Idiocy Of British Public Confirmed By Weekend Box-Office

Pixar - one of the greatest artistic collectives currently working in any medium - released their latest masterwork, WALL-E, in the UK this past weekend. Breathtakingly beautiful, hugely imaginative, painstakingly crafted, sharply satirical, daringly innovative, beyond adorable and, most importantly, massively entertaining, I've already seen it twice, and it'll undoubtedly be near the top of my Best of 2008 film list, if it isn't actually topping it. It screens with a short film called Presto, about a magician, his rabbit and two teleport-hats, that contains some of the best animated slapstick this side of a Chuck Jones cartoon, inflicting untold pain on its antagonist via a variety of dazzlingly inventive, rapid-fire means and garnering more laughs in five minutes than Dreamworks' entire animated output post-Antz.

The Great British Public, however, clearly know better than to blithely accept a too-rare piece of genuinely populist art when it's handed to them on a plate, which is why Celebrity Sing-A-Long-A-Abba topped the UK box office for the second week in a row, beating WALL-E's £4.3 million opening by some £300,000 to end up with £4.6 million IN ITS SECOND WEEKEND ALONE (this despite it being the first UK-wide weekend of the summer holidays and WALL-E ostensibly being aimed at kids, even if it is far too good for the little buggers). Only three weeks ago, WALL-E opened in the USA with $62.5 million, going straight to number one in the process. When the country that lets this get past the 3am-and-stoned-stage of development has better taste than your own native soil, it's time to consider a move.