Jess end up floating out toward the sea on a raft with the fearless cat Horse, who has been shot by Irish. Rangi and Wal rescue Jess, but Dog and Horse are swept out to sea. Wal, Rangi, Pongo, Cooch and Jess rush to the beach but cannot see Dog or Horse. The two are given up for dead, before surfing in on a giant wave that dumps them ashore. The film ends by showing the Dog and Jess as proud parents of a litter of puppies. Cast John Clarke as Wal Footrot Peter Rowley as Dog Rawiri Paratene as Rangi Fiona Samuel as Cheeky Hobson/Pongo Peter Hayden as Irish Murphy/Cooch Windgrass Dorothy McKegg as Aunt Dolly Billy T. James as Pawai Brian Sergent as Spit Murphy Marshall Napier as Hunk Murphy Michael Haigh as The Rugby Commentator Production Irish-born filmmaker Pat Cox, who had moved to New Zealand in 1973, was an early fan of the Footrot Flats comic strip and felt that it would make a good animated film. In 1981, he contacted Murray Ball and suggested the comic be made into a feature-length movie. Ball initially rejected the idea but was later persuaded. The two subsequently met and began working on a story. The process of developing the comic strip into a film took almost six years. Scripting Ball's cartoonist friend Tom Scott was called in to co-write the script, as Ball had never written a script before, whereas Scott had previously written a teleplay. It took them one year to plot a rough storyline, as they were both busy with their regular work. Scott recounted in his 2017 memoir that Ball's fertile imagination resulted in a manuscript "bulky enough to derail a train". Scott suggested using some jokes from published strips, but Ball was adamant the film should be all-new material. Ball created a new character, Vernon the Vermin, the King of the Rats, to give the movie a new villain. Scott, who suffers from a fear of drowning, came up with the suggestion for the storm and flooding, and the climactic scene of Dog and Horse being washed out to sea. After the first script outline was completed, Cox provided considerable feedback on pacing and structure. Ball and Scott then spent almost another year completing the storyline. They had received a $1,500 script development grant from the New Zealand Film Commission. The film's working title,