There's an Earth void of life. No plants or animals, just piles of garbage, empty highways and buildings covered in a layer of brown dirt.

Then, moving through the dirt and rubble there's a small robot. The robot blends in with the bleak landscape. He has a rusty yellow body, a square middle and thin strip of metal for a neck attached to large, almost teardrop-shaped, eyes. His name is Wall-E, and that name is one of the only words this lovable creature can utter.

The name Wall-E is short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class. Set in the distant future, Wall-E roams our deserted planet pushing all of the garbage left behind into what should be his stomach and compacting it into small cubes, which he puts into piles that almost touch the sky. Videos that flash as he rolls past closed shops show humans left the planet to the Wall-Es to make hospitable again -- taking refuge in a giant spaceship called the Axiom.

Although the colors at the beginning of the film are bleak, the detail is astounding -- Pixar Animation Studios has gone above and beyond with this one.

Wall-E is one of the most inventive movies in a very long time.

One of the best aspects of the film is its mass appeal. Although many Disney/Pixar films are geared toward a more adolescent crowd, viewers of any age can get something out of Wall-E. The younger kids will enjoy Wall-E's innocence and the simple humor in the film, while the older crowd will appreciate the underlying themes of pollution, advanced technology and basic humanity.

Despite the lack of human companions -- his only friend is a cockroach -- Wall-E has developed a very childlike personality. He is continually awed by the world around him.

He collects items such as a rubber duck and a bra from among the rubble he is supposed to be compacting. In one scene, he even plays with a paddleball, only to have the rubber ball hit him in the face. The humor throughout the movie is simple and pure; one of the great things about the film. It doesn't try to pull laughter from the audience by flashy or outrageous means, and because the first half of the film contains almost no dialogue, the humor is based on what the viewer sees.

One place where the small robot's personality truly shines is within his large, metal rectangular home. Inside, colored lights hang from the ceiling and a screen in the back, attached to a tape player, shows footage from the musical Hello, Dolly.

It is through Wall-E's reaction to the film that we see the real humanity in the robot. As he watches the film intently, the two main characters hold hands, and he places his own metal ones together, showing his loneliness on the desolate planet.

Common themes of humanity and compassion, as well as environmental and personal issues humans face today are major themes of the movie, but are never abrasive or overwhelming.

The movie takes a turn when Earth is visited by Eve, an Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. She is on earth to look for evidence of life. Wall-E quickly falls in love with Eve despite their vast differences. Eve is everything Wall-E is not -- she is a brilliant white, technologically advanced years beyond Wall-E and can say his name clearly and distinctly while he pronounces her name as Eva (with emphasis on the "va").

When Wall-E takes her back to his home and shows her a plant he has found, Eve must return to the Axiom to show the captain her discovery. Wall-E catches a ride on the space ship that has come to claim her and ends up on the Axiom.

The humans on the Axiom ride around in floating chairs, and all of them are overweight.

They pay no attention to any of the amenities the ship offers and only stare at screens attached to their chairs, chatting with friends on the screen who are only feet away.

While obesity and perhaps laziness have become prevalent in today's society, it seems a bit much to have every human in the movie be overweight.

But despite that one flaw, the movie has more charm and heart than any recent film. It shows love can be found in the most unlikely of ways and proves even a small creature, though not as smart or high tech as others, can have a very large and compassionate heart.

Grade: A