Film choice

Megamind (2010) CHANNEL 4, 2.30PM ★★★

DreamWorks’ fun tale of a Mekonlike, inept baddie is weird and witty. Directed by Tom McGrath, who was behind Madagascar, Will Ferrell leads voice duties, with funny turns from David Cross as his deputy, Minion, and Brad Pitt as his vain, buff, Aryan nemesis, the perpetually victorious Metro Man. An amusing quirk of Megamind’s is his affected pronunciation – he pronounces Metro City to rhyme with atrocity.

The Boxtrolls (2014) FILM4, 2.50PM ★★★

There’s a cheerfully grotesque streak to this Oscar-winning stopmotion animation from the makers of Coraline and ParaNorman. In the town of Cheesebridge, a human boy raised by boxtrolls – trash-collecting creatures who live under the sewers wearing cardboard boxes – vows to save them from a villainous pest exterminator. It’s an endearing set-up and the carnival feel should please both adults and children.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

ITV2, 6.10PM ★★★★

The denouement to Peter Jackson’s grandiose adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s epic is the one that scooped an Oscar. Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) arrive at Mount Doom to destroy the Ring, both helped and hindered by the loathsome Gollum. Jackson’s only misjudgement is that the film meanders on for around half an hour after the real action is over.