WALL-E

On an Earth overrun by garbage and abandoned by humanity for 700 years, the sole inhabitants are a cockroach and a small solar-powered trash-compactor robot whose programming has evolved into a personality, and his solitude into loneliness. One day, into this barren landscape drops a sleek (and yes, sexy) interplanetary probe, and suddenly, the rusty little robot is—well, sort of in love. The latest Pixar feature, written and directed by Andrew Stanton, runs a little long—we’re ready for it to end rather than sorry to have to leave, as we are with other Pixar movies. Still, the Pixar animation continues to improve exponentially, and both the story and the electronic characters have charm galore. (If anything, oddly enough, it’s when people intrude on the plot that things get a bit forced.)