Zootropolis (Christmas Eve, Sky Cinema Premiere, 12.15pm/6pm)
Disney’s creators have been civilising animals ever since it was decided that Mickey would wear shorts and that Donald — though willing to bare his backside — would at least clothe his upper body. In essence, this 2016 cartoon is a continuation of that happy zoological make-believe: its setting is a vast modern city populated by non-human mammals who somehow live human-type lives. In this case, however, all those hind-legged urbanites retain hints of their animal natures, meaning that there are sometimes tensions between species. This supplies the friction in the story’s central relationship: a working partnership between a doe-rabbit cop and a con-artist male fox. It also allows the film to teach a few allegorical lessons about life in a multiracial, multicultural society. This might easily have produced an excess of preachiness, but the movie focuses instead on a zippy storyline and great jokes. In effect, its tale of diverse creatures is a sort of crossbreed: a Disney production with the kind of snappiness we associate with the studio’s stablemate, Pixar.
The Lady In The Van (Christmas Eve, BBC2, 9pm)
Nicholas Hytner’s 2015 film of Alan Bennett’s play about the homeless eccentric who took up residence in his drive is custom-made to allow Maggie Smith to do a star turn. Her delivery of Miss Shepherd’s barmy remarks is predictably entertaining, and when sorrow and loneliness come to the fore, she is acutely poignant. What’s more, Roger Allam and Frances de le Tour have supporting roles, so if you are simply looking for gentle drama and fine British acting, you can’t go wrong here. Yet the movie is not just well polished; it also gleams with intelligence. Its on-screen Bennett (played by Alex Jennings) muses eloquently on his reasons for letting Miss Shepherd stay on his property. He considers the slippery relationship between charity and guilt, and his awareness that his tenant might be a good source of writing fodder. For the real-life Bennett, she indeed provided rich material: this film is proof of that.
Captain Phillips (Boxing Day, ITV, 9pm)
Based on the true story of an attack by Somali pirates on an American freighter in 2009, Paul Greengrass’s 2013 film unsurprisingly invites sympathy for the ship’s captain — hence the casting of Tom Hanks — but it also gives us an understanding of the desperate pirates (led by the Bafta-winning Barkhad Abdi). The breadth of our emotional investment heightens the tension of the movie’s story, a steadily escalating series of standoffs and risky actions directed by Greengrass with his usual blend of realism and flair. Finally, in a sort of coda, he presents us with one of the most memorable feats of acting we have yet seen from Hanks.