Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale

New Zealand's first animated feature film turns 40 and arrives on the big screen in a 4K remaster that, according to the programme notes, looks and sounds better than it ever has. Murray Ball — who both wrote the screenplay (with Tom Scott) and directed — adapted his own phenomenally successful cartoon strip, setting the story in the fictional rural town of Raupo and tracing the origins of fan-favourite characters Dog and Wal'.

Alongside them is a full cast of strip regulars: nature-loving neighbour Cooch Windgrass, farmhand Rangi, Wal's niece Pongo, the villainous Murphys next door, and Dog's animal companions Jess, Major the pigdog, and the seemingly indestructible Horse. Voices come from John Clarke, Billy T. James, Rawiri Paratene, Fiona Samuel, and Peter Hayden, among others.

The film outgrossed E.T. on its original 1986 release, and Dave Dobbyn's Slice of Heaven — written for the soundtrack — spent eight weeks at the top of the New Zealand charts.