Anyone old enough to remember Doug Trumbull's wonderfully melancholic Seventies sci-fi epic Silent Running will experience déjà vu watching Pixar's latest Wall-E (2008, U, Disney £22.99). Tipped for Oscars (and not just for animation), this ambitious family-friendly fantasy portrays a dystopian future in which mankind has wiped out plant life on earth leaving cute little robots to clean up the mess. Sounds familiar?
Clearly taking inspiration from Trumbull's heartbreakingly expressive 'drones', Wall-E goes about his speechless business dutifully stacking rubbish by day and marvelling at videos of Hello, Dolly! by night. The fact that the film's opening stanza contains almost no dialogue is a testament to Pixar's illustrative skills, with Wall-E's early loneliness and subsequent relationship with the futuristic 'Eve' expressed through a series of bloops and burps which will melt the coldest heart. Echoes of the silent pathos of Chaplin or the physical humour of E.T . abound, conjuring a marvellous first act which the rest of the movie struggles to match. If only the week's more allegedly 'grown-up' sci-fi release, The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008, 15, Fox £19.99), had one iota of the romance, mystery or sheer wide-eyed wonder of Wall-E.
While Pixar's gem will doubtless appear in kids' Christmas stockings, let me warn against casual festive purchases. Fred Claus (2007, PG, Warner £19.99) may look like a treat from the outside, a piece of fun to be enjoyed alongside reruns of Santa Claus: The Movie and Miracle on 34th St. Beware! Fred Claus lines up with such stinkers as Ernest Saves Christmas as a reminder of why suicide levels rocket at this time of year. Vince Vaughn huffs and puffs as Santa's wayward brother, but not even stalwart Paul Giamatti can dispel the whiff of regurgitated sprouts.
Better to detox with Cinema 16: World Short Films (2008, E, Cinema 16 £19.99), another fine collection from the likes of Guy Maddin, Guillermo del Toro and Britain's own Andrea Arnold, whose Wasp paved the way for her eye-catching feature Red Road and enabled her to say 'bollocks!' on stage at the Oscars.
