Wall.E, the latest Pixar release, is a delightful sci-fi animation that will enchant children and adults alike. Set in the far flung future, planet Earth has been overrun by garbage. For every skyscraper, a similar tower of compacted rubbish looms alongside it. Terrifying dust storms sweep through the unpopulated cities, and the humans have already blasted off into outer space on cruise liner-style space ships to await their return to a cleaned up Earth. Unfortunately, several hundreds of years have passed and there's no likelihood that the mission to rid Earth of its mountains of garbage will ever be achieved.

Left tootling along under his prime clean-up directive is the resourceful little robot Wall.E, which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifters - Earth class. This perky, quirky little character has become somewhat sentient, communicating in drones, clicks and squawks to the only living thing remaining on Earth - his best buddy, who just happens to be the cutest little cockroach you've ever seen. Wall.E compacts rubbish into neat squares, selecting bits of flotsam that catch his fancy. When a visiting space ship deposits a high-tech robot, named Eve, to investigate if there is any sign of life on Earth, it's love at first sight for Wall.E.

What transpires is a delightful and almost heartbreakingly tender love story between these two expressive and adorable characters. Accompanying breathtaking visual sequences, the glorious score enhances the emotional resonance of the movie, the tone of which never turns saccharine. Indeed, the opening quarter is a little bleak, and viewers may squirm at the latter sequences, which find so much comedy at the expense of obesity (wait till you see the humans of the future.), and just stop short of mean-spiritedness. Despite this, the rewards are many.