Pixar’s latest animation, the futuristic WALL-E, gets to have it both ways: On one level, it is a jeremiad against consumerism - and especially about how we anaesthetize ourselves at our own peril by plugging into computers 24/7.

Casting directors looking to fill the part of Karl Rove in a movie account of the second Bush presidency might turn to John Hodgman, the actor who plays “PC” in the Apple Inc. commercials.