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The Dog's Tail Tale -
About The Movie

A Footrot Flats animated feature film titled The Dog's Tail Tale was released in 1986 and was New Zealand's top-grossing film for many years (maybe it still is). It featured the talents of many big names in the New Zealand and Australian film industry, such as John Clarke (Fred Dag to kiwis) as the voice of Wal and Billy T James as Pawai. It was a good movie because, as Ball said, "...the characters weren't bastardised or Disneyfied." Its theme song "Slice of Heaven" and "You Oughta Be In Love" by Dave Dobbyn were both hits.

View the cover of The Dog's Tail video. Front Cover - Back Cover.

The movie storyline has some interesting flashbacks showing events like the Dog arriving at Footrot Flats for the first time and the Dog meeting Jess for the first time. During the movie, the Murphys are stopped in their attempts to steal a stag for their deer while Wal tries to make the all-blacks (New Zealand international rugby union team). It portrays the Dog a lot more heroically than the comic usually does, with the dog even looking brave compared to Horse and Major.

Below, are pictures of some of the main characters from the movie along with pictures of the actors who did the voices. These pictures were taken from the book The Dog's Tale Tail - The making of the movie by Lesley Stevens (If the pictures of the dog make him look young it's because they're from flashback scenes in the movie).

Character	Actor
The Dog	Peter Rowley
Wal	John Clarke
Cooch	Peter Hayden
Cheeky Hobson	Fiona Samuel
Rangi	Rawiri Paratene
Pongo	Fiona Samuel
Irish Murphy	Peter Hayden
Spit Murphy	Brian Sargent
Hunk Murphy	Marshall Napier
Aunt Dolly	Dorothy McKegg
Pawai	Billy T James

Song Lyrics

Note! You can listen to these songs in Real Audio format by clicking where it says "Listen". The quality isn't the best but there's 2 reasons for that. Firstly, it means you don't have to download a huge file. Secondly, they're only meant for listening along with the lyrics so the quality's not good enough for anyone to be naughty and burn them onto CDs.

Slice of Heaven - theme song

Hey, I've got a lot of faith in you
I'll stick with you kid, that's the bottom line
Yeah, you have a lot of fun don't you
And living with you is a ball of a time
 
Hey beauty when the mood gets you down
Your bottom lip's near dragging on the ground
That's when I've got to play the clown for you
Black humour made you kick your blues
 
Howdy angel, where did you hide your wings
(chorus)
Her love shines over my horizon
She's a slice of heaven
Warm moonlight over my horizon
She's a slice of heaven

You Oughta Be In Love - Wal's song for Cheeky Hobson

A winning love is hard enough to find
And when you've got it never leave it behind
Hold on and give it all you have
When it's given back you'll be a powerful man
And when (here she comes) in walks my baby
Her smile's more than enough to tell me why
(chorus)
Shouldn't you oughta be in love
Wouldn't you rather be in love
Shouldn't you oughta be in love
Wouldn't you rather be in love
 
With the headlights of her love to light my way
Safe in my heart I'll never be led astray
When you wanna leave the troubled world behind you
Pack up your woes and worries never you mind
And when in walks my baby
Her smile's more than enough to tell me why
(chorus)

Vernon The Vermin - King Rat's Song

Fangs for being here my little doggie
Welcome to dinner with me and my cronies
I got every disease known to rodent
Fangs like these make me the most potent
I'm gonna give you a blood transfusion
Get my name so there's no confusion
Vernon the Vermin your venomy enemy
Cancer to gangrene and the big black plague
Say goodbye to . . .
Vernon the Vermin remember my name
Injected - infected with an epidemic flame
Vernon the Vermin - Le Fang Fatale
A violent virus - Le Rat Royale
And I've got you . . . Yeah I've got you
Cry as you will my poor poor poodle
If my venom don't get ya then my brother's will
You've got that gnawing feeling - Ha!
I'm famished - I could eat a horse
You look a little off colour - Ha!

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