Vale Murray Ball - and thank you TV3 for screening this homage to a bygone era.Yes it's dated, sexist, homophobic and probably racist to boot, but there's still something quintessentially endearingly cheerful about this snapshot in time of a bygone age.Our heroes face Homerically impossible odds against the evil forces of the Murphys, rats, wild pigs, the weather and anything else you can think of - but time after time they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat - this is the kind of spirit that led to the invention of Number 8 fencing wire, this is New Zealand...

As a Kiwi who grew up with this comic strip, I looked hard to find this film which few stores in my part of Australia seem to stock. However, I was disappointed in the results. The film tries to fit far too much in, and lacks a coherent plot. Where's the resolution of the dog drowning in the sheep dip? What about the 'breakup' between Wal and Cheeky? My kids watched the film and frankly were bored. It just goes to show that a great comic strip doesn't necessarily work as a film. I also thought the soundtrack was lame, especially when Wal (voiced by the always excellent John Clarke) suddenly breaks into song with the high-pitched tones of Dave Dobbyn - a voice that would have been much more suited to the dog. Let's face it, if this wasn't a Kiwi animation with nostalgic value for many of us, it would be a complete bomb

I am quite happy with the way Murray Ball has put together such a great movie. I am a girl I know but I love football... The soundtrack to go with the movie just made the movie so much better. I do agree with the annoying helicopter noise and not enough of the song Slice of Heaven. But have bought it and is in a special collection. Congratulations to all cast and crew for a great job.... A movie that will never die for me... I watched the making of the movie and it was the best part of the DVD. Seeing the characters are really based on actual people. They have made the details so accurate it is unbelievable. Don't judge the movie until you watch the making of the Footrot Flats. Considering how old the movie is, it is still so popular. Wal was my best character as he reminds me so much of an average every day guy, but he is still so romantic. My other favorite character is dog. The biggest sook but still a mans best friend. I hope everyone enjoys the movie as much a I did.

This film was an amazing event when it was released in New Zealand. Footrot Flats has for several decades been New Zealand's most popular and best loved journal cartoon strip. Murray Ball's characters are household names to millions of Kiwis around the world, and this film gave them living character, voices, movement. The film was celebrated immensely and rightly so as, made as it was with that unique NZ quality that comes with our movies, it had cartoons speaking with Kiwi accents that weren't forced or too Australian, NZ scenary, NZ themes that captured the rural environment of the day - everything about it was, and to many people no doubt still is, very familiar. The film has Dog - the real-life inspiration for whom died a few years back which received national media attention - saving Jess, his bitch, and starting a family, trying to keep Wall and his girlfriend Cheeky apart, and discovering the meaning of being alive, as well as the human menaces of his life living their simple existences. A must for all patriots of Aotearoa, anyone who's lived on or spent time on a farm out the back of some place here or there, or anyone who loves good quality animation.