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"Hello, Dolly!" which resonates with him, because he's very lonely.

One day, a ship from space lands on Earth (and frightens WALL-E in the process). The ship deposits another robot, a slicker, more advanced model known as an Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator (or EVE). WALL-E is instantly smitten with his new company and together both begin a tenuous relationship. But when duty calls and EVE is called back to her ship, the love struck WALL-E hitches a ride and follows, all the way to the Axiom, where, in his quest to find his friend, he sees what has become of humanity during their automated luxury vacation and he inadvertently sets things in motion for humans to regain their sense of self and desire to return to Earth.

The script by writer-director Andrew Stanton ("Toy Story") is beautiful as it makes a very moving and convincing love story between two semi-sentient beings who maybe speak a handful of words in English. But masterfully, even with a combination of beeps and buzzes both WALL-E (voiced by sound maestro Ben Burtt) and EVE (Elissa Knight) can be understood perfectly just by their body language and their reactions to one another. It helps that both are fully developed characters with their own arcs. Their relationship feels natural and it is a joyous thing. Stanton accomplished the near impossible by keeping children's interest for a good portion of the film with little actual dialogue.

The kids will certainly be entertained by WALL-E and his funny noises, crazy adventures and wacky actions, as well as the similarly eccentric sidekick robots he befriends on board the ship. They will also probably think of his friendship with EVE as "cute." Older audiences will enjoy the nods to Chaplin's "City Lights" in the romance between WALL-E and EVE (the little trash compactor actually goes through a series of physical pratfalls that resembles the Little Tramp's work. They will also enjoy the film's second act in which the adventure aboard the Axiom takes a turn for the (G-Rated) sinister in the vein of Kubrick's "2001." It is here where the subtle jabs at humanity's laziness and increasing dependency on technology for survival pays off: delivered in a series of sight gags aimed at children. One great point about corporations taking over is shown to perfection in a cameo by Fred Willard. But the most telling line of all in the mostly dialogue-free script is by a human, voiced by John Ratzenberger when he suddenly realizes about the ship: "We have a pool?"

The

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