For years it was the superheroes who were saving Hollywood. From Spider-Man to Batman to, belatedly, a few women — the comic-book movie became a multibillion-dollar ballast for a business struggling to make money in a world of streaming and smartphones. But then, like Superman faced with kryptonite, said superheroes started to weaken and their fickle audiences moved on as studio execs started to panic. Who, they gasped, would save Hollywood now?

Well, step forward … cartoons. Lots of them. In a previous life the top of the box-office charts would be full of Oscar-worthy adult movies — but the days of cinema being dominated by serious dramatic fare are long gone. Five of the top 20 highest-grossing films worldwide this year were animated —