Cross-species love on film

Let's hope she's had her jabs ... Bertille Noël-Bruneau and furry friend in The Fox and the Child. Photograph: PR

Not just cross-species, this one, but cross-planets, too ... Henry Thomas and ET in ET the Extra-Terrestrial Photograph: Kobal

Through thick and thin ... after being farmed out to the same minder while their owners are on holiday, Bodger the bull terrier, Tao the Siamese cat and Luath the Labrador join forces for a 200-mile trek over perilous Canadian countryside to get home in The Incredible Journey. That the animal playing Bodger was, in fact, a bitch, is a piece of casting that still rankles with fans of Sheila Burnford's source novel. Photograph: Kobal

"A 12-year-old street kid. A three-tonne killer whale. A friendship you could never imagine. An adventure you'll never forget." It's hard to watch Free Willy without the tang of chlorine somehow rising up in your throat. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext

Beauty and the beast ... after screaming the house down in terror, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) gradually comes over a different kind of swoony with a 16-tonne gorilla in King Kong. Photograph: PR

Blood brothers ... Robert Bresson puts both Marie and Balthazar through the wringer in Au hasard Balthazar. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

"He's cute. He's cuddly. He's a klepto." So ran the tagline for the little-seen Monkey Trouble, starring a young Thora Birch as the adoptive carer - and sometime hairdresser - of a monkey called Dodger. Harvey Keitel rounded out the cast as a "scheming gypsy" with eyes for the primate. Photograph: Kobal

Lassie Come Home ... according to her publicist, Liz Taylor is quite well, thank you very much, and surrounded by "family, friends and fabulous jewels". Let's hope there's a friendly collie on hand too Photograph: CineText/Allstar

"He handles all my business" ... Clint Eastwood and Clyde in Any Which Way You Can. The partnership began with Every Which Way But Loose in 1978 - it was to be a collaboration that made more money than any previous Eastwood film. Photograph: Kobal

Just good friends? ... Zoo, Robinson Devor's documentary, told the story of a chap known only as "Mr Hands" who died after getting a little too intimate with a stallion. Photograph: PR