The winds of change are blowing through The Illusionist, the latest animation from the team behind 2003’s Oscar-nominated ode to age and eccentricity, Belleville Rendez-Vous.

Set in 1950s Edinburgh, this beautiful and quirky film presents a fairytale Britain in which the rise of boy bands, department stores and multiplex cinemas has made life tough for its lead, a lean, fumbling magician named Tatischeff – homage to French comic actor and director Jacques Tati, who penned the original screenplay.

Tatischeff is driven from the Parisian limelight, through London, to an inn on the windy coastline of Scotland’s Hebridean archipelago – seemingly the last place on earth an old-school cabaret performer might still be considered innovative. His arrival coincides with the illumination of the island’s first electric light bulb, a subtle hint at the futility of trying to outrun modernity, after which he returns to the mainland in need of work.

Arriving in Edinburgh, real-life home to the film’s director, Jean-Paul Chomet, Tatischeff checks into ‘Little Joe’s Hotel’ – occupied exclusively by defunct entertainers, making a go of life in the then cutting-edge world of PR and advertising.

Trapeze artists painting billboards, destitute ventriloquists, suicidal clowns and shop-front shamans bring colour and fellowship to the film, though its key relationship is that of Tatischeff and Alice, a naïve country lass astounded by the magician’s ability to produce rabbits, flowers and even hard cash, out of thin air.

There is little dialogue in the film, only a few spare exclamations. The narrative, comedy and subtle social commentary that propels the film is found in the drawings alone – from the physically caricatured musicians and artistes that share the stage with Tatischeff, to the Edinburgh shops Alice gazes longingly towards. ‘Blair and Brown’s Pawnbroker’s Shop’ provides yet another signal of an approaching economic upheaval, one in which art of illusion is used to sell designer handbags and transformative beauty products and little else.

Tatischeff, in his role of surrogate father, takes to moonlighting as a mechanic, hoping to uphold Alice’s faith in his powers for as long as possible. However, for a tale that threatens disenchantment, The Illusionist is not morose – it is a story about growing up, led by a patriarchal conjuror who must learn, like Shakespeare’s most famous magician, to give up his magic. It is a smooth, affectionate and charming film – the perfect way to welcome in the coming cold months.