ANIMATION

It has been a watershed year for animation, with a hugely varied range of films that match their live-action counterparts stroke for stroke. Getting top marks for sheer, virtuoso fun is Kung Fu Panda from Dreamworks, a dazzling flurry of anthropomorphic CGI combat, gorgeous landscapes and noodle-slurping gluttony featuring the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie. At the other end of the stylistic scale is Persepolis, a wry, touching memoir about growing up during the Iranian revolution that beautifully transplants the black-and-white images of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel. A cast-iron classic finally found its way on to DVD in the cuddly shape of The Jungle Book and another, Sleeping Beauty, received a glittering special edition makeover. Soon to be joining Baloo, Aurora and company in the animation pantheon is Wall-E, an exquisite, at times almost photo-realistic eco-masterpiece about a robot left to sweep up after mankind has abandoned Earth. At its best, it rivals Blade Runner and 2001: a Space Odyssey as a piece of existential sci-fi, and its star, whirring and whistling in pursuit of his noble but unachievable goal, is the most sympathetic non-human movie character since E.T.

FILM

For once, all of the Best Picture Oscar nominees were cracking. No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood reinvigorated the western and provided us with memorable villains in Javier Bardem's boltgun-toting assassin and Daniel Day-Lewis's remorseless oil driller. Michael Clayton was a prescient swipe against corporate arrogance, while Juno and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were lit up by affecting heroes in Ellen Page's pregnant teen and Mathieu Amalric's paralysed author. There were second chances to see a pair of cult fantasy gems in Dark City, Alex Proyas's under-appreciated precursor to The Matrix, and The Princess Bride, William Goldman's sword-and-sorcery satire. Sex and the City made a smooth transition to a feature format, but Carrie wouldn't have lasted five minutes on the mean streets of The Dark Knight or Cloverfield, a visceral camcorder tour through a New York besieged by aliens. The latter's cinema audiences had been moved to nausea by its hand-held camera-work; on the small screen, it was just plain terrifying.

TV

This was the year when the curtain fell on two growling titans of US television. We bid farewell to The Sopranos in a challenging, provocative finale that had cyberspace abuzz with theories, while The Wire completed its intricately plotted, bruisingly authentic portrait of a modern American city from the ground up. Both are products of the HBO stable; both are available, complete, as social-life-destroying boxsets. Defying a dodgy third season and the Hollywood writers' strike, Lost re-emerged weirder and more addictive than ever in its fourth season, while pick of the homegrown telly was Cranford. The BBC's adaptation of three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell had the formidable duo of Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins on Bafta-conquering form. Elsewhere. Blu-ray, having seen off its rival DVD format, High Definition, brought us ravishing new editions of two already excellent miniseries: Steven Spielberg's Second World War epic, Band of Brothers, and Stephen Poliakoff's luminous tale of Queen Mary's forgotten son, The Lost Prince.

COMEDY

Proof that Russell Brand is still in full possession of his comedy mojo comes in a compilation of his Channel 4 series Ponderland, which is a bit like Tarrant on TV but with all the rubbish links replaced by hilarious ones. In TV Burp Gold, Harry Hill mines primetime telly rather than Brand-style esoterica, but a kind of alchemy occurs when he has his lateral way with the cleverly selected clips. It's strange to watch Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue rather than listen to it, but the live DVD debut overflows with joy, not least the sight, and sound, of Tim Brooke-Taylor singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips to the tune of the Smiths' Girlfriend in a Coma. The marvellous Curb your Enthusiam is available in a six-series set, while those who have succumbed to the cosmic charms of Vince Noir and Howard Moon should get their hands on The Mighty Boosh: Series 1-3. Finally, in Dara O'Briain Talks Funny, the Mock the Week chairman proves that he's even better when he doesn't have to worry about keeping his panellists' egos in check.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/dvd/article5251612.ece