Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale back on the big screen

Before it became New Zealand's first animated feature film, Footrot Flats was a beloved comic strip. In 1986, it hit the big screen as Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale, with award-winning cartoonist Tom Scott co-writing the script alongside its creator, Murray Ball.

"It was my first feature film," Scott tells RNZ Afternoons.

"It was Murray's suggestion to get me ... he told the first producer, Pat Cox, he said, 'I'd like to write it with Tom Scott', it was a huge thrill and honour for me 'cause Murray was a mate of mine."

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On Saturday, Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale returns to the big screen at the Wellington Animation Film Festival. The second-ever edition of the festival, held at Roxy Cinema, features a mix of screenings and panels - including one with Scott himself after the film’s showing.

"The standing ovation at the end and the throwing of money, which is permissible, that's what I'm [looking forward to]," Scott says.

"I think some of my grandkids are coming, it'll be quite good, they can see what poppa did when he was a young man, I'm quite looking forward to their response."

Scott says he has been a fan of Ball's work since his high school days in Fielding, having come across Bruce the Barbarian and Stanley the Paleolithic Hero in Punch magazine.

"They were absolutely brilliant panel cartoons. His comic strips had wonderful graphics, of course, but they were also wonderfully intellectual ... he was a very clever man."

Scott says working on the film, he had a "one up" on Ball. While Ball's experiences were largely limited to four panel cartoons, Scott had experience writing drama in a teleplay.

"His drama experience was in four panel cartoons which is not a 90 minute movie, so I had that advantage. Plus he was a fan of my work which was nice. We worked away, I just loved every second of working with Murray, it was just a joy."

Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale became the most successful New Zealand film of the 1980s. The film featured a soundtrack by Dave Dobbyn, with singles including You Oughta Be In Love and Slice of Heaven.

The latter became an instant hit, reaching the top of the New Zealand charts for eight weeks.

"Dave Dobbyn did Slice of Heaven, and the video of that with Herbs was just fantastic. Dave was our incredible lead and we were very lucky to get him."

Scott says he remembers the "sheer exhilaration" after the film's success.

"Sitting in the theatre and hearing the laughter first of all was fantastic, and then the silences in the laughter."

Though Scott didn't continue working in animation after the film's release, his children did.

"My big son, 6ft 5 Sean, he's in London, he worked on Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

"And then my other son, Ned, he does animation in Sydney, so two of my children have gone on be animators in movies."

And though he loves modern animation, he still prefers hand-drawn films.

"It's amazing how animation now has changed. I love Ice Age and Finding Nemoand Toy Story, gosh they're good ... but there's something about hand-drawn stuff, the human hand has a different quality to mechanical, I still prefer that definitely.

"I love getting up and drawing, I mean if you can make fun of Trump you don't feel so bad about the world."