I think you hit Class::DBI's major weakness. :(

Personally, i love Class::DBI, but when it comes to doing this stuff "professionally", i just stick with plain old DBI and selectall_arrayref or selectcol_arrayref and specify the optional Slice parameter. Observe:

my $sth = $dbh->selectall_arrayref('
   select id,title,year from movie limit 2
',{Slice => {}});

print Dumper $sth;

__END__
$VAR1 = [
          {
            'title' => 'Alien',
            'year' => '1979',
            'id' => '78748'
          },
          {
            'title' => 'Aliens',
            'year' => '1986',
            'id' => '90605'
          }
        ];
[download]

If you are wanting to further separate your SQL from your Perl, look into Class::Phrasebook::SQL

UPDATE: yup, i shoulda named it $movies

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)