"WALL•E"

Here are two words you're unlikely to ever encounter in a single sentence: underwhelming and Pixar. The creators of "Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" have stretched the creative envelope once again, concocting an ultra kidfriendly, ultra adultsavvy, ultra teenterrific environmental cautionary tale about a lonely robot cleaning up humanity's abandoned, garbageinfested planet, 700 years hence.

In this vision of our future, the mega-super-discount warehouse Buy N Large not only supplies earthlings with Everything Imaginable, but ultimately becomes the world's government as well. Crass consumerism and blatant materialism overtake us all. Our blue-green world becomes a muddled grayish brown, vegetation dies and mounds of waste tower over skyscrapers.

Buy N Large launches a fleet of luxurious, automated cruise ships into space while pampered Earthfolk await a planetary cleanup by thousands of "WALL•E" (Waste Allocation Load Lifter- Earth Class) robots.

One by one these robots burn out, daunted by the extraordinary task at hand. By the year 2815 only one unit remains operational, the Earth still a gigantic garbage heap, utterly uninhabitable. The little metal dude diligently continues to scurry about his duties, and somehow over the years he's managed to develop an endearing personality as well.

This sole surviving WALL•E collects knickknacks, adores cockroaches (in Pixar's reality, even roaches are cute) and, during off hours, is infatuated with a salvaged "Hello, Dolly!" video. After 700 years collecting junk, alone in his inhospitable environment, WALL•E's become a touch lovelorn.

One day, a rocket ship lands and deploys a stunningly sleek, stylishly feminine white robot named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). Think 200th-generation iPod.

"WALL•E" is very Macfriendly by the way; we fanatical 8 percent will recognize a few tributes, including MacinTalk voices and, whenever WALL•E reboots, the "happy Mac" chime. Yes, way down deep, Pixar's one of us.

WALL•E happens to witness EVE's deployment and immediately falls in love. She reciprocates with a series of laser blasts (women!), and the onesided romance escalates from there.

There's more, of course- lots more- but it's a shame to ruin such a nonstop treat. The less you know, the better. Suffice it to say that only the most hardened, consumption-addicted curmudgeon will shy away. "WALL•E" is human beingfriendly, and its message- while overwhelmingly jovial- is apparent as well: We're overindulgent and arrogantly oblivious and ultimately screwing up our planet.

Seldom, however, has a morality play been this entertaining, this much fun. The seven souls who don't see the movie or ultimately buy the DVD may still be chucking Snickers wrappers out the window, but the rest of us will think twice. And thinking twice is what conscientious cinema is all about.

Unlike ecological scaretactic-heavy films- the recent, abysmal "The Happening," for instance- the Oscar-winning (oh, why even pretend it won't be) "WALL•E" is charming from first moment to last. The first half of the film, dialogue free (although rich with robot chirps, sighs and exclamations), is classic Pixar- so cutting-edge CGI that one loses a sense of reality, completely absorbed in WALL•E's world.

While kids, probably 7 or 8 and up (younger ages may be confused by the film's complexity) will adore "WALL•E" for the playfulness and stunning animation, adults may be a little surprised by how powerful the underlying message really is.

Director Andrew Stanton lets us know how rashly consumerdriven and wantonly wasteful we are- and when futuristic human beings ultimately reenter WALL•E's realm, 700 years of automated luxury have turned us into little more than pleasureseeking marshmallows. Yeah, "WALL•E" is a kid's film, but it's an adults fingerwagging admonition as well.

Hey, when consumptionaddled Hollywood starts telling us its time to pay attention . . . maybe it is time to listen.

PS: Hang around for the astute final credits. Should you wonder how humanity's "second coming" progresses, there's a nifty montage of retro-futurist art (from hieroglyphics to neoclassicism to Impressionism to computer pixilization) depicting mankind's cleanup effort and eventual rehabilitation of Earth as pristine blue-green planet.