Bridesmaids; Larry Crowne; Kung Fu Panda 2; Beginners

On her Twitter homepage, bestselling author Caitlin Moran sardonically describes herself as "a woman, yes, but still funny", a reference to the widely held misapprehension that comedy is somehow a male preserve. Certainly, the hugely saleable gross-out genre that has flourished in cinemas in recent years has been dominated by cocksure bromances in which women have been required to pay solidly secondary roles. Encouraging, then, that Bridesmaids (2011, Universal, 15) has become a bona fide ballsy comic hit, taking just shy of $300m in theatres worldwide and providing more consistent laughs for audiences (both male and female) than The Hangover, Due Date or any of their endlessly sequelled stablemates.

Key to the film's appeal is co-writer and rising star Kristen Wiig, last seen throwing off the shackles of religion in Paul, excelling here as the former best friend ousted by a pushy new queen bee in the run-up to a wedding. Locked into a downward spiral of increasingly competitive affection, Wiig's dissolute heroine becomes the unintentional thorn in the bride-to-be's side, with unexpectedly poignant results. Scripted (with Annie Mumolo) with wit, insight and often scathing humour, this riotous affair benefits from an accomplished ensemble cast including Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy and Jill Clayburgh, all of whom rise to the challenge of serving up both belly laughs and believable buddy bonding. Granted, there are occasions when the guiding hand of producer Judd Apatow seems to be laid rather too heavily on the proceedings, most notably during the now infamous communal pants-pooing sequence, which marks something of a low point. But for the most part this is rewardingly engaging fare, made all the more likable by Wiig's apparent reluctance to answer the inevitable calls for a perfunctory sequel. The triple-play "extended edition" includes deleted scenes and making-of material.

In stark contrast to the success of Bridesmaids, Tom Hanks's second directorial outing, Larry Crowne (2011, Studiocanal, 12), failed to find a foothold in cinemas despite its starry cast (notably Hanks and Julia Roberts), falling firmly between romantic-comic stools. Written by Nia Vardalos, who has struggled to repeat the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this strange mishmash casts the actor-director as a recently unemployed schlubb who makes a middle-aged return to college where he is taught by the world's most glamorous public-speaking instructor. Crazy outings on scooters ensue as our hero wins the hearts of all around him in somewhat inexplicable fashion. Considering the economy and brio with which Hanks directed sparky one-hit wonder That Thing You Do!, it's a real shame to have to declare that this is a peculiarly clunky work – not wholly likable, admittedly, but oddly lacking the everyman appeal that has become Hanks's trademark.

There's equally little to laugh about in Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011, Paramount, PG), a by-numbers follow-up to DreamWorks' digimated hit from 2008. In cinemas this made headlines by virtue of being a flagship 3D release that most audiences preferred to see in 2D. On home viewing formats (where stereoscopy is still a non-starter) this will doubtless ship out in "flatscreen" bulk, although it's unlikely to achieve the kind of hard-rotation repeat-viewing that has made The Lion King all but unremovable from DVD and Blu-ray players up and down the land.

And so to Beginners (2010, Universal, 15), an oddity, to be sure, that dallies all too often with kooky cuteness but manages ultimately to achieve an air of all-but-winning peculiarity. Ewan McGregor is the graphic artist struggling to find emotional fulfilment in an on-off relationship with enigmatic French actress Anna (Mélanie Laurent), then rocked by the revelation that his widowed father (Christopher Plummer) is gay. Throw in a comedy dog that communicates via subtitles and an irritating quirk about "the history of sadness" and the whole things looks set to implode into navel-gazing annoyance.

Yet there's something in this self-conscious offering from Thumbsucker writer-director Mike Mills that redeems it from utter self-absorption. Perhaps it's the performances, with particular plaudits to Plummer, who manages to essay the role of out-coming dad wrestling new love and terminal illness with openness, vulnerability and charm; a scene in which he calls his reticent son to ask what the "insty insty insty" noise he heard at a disco is ("It's called 'house music', Dad") is touching rather than toe-curling thanks to Plummer's infectious enthusiasm.

The fact that much of the film has an autobiographical edge also adds to its impact, with Mills (who has worked as album sleeve designer for Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys) clearly drawing on experiences that are close to home, particularly in the father-son relationship. While the end result may be slight, it is not entirely without substance.

In Aardman's latest animation, a graphically accomplished but otherwise rather commonplace 3D seasonal offering, three generations of the Christmas family start arguing about their business (reindeer-drawn sleighs v spaceships) after a present for a little girl in Cornwall is discovered undelivered in the firm's new hi-tech north pole HQ. The accident-prone grandson Arthur comes up trumps after a series of wrong turns. An odd Anglo-American collaboration that will bring a little brief happiness to undemanding children.

With suited-up actors playing 12-foot Martians in locations based on Earth's natural sights, this is a triumph for old-style film-making that could make its competitors look prehistoric

Every time I write about John Carter, I find myself wanting to sell it to you. Usually, writing this blog requires a careful suppression of my naturally benevolent attitude towards fantasy fare in the knowledge that most of these movies don't end up being half as great as we expect them to be. But Disney's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars books is such a preposterous proposition – the opener to a mega-budget franchise, directed by a first-time live-action film-maker, set on a Mars that doesn't remotely resemble the real red planet and based on a series of books from a weird outdated genre which hardly anyone has read – that I can't help rooting for it.

One gets the impression that director Andrew Stanton, the Pixar dude who helped create Wall-E and Finding Nemo, has the same feeling about the film. Earlier this year I spent time at the studio's Oakland HQ hearing how plans for John Carter were progressing with a small group of US- and UK-based writers. Last week I found myself listening to Stanton talk about the project once again with a larger European-based selection of bloggers and film journalists in London. Disney really wants us to like this movie.

Stanton screened a number of clips from the film, possibly the best of which – a segue showing US army soldiers trying to persuade Taylor Kitsch's Carter (in battered Confederate uniform) to sign up to the new fighting force – didn't even take place on Mars. There were scenes in which Carter is thrown in with a gaggle of alien babies – offspring of the "green Martians", or Tharks – who battle for supremacy with humanoid "red Martians" on the planet. Carter also meets an alien dog-type creature that seems to be his companion for much of the movie. Finally we saw a segment in which Carter battles some more green Martians, this time from a more primitive tribe. The film so far has the feel of an adventure in the spirit of the great 1930s serials (with all the baffling pseudo-sci-fi silliness this entails) and the 70s and 80s movies like Star Wars and Flash Gordon that drew inspiration from them.

With a number of 12-foot tall, four-armed talking aliens to portray, Stanton has been working to avoid the kind of wooden acting that afflicted those who worked opposite CG characters in the Star Wars prequels. Yesterday he spoke extensively about recruiting actors of the calibre of Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton and Thomas Haden Church. They play the alien Tharks, which required all three to act in mo-cap suits, on giant green stilts, in the 110 degree heat of the Utah desert.

"I had spent most of my life imagining what it would be like to talk to these characters, and I wanted it to be instinctive," said Stanton. "I felt that if the actor was really there looking into the eyes of the other actor – the human one – you would sense it ... So we actually put the characters on stilts in motion-captured grey pyjamas with these helmets and cameras they used on Avatar pointing towards their faces. It was a very odd-looking set. You would have the actor really there, you would have these guys on stilts representing Tharks and you would have people in green gimpsuits making sure they didn't fall over and hurt themselves. Some days on the shoot I sat there and thought: 'What the hell am I doing?' But man did it pay off, and if we were to shoot another one tomorrow I would do exactly the same."

"The instincts that we were able to document, and then were able to transfer to the animators ... spoke volumes. Often it was a case of what the actors did not do. You didn't realise it was interesting just to watch somebody just stand there and not do anything. And you would never have the guts to do that as an animator. As an animator you would think, 'I'm being paid to do this', and then start overacting. You see what Willem did: Willem did nothing. He had the confidence of an actor in that role to know to do nothing, which helped keep everything grounded."

In terms of scale, John Carter is way beyond epic, and is going to require a spectacular suspension of disbelief from any audience that goes to see it. It's been almost a century since anyone sensible believed in the possibility of intelligent life on Mars, and I'm not sure anyone ever rated the concept of astral projection – by which Carter is transferred from one planet to another – as serious science. So it's hardly surprising that Stanton is going out on a limb to ensure that the inhabitants of the world he's created appear as genuine as possible.

The cities and buildings of Mars are also based on real locations in the US desert, with ornate dwelling places and crumbling alien facades superimposed on to them via CGI. John Carter has a very different – I would say more natural – look to it than the Star Wars prequels, whose use of all-CG environments saw them lose a lot of the original, Earth-filmed trilogy's vivacity and charm.

"I thought: how do we show a planet that's older than ours that's dying? So we found places on Earth and with a little bit of photoshopping we would turn them into man-made structures," said Stanton. "Your eyes are seeing more that is real than is fakery. That turned out to be a huge win."

Whether John Carter achieves victory when it arrives in cinemas next March remains to be seen. Stanton says he already has ideas for sequels – there were 11 books in the original Rice Burroughs series after all, with this movie based mainly on the first, A Princess of Mars. As a potential franchise, this dwarfs even Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings/Hobbit series.

It's pretty obvious that filming the project has taken everyone involved out of their comfort zones. With a little bit of luck, John Carter may do the same for audiences. One thing's for sure: in at least one sense, it's going to be out of this world.

Our children don't need to be told that success depends on the warmth of their hearts. Tech-savvy Steve is the one to laud here

Yuletide family films are prone to preaching, but they tend to opt for an uncontroversial text. Not Arthur Christmas: intergenerational conflict is one of the hotter issues of our day. Aardman's engrossing take on this theme will surely mark impressionable young minds. Will they be the better for it? Spoilers ahead.

For our increasingly beleaguered old folk, there are crumbs of comfort. In the face of crisis here, Grandsanta is readier than the rest of his family to take risks, because he no longer has much to lose. He's better equipped to think outside the box, since he's able to draw on a deeper bank of experience. Familiarity with low-tech machinery enables him to improvise when hi-tech systems fail. The physical constraints imposed by ageing prove surmountable when needs must. Time has entrenched a commitment to core values. Without Grandad's intervention, all would have been lost.

Good news then for Age UK and Dame Joan Bakewell? Not very. Grandsanta's old-fashioned methods fail, and his senescent feistiness proves no substitute for the proficiency of youth. Worse, his claim to moral superiority turns out to mask mere vanity. After a moment of abortive glory, he's dumped back out to grass.

Fair enough, you may think. We've had enough of sanctimonious seniors moaning about today's youth, harking back to supposedly better times and priding themselves on their inability to master modern methods. Yet it's the next generation down that really gets it in the neck.

In this film, Santa is a leader in late middle age, but his maturity proves worthless. His belief in his own value is delusional and his success depends wholly on the efforts of those beneath him. Though he clings to office, he's become a useless figurehead. His values are as spurious as his father's. The message is blunt: he's past it and should make way for the next generation. In the end he's put out to pasture alongside his dad.

This is a more subversive message. We're now supposed to revere greying workers. In April compulsory retirement was abolished, and age can no longer be used as grounds for dismissal. Broadcasters who used to dump wrinkly presenters have been shamed into mending their wicked ways.

Still, maybe it's time that the current doctrine was challenged. As the years pass, people do get slower and more set in their ways. Sometimes they ought to pass the baton well before they want to. This film highlights not just the energy of the young pretender but also his acuity. What keeps Santa's show on the road is his elder son Steve's mastery of cutting-edge technology. The drive and competence of the young Turk eclipse the pretensions of his clapped-out chief. Nonetheless, they're not deemed sufficient.

Steve's head is clear but his heart is flawed. In the course of growing up and getting smart, he's lost touch with his feelings. Emotional correctness can only be found in an even more junior quarter. Steve has a little brother, Arthur, who boasts neither skill nor acumen. He's always leaving the door open, at the North Pole, for God's sake. Yet unlike the rest of his kinfolk, Arthur is able to feel the pain of others.

Doubtless both brothers have something to offer the world. Yet their endowments aren't accorded equal value. Arthur's sensitivity qualifies him to snatch the crown that Steve believed he was entitled to inherit. Childish innocence trumps the claims of all the other ages of man.

Well, this is a Christmas kid's flick. If it wants to flatter its target audience, it can proffer an excuse: the infant whose birth the season is supposed to celebrate could be said to share its priorities. Still, it's one thing to esteem the soft-hearted. It's another to imply they'll inherit the earth. Even Jesus didn't quite say that.

The film insists that Santa's gifts must reach every child in the world. Nonetheless, deliveries seem to be concentrated on Europe and North America – Asia goes mysteriously ignored. In China, 25 December is just an ordinary day. By all accounts, children waking there will not be told that success depends solely upon compassion.

As life promises to get tougher, getting rid of Arthur's dad seems a good idea. We certainly don't want his grandad back. His brother can't match him in the empathy stakes. Nonetheless, if we want our children's children to get their presents, it may be Steve, not Arthur, that we need to encourage, reward and promote.

Warner Bros has given the green light to a CGI/live action film based on the much-loved children's building blocks, after toying with the project since 2008

Transformers, GI: Joe (read: Action Man) and Cluedo are among the much-loved children's games and toys which Hollywood has recently seen fit to adapt for the big screen. Now Lego: the Movie looks set to be the latest to find its way into multiplexes after studio Warner Bros finally gave plans for its long-gestating film the green light.

Billed as a family-friendly action adventure based on a mix of CGI animation and live action, the new project currently remains untitled but has Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on board. It looks likely to shoot in Australia for a release in 2014, according to Variety. Robot Chicken's Chris McKay has also signed up as a co-director, working under Lord and Miller.

A Lego film has been on the cards at Warner since at least 2008. The Danish toy company has historically been fiercely protective of its property in the face of regular Hollywood overtures, but warmed to the idea of a family-oriented flick embracing its key values of fun, creativity and boundless imagination. Warner Bros has asked Australian firm Animal Logic, which worked on the Oscar-winning Happy Feet and its forthcoming sequel, to take charge of the animation for the movie.

The Lego System of Play was born in the small town of Billund back in 1955, but it wasn't until the famous studs-and-tubes platform was launched in 1958 that the toy really took off. It has twice been named Toy of the Century and today, seven sets are sold per second.

Apart from Transformers and GI Joe, other toys supposedly set to invade the multiplexes include a new adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Monopoly, Candyland, Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, View-Master, Max Steel and Hot Wheels. Of these Battleship, with Peter Berg on board as director and a cast that includes Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård and Rihanna, looks likely to arrive in cinemas first: it's due next May. Monopoly was supposed to have Ridley Scott in the director's chair, but was recently put back to 2014 in the wake of the director's decision to shoot Alien not-prequel Prometheus and a sequel to Blade Runner, instead.

Clever distribution ensures the success of Tarsem Singh's indie flick, while dawn breaks over the imminent Twilight release

Tarsem Singh's fantasy spectacular Immortals kicked off with a promising opening weekend, amassing in the region of $69m worldwide. Approximately $32m of that came from North America. While not so extraordinary as to make film executives spit out their lattes, this suggests that the production company Relativity might have something here that can deliver the kind of robust figures one would expect from a studio movie of this ilk.

The cast is certainly studio-level – Henry Cavill (the British actor who will don the cape as Superman in 2013) plays Theseus, Mickey Rourke is sinister yet again as the dastardly King Hyperion, Freida Pinto simmers as Cavill's love interest and John Hurt plays … wait for it … an old man. The movie reportedly cost $75m and Relativity says it offset a large chunk of this cost by pre-selling the international distribution rights – a key component in CEO Ryan Kavanaugh's business model. It's how they do things in the indie world, and Relativity appointed one of the best in the business – the foreign-sales division at Lionsgate – to cut deals with international distributors before the movie was in the can.

Universal Pictures holds distribution rights to Immortals in nine territories including the UK, where the movie was locked in a battle with Aardman and Columbia Pictures' Arthur Christmas for the No 1 spot. Universal and Relativity go back a few years: for some time now Kavanaugh, a Hollywood maverick with a genius for raising capital in hard times, has enabled his company to co-finance a large portion of the studio's slate, as he has done with Sony. The opening weekend bodes well. Hollywood needs indie productions and indie distribution to succeed if it is to sustain itself.

Adam Sandler's latest comedy vehicle, Jack and Jill, opened through Sony in second place on $26m, which is mediocre by the comedian's standards. And the prospect of Clint Eastwood directing Leonardo DiCaprio under a ton of makeup wasn't quite enough to inspire a run on the theatres to see J Edgar: it arrived in fifth place on $11.5m. Warner Bros will keep it out there and may expand the theatre count in the coming weeks, relying on the better reviews to keep the movie in the minds of voters as we continue the gruelling slog towards the 84th annual Academy Awards in February.

Speaking of the Oscars: what a week. Brett Ratner resigned his position as producer of the upcoming Academy Awards show after he made that unfortunate remark during a Tower Heist Q&A. But why did show host Eddie Murphy follow suit? Did he really believe only his Tower Heist director Ratner could get the best out of him on the night? So now we've got Ron Howard's producing partner Brian Grazer in the producer's chair and Billy Crystal set to return for his ninth gig as Oscar MC. Anything is better than James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

To return to the point about the importance of indie cinema successes: it was great to see Paranormal Activity 3 cross $100m in its fourth weekend – what a profitable series of movies that's turned out to be. And, of course, indie movies don't get much bigger than the Twilight franchise. As the imminent release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part One) approaches, adolescents (and some of their mothers) have started lining up outside theatres in parts of the US. Seriously, they're camping on the streets. The tension is mounting. The big question is what Summit Entertainment will do when Twilight is over.

North American top 10, 11-13 November 2011

1. Immortals, $32m (New)
2. Jack and Jill, $26m (New)
3. Puss in Boots, $25.5m. Total: $108.8m
4. Tower Heist, $13.2m. Total: $43.9m
5. J Edgar, $11.5m (New)
6. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, $5.9m. Total: $23.2m
7. In Time, $4.2m. Total: $30.7m
8. Paranormal Activity 3, $3.6m. Total: $100.8m
9. Footloose, $2.7m. Total: $48.9m
10. Real Steel, $2m Total: $81.7m

New images and a synopsis reveal more of Pixar's Scottish fairytale, while Small Fry whets appetites for Toy Story 4

As Pixar's first original movie in three years, Brave has an awful lot riding on its brawny little shoulders. This is the studio which has had the best animated film Oscar virtually locked up for most of the past decade, but which also came in for rare criticism earlier this year over the underwhelming Cars 2.

When the teaser trailer for the new film arrived in June, we had very little to go on, other than that this was Pixar's first fairytale and was set in the Scottish highlands. Now Disney has released some more images from the film and an updated synopsis:

Brave is set in the mystical Scottish Highlands, where Merida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). An unruly daughter and an accomplished archer, Merida one day defies a sacred custom of the land and inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom. In an attempt to set things right, Merida seeks out an eccentric old Wise Woman (Julie Walters) and is granted an ill-fated wish. Also figuring into Merida's quest – and serving as comic relief – are the kingdom's three lords: the enormous Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), the surly Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson), and the disagreeable Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane) (pictured below).

The new shots give us our first look at the three rambunctious lords (pictured above) and the king and queen. Is it just me, or is there something a wee bit Disneyfied about the latter? Let's hope nobody starts singing or we'll really know something's up. The final snap is of Merida chasing a blue will-o'-the-wisp (below), which we assume is the source of her travails. As I noted when the trailer hit the web earlier this year, the muted palette of the forest scenes is a fresh and welcome look for a Pixar film.

By the time Brave arrives in August 2012 (June in the US), I think we'll probably have seen Cars 2 derail the studio's long Oscars run. It ought to make the list of five nominees for the best animated film (up from the usual three as there are more contenders this year), but it pales in comparison with Dreamworks Animation's astonishingly ornate Kung Fu Panda 2, and will most likely struggle even against Steven Spielberg's Tintin film and the Johnny Depp-starring Rango. It's also worth remembering that the original Happy Feet film is one of only two non-Pixar winners from the last eight years, and that film's sequel will also be in contention this time around.

While it's a bit early to be talking about the end of the Pixar golden era, it would be wonderful to see Brave reach the levels of its forebears. The film does look rather more generic than – say – Wall-E or Up (cynics are probably mouthing the words: How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek as they read this) but early signs are still encouraging.

In other Pixar news, it looks like the latest Toy Story short, Small Fry (pictured above), will screen ahead of The Muppets in the US later this month. This time around, Buzz Lightyear is kidnapped by a happy meal version of himself, who hopes to replace him. Going on the zippy brilliance of the last Toy Story short, Hawaiian Vacation, it might just be worth the admission price on its own. How long now before we hear official word of Toy Story 4?

After a one-sided Friday when its target audience was at school, Aardman's film put the fear of Zeus into its adult adversary – but it was still in the lap of the Gods

The battle for the top spot

The films could hardly be more different – a gory homoerotic sword-and-sandals epic and a family-friendly festive animation – but the box-office race between Immortals and Arthur Christmas ended in a photo finish. Tarsem Singh's gods-and-warriors odyssey established a commanding lead on Friday – the rival flick's audience was barely available on a school day. The tables turned on Saturday and Sunday, with Arthur Christmas convincingly ahead of the pack, but the film couldn't quite close the gap. In the event, it was £2.17m v £2.11m to the barechested warriors.

Immortals convincingly dominates the Top Engagements chart with eight of the top 10 places. The best individual engagements, by miles, are Immortals at Vue Westfield Shepherds Bush (£57,753) and the same film at Vue Westfield Stratford (£42,792), once again confirming that Vue's investment in flagship sites at the twin London shopping malls is paying massive dividends. Immortals at Cineworld Dublin came in third, with £25,972.

Past comparisons for Immortals aren't so easy. Clash of the Titans started its run in April 2010 with a hefty £5.68m, but the film had the benefit of being based on a familiar property. The same can't be said for 300, which also debuted strongly when it was released in March 2007: £4.75m including £784,000 in previews.

As for Arthur Christmas, the most apt comparison is Aardman's Flushed Away, which is likewise computer-animated, rather than being made with claymation figures a la Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit. Flushed Away opened in December 2006 with £3.11m, including £1.18m in previews. Remembrance Day is certainly early for the arrival of a Christmas picture, with Sony presumably trying to avoid a head-on collision with the likes of Happy Feet 2 and Hugo (both 2 December), Puss in Boots (9 December) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (16 December). The release also follows the strategy Disney employed for A Christmas Carol, which opened early in November 2009 with £1.92m. Despite the lacklustre start, the title had grossed £20m by the end of the festive season, and Sony will be hoping Arthur Christmas follows this pattern of sustained success.

The disappointment

Landing in sixth place with £608,000 from 324 sites, The Rum Diary represents the worst opening for a Johnny Depp movie since The Libertine in 2004. However, this latest figure represents an improvement on the debut of Depp's previous Hunter S Thompson adaptation, 1998's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which racked up £206,000 from 117 screens. You might say audiences don't enjoy paying to see Depp in debauched, substance-abusing mode quite as much as he enjoys playing it, although the Pirates of the Caribbean films suggest otherwise. The Tourist, Depp's last non-Pirates live-action film, opened in December last year with £1.34m.

The arthouse contender

With £161,000 from 82 screens, including nearly £9,000 in previews, Wuthering Heights achieved the highest-ever opening gross for an Andrea Arnold film, beating Fish Tank (£103,000). However, Fish Tank delivered a stronger screen average since it earned its debut figure from significantly fewer sites: 47. The combination of Arnold's name and the beloved Emily Brontë novel was always a potent offer, although Artificial Eye's marketing campaign is defiantly arthouse in execution, and the broader audiences courted for the distributor's recent hit We Need to Talk About Kevin are clearly not in sight.

Wuthering Heights achieved a weaker screen average than the recent Jane Eyre film (debut of £1.01m from 422 sites) despite a tighter rollout which tends to deliver a stronger average figure. Cary Fukanaga's take on the Charlotte Brontë classic benefited from stronger cast elements (Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, Judi Dench, Jamie Bell) likely to appeal to the broad upscale audience for literary adaptation.

The holdover hit

Many of the films on release suffered relatively modest declines, notably In Time (down 25%), Tower Heist (down 28%) and The Help (down 30%). But none did as well as Weekend, which rose 10% on its second weekend of play, assisted by a site expansion into Brighton, Edinburgh and Notting Hill. Andrew Haigh's British gay drama took £35,000, pushing its total after 10 days to £92,000. Top site is once again Odeon Covent Garden with £17,126, nearly half the film's weekend takings and the best individual result of any arthouse picture on release. Weekend arrives in key London sites the Curzon Mayfair and Everyman Screen on the Green Islington from Friday.

The future

The solid success of both Immortals and Arthur Christmas helped the market post a modest rise from the previous weekend of 5%, and more importantly a 23% uptick from the equivalent frame a year ago, when the top new release was Skyline. A year ago, to be fair, the market was unusually quiet because distributors were steering clear of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, arriving 19 November. This Friday sees the release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, which is certainly a major event, but it's notable that other films are not running scared to quite the same degree. Previous instalment Eclipse opened with £13.76m, including £6.37m in previews. Also on release this weekend are the Nicolas Cage thriller Justice and the gritty Aussie true-crime tale Snowtown.

Top 10 films

1. Immortals, £2,166,432 from 428 sites (New)
2. Arthur Christmas, £2,112,516 from 460 sites (New)
3. The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, £1,540,539 from 507 sites. Total: £12,706,352
4. In Time, £915,584 from 426 sites. Total: £3,600,963
5. Tower Heist, £825,783 from 417 sites. Total: £2,945,046
6. The Rum Diary, £608,055 from 324 sites (New)
7. Johnny English Reborn, £506,200 from 447 sites. Total: £19,762,186
8. The Help, £378,521 from 335 sites. Total: £3,044,252
9. Paranormal Activity 3, £339,245 from 336 sites. Total: £10,392,440
10. The Ides of March, £284,076 from 169 sites. Total: £2,226,381

Other openers

The Awakening, 139 screens, £270,737 (+ £2,346 previews)
Trespass, 91 screens, £247,957
Rock Star, 53 screens, £184,592
Wuthering Heights, 82 screens, £152,288 (+ £8,876 previews)
Les Enfants du Paradis, 2 screens, £5,892
Tabloid, 7 screens, £4,618 (+ £3,158 previews)
Kill Keith, 18 screens, £1,161
The British Guide to Showing Off, 1 screen, £698 (+ £973 previews)

The quiffed mischief-maker, who has been away from the big screen for 40 years, will have a makeover by the team behind Despicable Me with a franchise in mind

The animation house behind the Steve Carrell hit Despicable Me is working on a Woody Woodpecker movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film, to be penned by the team behind the Will Ferrell ice-skating comedy Blades of Glory, will give the character a modern makeover, with a view to launching a new franchise. It will be the first film outing for the frenetic birdie since 1972's Bye, Bye, Blackboard (though he did have a cameo in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

Woody was dreamed up as a replacement for waning animation staple Oswald the Lucky Rabbit by cartoonist Walter Lantz in 1940, following an unhappy holiday experience in which he and his wife were plagued by a tapping woodpecker. Initially voiced by Mel Blanc, the future Bugs Bunny, Woody was a brash, quiffed mischief-maker, and a massive hit in the US during the second world war. But later, the character mellowed and relaxed, and was less prone to irrational outbursts. The studios introduced a love interest, Winnie, a Bluto-esque nemesis, Ben Buzzard, and even some prankster relatives: a niece, Splinter, and a nephew, Knothead.

Woody's critical peak came in 1947, when his theme tune, which exploited his maniacal laugh, was nominated for the best song Oscar, the only song from a short film ever to be nominated in the category. But it was Woody's move on to the small screen in the 1950s that cemented his place in popular culture.

Cars 2; Horrible Bosses; Zookeeper; The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)

According to ace animation director John Lasseter, the key to Pixar's ever popular brand of magic has always lain in the fact that the company used its revolutionary digital technology to serve the story and characters rather than the other way around. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the Toy Story trilogy, which, I would argue, remains the most consistent three-parter in the history of modern cinema, suffering from neither the longueurs of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, nor the inevitable disappointments of The Godfather Part III.

In each subsequent movie, as the digimation has leapt ever further into the unknown, so the characters of Woody, Buzz et al have embedded themselves even deeper within our hearts, leaving many a parent teary-eyed as the final curtain closed on Andy's now mythical childhood.

What a shame, then, that Cars 2 (2011, Disney, U), co-directed by Lasseter, should turn out to be a such an uninvolving narrative mess, the first fully-fledged Pixar false step, in which the tail seems most definitely to be wagging the dog. Revisiting a franchise which had previously teetered on the brink of being design-led (the tailfin and fender landscapes of the original Cars were genuinely breathtaking), this belated sequel mixes old-hat 60s spy pastiche (Michael Caine in Austin Powers mode as Finn McMissile) with contorted eco-conspiracy subplots (Eddie Izzard as the brains behind an explosive eco-fuel that threatens to make petrol obsolete – or not?), internecine racetrack rivalries (Owen Wilson's Lightning McQueen going head to head with an exotic Euro whizz-kid) and plodding picture-postcard globetrotting of the type to which film-makers traditionally resort when they have simply run out of ideas.

While it's clear that the auto-obsessed Lasseter may love these characters as much as Andy loved Woody, he conspicuously fails to draw the rest of us into his ring of enchantment. Despite a star-studded voice cast, centre stage is bafflingly given to Larry the Cable Guy's Mater, an incidental sidekick thrown into the spotlight apparently to fill a gaping hole in the story.

The gags are lame, the narrative incoherent and the overall picture surprisingly dull. In cinemas, the headache-inducing qualities were worsened by all but irrelevant 3D; at home, the triple-play edition includes 2D and 3D Blu-ray versions for maximum clarity and choice all round.

The funniest thing about Horrible Bosses (2011, Warner, 15) is the explanation of how Jamie Foxx's small-time hood character came to acquire the memorable moniker Motherfucker Jones. It's a ripe role on which Foxx riffs with panache, as does Colin Farrell as a coke-snorting comb-over who inherits his dad's company to the dismay of the long-suffering workforce. It's fun, too, to find Kevin Spacey dusting down his unlovable autocrat role from Swimming With Sharks as the corporate boss who makes Jason Bateman's life a living hell.

Sadly, despite these plus points, Seth Gordon's super-broad comedy fails to live up to the promise of its premise – a trio of disgruntled schlubs agreeing to swap-murder their superiors in true Strangers on a Train style. One of the problems is a sexually predatory dentist, a role which falls flat despite a spirited performance from Jennifer Aniston, whose efforts deserve to reap greater rewards. Worse is the fact that we are constantly reminded how much better 9 to 5 (in which three women kidnap their horrible boss) was at sustaining its central mouse-that-roared theme, and how much more inventively that film played with the idea of workers in revolt. A tighter script may have led to a promotion; as it is, this remains workaday fare.

Which is more than can be said for Zookeeper (2011, Sony, PG), a film that causes one to ask: "What the hell is it with Kevin James and the ticket-buying public?" Having laid out his stall in turkeys such as Paul Blart: Mall Cop, James continues to ply the same substandard, pathos-laden piffle in movies that exist solely as a platform for his trademark unfunny gurning. Here he plays a Johnny Morris type with a broken heart working at an unspecified city zoo whose animal inhabitants conspire (for reasons too dopey to repeat) to reunite him with the girlfriend who dumped him (and with whom his character would clearly never have had a relationship in the first place).

Imagine DreamWorks' Madagascar with all the jokes taken out, redone as a poo-throwing live-action pantomime and then staged as part of a massive advert for the bonhomie of TGI Friday's – for kids! Nick Nolte voices a massive, emotionally wounded gorilla with a hangdog face and questionable personal hygiene, so no change there. As for James, he continues to look insufferably pleased with himself, and no wonder – if you'd managed to make such a big career out of doing so little you'd probably look the same.

And so to The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011, Bounty, 18), or, as one internet wag dubbed it, "Shit Happens – Twice!" Proving conclusively that no amount of high-profile censorship shenanigans can save a movie from bargain-bin obscurity, Tom Six's sado-schlocker sequel has you once again longing for the days of Jörg Buttgereit's unwatchable early shorts. The ideas are old-hat (Cronenberg explored the alleged effects of screen sadism on viewers with infinitely more satirical grace in Videodrome), the sexual violence repugnantly dwelt upon (even after the BBFC's best efforts), and the increasingly outré atrocities (diarrhoea-drinking, foetus-abuse, whatever) depressing in the extreme. The arty black-and-white cinematography may add some dramatic distance, but frankly, I wouldn't want this in the house, let alone the front room.

When Mark Hall's death was announced, one of Britain's leading animation businesses put a message on Twitter: "Deeply saddened by the passing of our dear friend Mark Hall. Our company would not be here without him." Hall neither founded that business nor took any part in it. But its directors learned their trade under his unique guidance and inspiration, and never forgot it.

In his long professional life, Mark had two consistent passions. One was for filming stories by great children's writers, in ways which would respect and amplify the original work. The other was for teaching the craft and technique of animated film. The company he founded with Brian Cosgrove was born in the 1960s, when UK animation was a failing cottage industry and even Disney was in the doldrums. So they daringly built their team of film-makers from scratch, bringing new young recruits out of art colleges and schools in the north-west and throwing these raw and often maverick talents into action alongside a few older experienced hands.

The studio atmosphere was always informal and fun, and more collegiate than corporate, with Hall and Cosgrove as hands-on animators, directors and teachers. Even as the company grew and became successful, adding the pressures of management and the stresses of financial control to their workload, they were always to be found working with and training their young team in the studios, jokingly known as the Chorlton Academy. Later creations from its alumni range from Bob the Builder to the dazzling puppets in Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! and Corpse Bride.

Like his teacher wife, Margaret, Mark was a patient, encouraging and forgiving instructor, never happier than when helping people express and develop their artistry. But this was on-the-job education, working with an outstanding producer as he realised animated film projects in all their complexity. He had wonderful creative instincts in every aspect of the task, especially in commissioning music from outstanding contemporary classical and pop composers (including Colin Towns and the Herman's Hermits guitarist Keith Hopwood), and in perfectly casting and recording fine actors.

David Jason became a close friend and a stalwart of the Cosgrove Hall repertory company, playing the urbane Danger Mouse and the avuncular BFG among others. Michael Hordern, having first told his agent that he "didn't do funny voices", brought his special genius to the character of Badger and loved every minute of it. Yet all Mark's producing skills were self-taught, and he confessed that when he first had a group of well-known actors to record he was too nervous to give them notes. "But in the end I did, because I knew it would make the film better."

As a producer he enjoyed bringing to the screen the verve and sparkle and occasional madness that flowed (and flows) from Brian's brilliant pencil. But the films he thought his best seemed to be those which reflected his own gentleness, modesty and humanity: small masterpieces such as The Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Reluctant Dragon (1987), with its portly, unheroic Saint George, or TV series such as The Wind in the Willows or Truckers (1992), Terry Pratchett's story of tiny extraterrestrials fighting for survival in the terrifying human world. Pratchett enjoyed working with Cosgrove Hall, and joining the roll call of writers including Kenneth Grahame, Enid Blyton, Gerald Durrell, Arthur Ransome, Roald Dahl and Robert Browning, whose work has magical, exciting appeal to children. Translating that magic to film and television was one of Mark's great and enduring achievements. Training and inspiring hundreds of young people in the art of animation, and winning their lasting affection and admiration, may be his finest.

YouTube's new rental site will add films by Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks to selection of on-demand video

YouTube is to make Disney's library of films available on its new movie rental site for the first time as part of the Google-owned website's ongoing bid to present itself as the No 1 destination for video on demand in a rapidly developing marketplace.

The deal means films from Disney, its wholly-owned subsidiary Pixar, and other studios such as DreamWorks (which distribute via the Mouse House) will be available to stream online. Titles initially available will include films such as Cars 2, Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

YouTube marketing executive Minjae Ormes said newer titles would be joined over time by classic movies from the Disney back catalogue. "Check back in because even more of the great Disney classics and new releases will be added in weeks to come, including our YouTube Movie Extras with behind-the-scenes clips, interviews and more," he wrote on the YouTube movies blog.

YouTube launched its movie rental site in May as it seeks to reposition itself as a one-stop shop for on-demand video. The site is also launching a co-branded channel with Disney with a reported budget of between $10m and $15m, one of more than 100 it plans to unleash, all based on original programming. The channel will be available on both Disney.com and YouTube, launching in early 2012. "Disney Interactive will produce and programme the co-branded video destinations for both Disney.com and YouTube, providing a family-friendly experience for viewers across both platforms," Disney and YouTube said in a statement earlier this month. YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65bn in 2006, and the investment reflects the company's view that the internet is the next phase in the television business.

In the UK, YouTube has moved into a soon-to-be crowded video-on-demand marketplace that already includes Amazon-owned LoveFilm's movie streaming service and will see US giant Netflix enter the fray in early 2012. The latter announced last month that it is making its first venture into Europe by launching in the UK and Ireland next year.

LoveFilm announced its own deal to show Disney films in April. The service also has agreements with film studios such as MGM, Momentum and Warner Bros. Netflix has more than 25 million users in the US, Canada and Latin America, while LoveFilm has more than 1.6 million subscribers in the UK and Europe.

YouTube remains the top hosting destination for amateur video with more than 3bn views per day, and boasts that more footage is uploaded to the site in one month than the three major US networks have created in 60 years. However, it has yet to prove itself as the No 1 destination for paidfor video on demand in the face of increasing competition from Apple's iTunes, Hulu and Netflix, among others.

Nation's censorship board decides P-word is too controversial and asks star Antonio Banderas to avoid true title in interviews

Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots will be renamed "Cat in Boots" in the United Arab Emirates. The state's film censorship committee pulled the P-word amid fears that a "Puss" could cause offence.

The censors' claws will apparently close around all publicity for the children's film, with Arabian Business magazine reporting that Antonio Banderas, who voices the titular feline, was asked not to refer to the original title or his character's name during promotional duties at the recent Doha Tribeca film festival.

Puss in Boots, which premiered in the UK last night, topped the US chart on its release earlier this month and has creamed $178m from the global box office to date. The film sees Puss – a Zorro-esque swashbuckler with a thirst for milk and adventure – team up with Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) and Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) in an attempt to steal golden-goose eggs from a giant's castle. The events of the film pre-date Puss's debut in DreamWorks Animation's fairytale franchise. He first appeared as an unlikely ally to lovable ogre Shrek in 2004's Shrek 2.

The UAE's censorship rules, while more relaxed in the past decade, are still stringent compared to western standards. Sex and nudity are taboo, as is any attempt to depict a holy power on screen. This resulted, according to Time Out Dubai, in a cut of Bruce Almighty – a comedy in which a man meets God and is granted omnipotence – notable for the complete absence of Morgan Freeman as the heavenly father. Similarly, Sex and the City was stripped of its sex scenes and subsequently never shown in the Middle East. It was rumoured that the popular franchise would have been renamed "Shoes and the City" had it been released.

The welcome return of Looney Tunes favourites Sylvester and Tweety Pie, and a whole album of lunar tunes courtesy of French duo Air

That's not all, folks

Families going to see Happy Feet Two are in for an old-fashioned treat. The dancing penguin movie is preceded by a brand new animated short called Puddy Tat, featuring Looney Tunes favourites Sylvester and Tweety Pie. Warner Bros has been reintroducing these legendary animation characters gradually, with Road Runner and Wile E Coyote having already had a 3D CGI makeover. But this is the first we've seen of the cat and the canary, and while the animation is entirely new, the vocal track it's set to is the old record of Mel Blanc singing "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat", first released in 1950. I understand that another treasured Mel Blanc record, "Daffy's Rhapsody", is also being given the 3D treatment, so expect to see Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd in a short next year.

On the trail of Stalker

Essayist and novelist Geoff Dyer has come up with a genre-defying yet genre-defining new book about cinema. His dazzling forthcoming work Zona (to be published by Canongate next February) is about nothing other than the author watching his favourite film, Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is, he says, "an account of watchings, rememberings and forgettings". Of course this being Dyer, the text takes us on tangential musings on everything from the hideousness of Jeremy Clarkson to a nice Freitag bag he once lost, his dad's procurement of cheap choc ices, and how much the actor Natascha McElhone used to look like his wife. Dyer tells me he was supposed to be writing a book about tennis when it struck him that he'd rather be writing about Stalker. Having already written about photography and jazz, he says it was only a matter of time before he addressed his other great passion, cinema. "But I only watch stuff I know is interesting," Dyer says. "I have to filter out so much of popular culture. No, it is not interesting to me to watch a Hollywood blockbuster and, yes, I've never seen The Wizard of Oz, nor am I ever going to."

Air apparent

When I spoke to the French musicians Air at the Cannes film festival, they had just completed the soundtrack to a restored, colourised version of Georges Méliès's Le Voyage dans la Lune. The film premiered on the festival's opening night, and they had plans for it to go out as a short before Martin Scorsese's Hugo, which stars Ben Kingsley as Méliès and in which A Trip to the Moon features. I don't know quite what has happened to that idea but the short isn't in theatres here or in the US. Maybe it will pop up in France? Since then, however, Air (Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel) have been inspired to expand the themes they wrote for the restoration into a whole album. They've now laid down 11 Méliès-inspired tracks, some of which include vocals from Beach House's Victoria Legrand, and the album will come out early next year. Says Godin of the new album: "We wanted it to sound handmade, knocked together, a bit like Méliès's special effects. Everything is played live… like Méliès's film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art."

Only known copy of Hungry Hobos, a five-minute film showing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, to be auctioned after archive discovery

A precious long-lost cartoon film featuring a rabbit that was the forerunner to Mickey Mouse has been discovered on a shelf in an archive in rural England.

The only known copy of Hungry Hobos starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was found at the Huntley Film Archives in Herefordshire, where it had probably languished for decades.

It is creating great interest among cartoon enthusiasts and is being put up for auction in Los Angeles next month.

Oswald was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1927. Hungry Hobos – or Hoboes, as it is sometimes spelled – was made in 1928 and was one of a series of about 26 titles.

Later Disney and Iwerks transferred many of Oswald's traits to Mickey Mouse.

No one knows how the five-minute Oswald cartoon came to be sitting on a shelf at Huntley Film Archives, which specialises in social history films.

Amanda Huntley, who runs the company, said a colleague stumbled upon it and out of curiosity searched its name on the internet and realised it was a lost classic.

The Hungry Hobos film shows Oswald and his friend Peg Leg Pete on a train. Hungry, they rob a chicken of her egg.

Huntley said: "There are a lot of lost films out there. It's amazing that they get lost but they do.

"This was made in 1928 and has been in our collection for decades. We specialise in social history films and not animation.

"But my colleague took the film from the shelf and Googled it – I don't really know why.

"We quickly realised it was one of the great lost films. We posted the news on specialist web forums and everybody was very excited.

"It is significant because it is Disney but also because the character was the prototype of Mickey Mouse.

"Disney developed many characters and they changed over time and Oswald has the characteristics of Mickey Mouse – he looks similar even though he's a rabbit.

"How we ended up with the film, I don't know. It was probably collected by my father who started the company and it has been sitting on our shelves for decades.

"We have decided to sell it because it is not really what we specialise in and we can use the money to preserve other films we have."

Stephanie Connell, from auctioneers Bonhams, said: "Hungry Hobos is an incredible find, a lost masterpiece and a cartoon with a unique and vital place in animation history."

The film is now expected to fetch up to $40,000 (£25,000) when it goes under the hammer at Bonhams' entertainment memorabilia auction in Los Angeles on 14 December.

Breaking Dawn is already seventh biggest hit of the year despite taking a drop; while Aardman animation does well ahead of the arrival of Happy Feet Two and Hugo. Plus: mid-range titles 50/50, The Deep Blue Sea and Take Shelter jostle for position

The winner No 1

Despite falling a steep 67%, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is providing plenty of cheer to backers Summit and local distributor Entertainment One. With a cumulative total of £23.31m from just 10 days of release, the film is already the seventh biggest hit of the year, after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The King's Speech, The Inbetweeners Movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Hangover: Part II and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. A place below Breaking Dawn is Bridesmaids, with £23.01m.

Previous Twilight movie Eclipse stood at £22.10m after two weekends of play, but a different distribution model meant that the film benefited from two extra days of takings at that stage. New Moon had reached £20.32m after its second weekend.

Breaking Dawn nabbed 88 of the places in the Top 100 Engagements chart, best of all once again being Vue Westfield in Shepherd's Bush. The best result for a cinema showing another title is new Bollywood release Desi Boyz at Cineworld Feltham, number 14 in the individual engagements chart.

The winner No 2

Having increased by 10% the previous weekend, Arthur Christmas now sees its weekend tally rise by a further 9%, with third-frame takings of £2.53m. While families evidently weren't too sure about seeing a Christmas flick in mid-November, interest is building as the festive holiday approaches. So far, the Aardman animation flick's success has been overwhelmingly on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays: takings on the other days of the week amount to only £1.09m of the film's £8.05m total, ie 14%. Arthur faces significant direct competition from Friday with the arrival of Happy Feet Two and Martin Scorsese's Hugo.

The new releases

The second weekend of Breaking Dawn's run didn't goad another major Hollywood movie into trying its luck, which gave a window of opportunity to a mixed bunch of alternatives. Winner, by a significant margin, is British fact-based tale My Week with Marilyn, which posted a decent £750,000, albeit from a surprisingly wide 397 cinemas. Awards buzz for Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh could help sustain a long run, although presumably at a lower screen count. Next comes cancer comedy 50/50, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, with £410,000 from 228 sites. Screen averages for the pictures are not that far apart (£1,889 for Marilyn v £1,799 for 50/50).

Landing a place below 50/50 is Dream House, a psychological thriller starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz. Takings of £304,000 from 215 sites are lacklustre, although they are an improvement on the debut of 2007 Craig sci-fi thriller Invasion, co-starring Nicole Kidman: £233,000 from 301 screens. Craig's pricey sci-fi western Cowboys & Aliens opened in August with £1.78m including £611,000 in previews: a disappointing number given the big marketing push offered by backers Paramount. Bottom line: the actor's selling power outside the Bond franchise remains up for debate.

Questions might also be asked about Brad Pitt's box-office reliability, given the initial takings of his new film Moneyball: £231,000 from 170 sites. Mind you, special circumstances apply: baseball is usually a very tough sell in the UK, and the fact that the film is actually about statistics, based on the acclaimed book by Vanity Fair scribe Michael Lewis, probably isn't helping. Other assets include two Oscar-winning screenwriters (Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian), plus Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but these hardly count as strong marketable elements. Moneyball achieved an 87 score at Metacritic and a 95% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The arthouse battle

With My Week with Marilyn, 50/50 and Moneyball all appealing to different segments of the arthouse market, smaller specialised releases faced a tough battle for audiences, but Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea nevertheless managed a decent opening salvo of £109,000 from 53 venues, and a £2,052 average. Davies's previous drama, 2000's The House of Mirth, debuted with £89,000 from 18 screens.

Despite mostly supportive reviews, US indie Take Shelter, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, evidently faced too many competitors, starting its run with a so-so £81,000 from 55 sites. The same might be said of Resistance, toplined by Andrea Riseborough: the Wales-set counter-factual second world war drama began with a modest £20,500 from 13 cinemas, with more than £9,000 of that tally coming from Cardiff, Newport, Port Talbot and Nantgarw.

Among holdover titles, Wuthering Heights saw another big drop, falling 62%. Director Andrea Arnold's previous picture Fish Tank reached £597,000, which looks an elusive target for the Brontë adaptation, currently at £447,000.

The future

The lack of a major new release saw takings drop 45% from the previous frame, and dip 11% compared to the equivalent weekend a year ago, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 continued its reign at the top. From Friday, Happy Feet Two will battle Hugo and holdover titles Arthur Christmas and Tintin for family audiences, while horror remake/prequel The Thing will plug a niche that's currently being ineffectually targeted by Dream House. Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Steve Martin star in bird-watching comedy The Big Year, but after a poor run in the US, backers Fox will presumably rein in marketing spend.

Top 10 films

1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, £4,574,978 from 546 sites. Total: £23,310,686

2. Arthur Christmas, £2,526,285 from 474 sites. Total: £8,048,183

3. My Week with Marilyn, £749,819 from 397 sites (New)

4. The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, £712,398 from 474 sites. Total: £15,063,616

5. Immortals, £534,163 from 381 sites. Total: £5,404,986

6. 50/50, £410,251 from 228 sites (New)

7. Dream House, £304,239 from 215 sites (New)

8. In Time, £258,840 from 261 sites. Total: £5,026,901

9. Desi Boyz, £243,792 from 52 sites (New)

10. Moneyball, £230,848 from 170 sites (New)

Other openers

The Deep Blue Sea, 53 screens, £108,767

Take Shelter, 55 screens, £81,121

Mayakkam Enna, 7 screens, £21,056

Resistance, 13 screens, £20,545

We Were Here, 2 screens, £1,213 (+ £2,040 previews)

An African Election, 1 screen, £806 (+ £1,499 previews)

Is this the end of the soppy princess who always needs a man?

By and large, Disney heroines have not been notable for their dynamism. There has been a lot of sitting in attics, absorbed by haircare, belting out the odd power-ballad from the window. It is a history of subservience – of fortitude rather than action – relieved only after the intervention of a knight in the proverbial. Think of slothful stunner Sleeping Beauty, or deep-sea dreamer The Little Mermaid. Sure, Snow White and Cinderella both did their share of purposeful scrubbing, but only on pain of abuse or homelessness. And, lest we forget, in Cinders' case, much of the heavy lifting was outsourced to mice.

Slowly that has changed. First came Disney's The Princess and the Frog, a romance set in New Orleans, and a gloriously old-fashioned animation in all but its politics. Not only was its heroine, Tiana, black, but she was also an absolute taskmaster; an ambitious businesswoman whose romantic hopes came second to her work ethic. This meant ball-busting a pampered prince and eye-rolling at an alligator who just wanted to get sloshed and play the sax.

The trouble was, it tanked, not for lack of critical horn-tooting, but because of what the studio ascribed to an unhelpful emphasis on princesses, which it feared had alienated half the audience. The result was a hasty rebrand for its next effort, a Rapunzel revamp, rechristened Tangled, and more space on the poster for its male protagonist. The move won it a sceptical press, but paid off in returns: Tangled banked more than double its budget, taking $600m (£380m) worldwide. Hence the big push for Brave, Disney's latest girl-fronted animation (and Pixar's first), whose trailer has just been released ahead of an opening next summer.

Kelly Macdonald voices the heroine, Princess Merida, a feisty lassie – spawn of Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson – living in an olde worlde Highlands. She has formidable archery skills as well as the requisite fab barnet. But Merida must battle not just standard-issue beasties and suspicious witches, but something much bigger, too: the patriarchal structure of the society in which she finds herself – cliche, condescension, primogeniture.

So far, so femme. But there have been ominous rumblings behind the scenes; cryptic talkboard mutterings about the film's fate, which began after Brave's director, Brenda Chapman, was booted off the project after six years in situ, having been inspired to write it by her own relationship with her daughter.

Chapman, on a leave of absence from Pixar, said: "It's a really sad state. We're in the 21st century and there are so few stories geared towards girls, told from a female point of view."

Brave's trailer closes with a close-up as Merida draws her bow in a crucial archery tournament. "If you could change your fate, would you?" asks the voiceover. Brave may wobble in its efforts to hit the bullseye, but at least it is aiming at the right target.

A disconcerting shard of species fascism is not the only point of interest in this nicely icy animated sequel

A second skid round the rink with Mumble (Elijah Wood), Gloria (Alecia "Pink" Moore), their offspring Erik (Ava Acres) and their singing, stomping emperor penguin colony. This time, an ice block crashes into their Antarctic home, blocking the penguins from the sea and leaving the Glee-style troupe with only their love of 80s pop-funk for sustenance. But the real fun's under the ice, where Brad Pitt and Matt Damon yuk it up as Will and Bill the krill. Will, though – determined to be "one in a krillion" – is treated shabbily by Happy Feet Two, which preaches acceptance but requires assimilation. You dance or you die. Join the party, swim with the swarm.

Rating: 2/5

Jan Svankmajer's film is an interesting and subversive comic fantasy reminiscent of the work of Terry Gilliam

Jan Svankmajer's animated comic fantasy is a film that might remind you of the Woody Allen joke about sex. Is it dirty? Only if you're doing it right. This combines live action and animated cutouts, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam. A married middle-aged man has an affair, in his dreams, with a beautiful young mistress; he causes a psychic crisis, and virtually a rip in the reality-dream time-space continuum, by getting this dream-mistress pregnant. He periodically visits an aghast psychoanalyst, on whose study walls are rather unfunny pictures of Freud and Jung, appearing to gasp or heckle or quarrel. But the film interestingly and subversively takes its stand on the idea that dreams are the real thing; waking life is an exotic, strange tissue of unreal diversions.

Rating: 3/5

More cheerful animated fun in the Antarctic from the director of Babe and Mad Max, with dancing and rapping penguins, thick Australian sea lions, rebellious krill and the occasional kindly human. It's a family-friendly food chain in which no one gets eaten.