Tag: New Zealand

Underrunners

Underrunners

by Margaret Mahy (Viking, 1992); audiobook read by Richard Mitchley (Brilliance, 2017)

Book cover: “Underrunners” by Margaret Mahy

Set in rural New Zealand, a down-to-earth middle-grade exploration of hope, disappointment and making the most of things; of using imagination as a coping mechanism yet still facing up to reality. Mahy plumps for realism and character development over clichéd happy endings.

Guns Akimbo

Guns Akimbo

dir. Jason Lei Howden (2020)

Guns Akimbo

Daniel Radcliffe works hard to carry this stylised and at times highly violent action comedy. (‘Comedy’ is used here advisedly; a pervasive graphic novel vibe all but obliterates the film’s understated New Zealand humour.) Clunky characterisation and scripting undercut the intended satire.

 

 

Mrs Windyflax and the Pungapeople

Mrs Windyflax and the Pungapeople

by Barry Crump; ill. Murray Ball (Hodder Moa Beckett, 1995)

Crump_Mrs Windyflax Pungapeople

Though Crump’s rhyming verse and storyline aren’t up to much, Ball renders this children’s picture book visually resplendent through a mix of vibrant cartoon watercolours and his more usual Footrot Flats-type illustrations. The New Zealand landscapes offer a pleasing point of difference.

 

 

Teeth of the Wolf

Teeth of the Wolf

by Dan Rabarts & Lee Murray (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2018)

Rabarts_Murray_Teeth Wolf

Rabarts and Murray go from strength to strength in this second instalment, blending SF, Horror and Mystery in a murky, not-quite-dystopian New Zealand setting. Again, the story alternates between Penny and Matiu, two disparate but—to the authors’ credit—evenly balanced protagonists.

 

 

Hounds of the Underworld

Hounds of the Underworld

by Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2017)

Rabarts_Murray_Hounds of the Underworld

An understated but engrossing SF murder mystery set in rundown near-future New Zealand. What starts as a character study—pairing up and alternating between Penny, a straight-laced scientific consultant, and Matiu, her dissident brother, both of Chinese-Maori descent—blossoms into supernatural horror.

 

 

Footrot Flats, Gallery 1

Footrot Flats, Gallery 1

by Murray Ball (Hachette Livre NZ, 2005)

Ball_Footrot Flats 1

Just as Charles M. Schulz gave the world Charlie Brown and Snoopy, so too did New Zealand artist Murray Ball give us grouchy farmer Wal Footrot and his imaginative Dog – the lesser known of the comic strip duos but no less charismatic!

 

 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

dir. Taika Waititi (2016)

Waititi_Hunt for the Wilderpeople

A distinct, refreshingly understated vein of Kiwi humour runs through this New Zealand coming of age (at all ages) film. Sam Neil and newcomer Julian Dennison excel, playing the withdrawn farmer and troubled foster child who unwittingly set off an international manhunt.

 

Derelict Space Sheep