot Flats: The Dog’s ~~Tail~~ Tale by putting the new digitally cleaned up version back on the big screen for a couple of weeks. I hadn’t seen it since it first opened at the Embassy back in 1986 and was pleased to see that the animation had scrubbed up pretty well and that the humour remained intact. There are many pleasures, not least (greatest living New Zealander) John Clarke’s lugubrious vocal performance as Wal.
It’s good to be reminded that there was a time when one of the main plot threads in a New Zealand movie could be the impending visit of an All Black selector to watch the annual grudge match between Raupo and The Mill Team. Like another Herbs’ song (from the same era as Footrot Flats’ “Slice of Heaven”) once said so sagely: “Long ago, was so long ago.”

Refer a friend

Sadly, John Clarke is no longer the greatest living New Zealander and I’m sure you’ll all go along with myself when I say that he is greatly missed.

NZ On Screen has the whole ‘making’ of documentary that screened on television at the time and that’s an interesting watch, too.

Where to watch Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tale

Aotearoa: Streaming on TVNZ+ (free with ads)

Rest of the world: YouTube here. I don’t normally link to YT because the legality of so much that’s uploaded there is suspect but this seems legit. “COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER. This video is officially licensed via Magpie Productions the copyright holder of the feature film. ‘Anyone caught pirating this picture will be eaten by The Murphys' Hellhounds.’”