In "WALL-E," Pixar Studio's latest animated film, the future is a cluttered place, literally awash in its own garbage. Humans have abandoned the planet in favor of resort-like spaceships and left behind an army of robotic garbage men to clean up the mess. Now hundreds of years later this automated sanitation department has slowly broken down except for one industrious little fellow named WALL-E.

WALL-E looks like a kitchen trash compactor on tractor treads. He scoots around huge drifts of garbage, dutifully scooping it into his compactor. It's lonely work but WALL-E is no slouch. With no help but his trusty pet cockroach, WALL-E sticks to his task, piling the compressed cubes of refuse into stacks that are as high as skyscrapers.

For the first part of the film that's all we get: WALL-E, a cockroach, and garbage. Considering that neither WALL-E nor the cockroach is much of a talker, it's hard to imagine a lively piece of entertainment emerging from this "Robinson Crusoe of the Landfill" story.

But, Pixar has an unfailing ability to create the kind of characters that can energize a film.

With WALL-E, Pixar's animators whip up an enchanting blend of personality and physical comedy. WALL-E channels Buster Keaton, sporting not only an acrobatic talent for pratfalls but a pair of soulful eyes - a remarkable characteristic for a trash compactor.

As WALL-E trudges through his daily work he takes a moment to collect the odd treasure - a Rubic's Cube or a Twinkie for his pet cockroach - giving us a glimpse into his character. WALL-E is a lonely, sensitive guy and you can't help but feel for his predicament.

One day WALL-E's world is literally shaken up. A spaceship lands right on top of him, sending WALL-E scrambling for cover. As the dust settles, WALL-E comes face to face with a cute little scouting droid named EVE. EVE is a demonstration of how far technology has advanced since WALL-E was left behind. Metaphorically speaking, she's an iPod to WALL-E's eight-track tape player. But, all WALL-E sees is a thing of beauty and before you know it, he's developed a crush, following the no-nonsense EVE around while trying to impress her with his little collection of treasures.

When EVE leaves on her spaceship WALL-E hitches a ride as a stowaway. Once back on the mother ship, we find out what happened to all those humans after they packed their bags and left the earth. More importantly, we get to watch WALL-E's efforts to woo the standoffish EVE.

As they were with "Cars," the animators of Pixar are at their best molding machinery into engaging characters. But, in this case, they set the bar a little higher. They don't paste cartoon faces on the robots. There are few anthropomorphic flourishes added to the machines; they have to act their way into our hearts. And act they do. One of the film's running gags involves a fussy vacuum cleaner that follows WALL-E around furiously sweeping up the trail of dirt and rust he leaves on the pristine spaceship.

The humans, by comparison, come off as somewhat bland. While the film builds part of its drama from their desire to return to earth and tries to give a moral lesson on caring for the environment, it's the robots that service their lazy lifestyle and the budding romance between WALL-E and EVE that grabs our interest.

WALL-E proves to be a plucky romantic lead. He pursues EVE with a clumsy determination that sets up many of the film's funniest scenes. The Pixar animators cleverly exploit the different capabilities of this technological odd couple. In one scene EVE zips around outside the spaceship using her built-in propulsion system while WALL-E keeps up by using a fire extinguisher as a jet. The ensuing space dance is cute, and I say that in the best sense of the word.

The genius of "WALL-E" is that it gets us to invest in these two robots as a romantic couple. "WALL-E" is a sweet film, full of laughs, and you're guaranteed to leave the theater with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Directed By Andrew Stanton

Rated G

(Three Stars)

Bruce Bulloch may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com