Wall-E, the most jubilant cinema experience of the year, loses none of its magic on DVD (or preferably tears-of-joy inducing Blu-ray) thanks to its touching story and sense of adventure and wonder, too often ignored by faceless blockbusters with eyes only for the opening weekend.

wall.e 17Wall.E, the lonely robot, soaks up the sun.

WALL.E
(2008, CERT U)
Released: December 8th.  RRP - £22.99 (DVD) / £29.99 (Blu-ray)

REVIEW: 
Sex and the City and Mamma Mia? Pah! Wall.E is the year’s most romantic film and may be the most poignant love story since The Remains of the Day.
 
And it has a happy ending, plus references to Silent Running, Star Trek, RoboCop, Star Wars, Blade Runner and 2001.
 
A softly spoken eco-tale of a self-aware garbage robot, Wall.E, who has spent 700 years patiently building skyscrapers out of rubbish cubes after humanity fled the polluted planet, Wall.E doesn’t skimp on comedy, action or suspense.
 
After falling for EVE, a robot cross between a kendo warrior and iPod, Wall.E pursues her into space, hopping a lift aboard her massive rocketship after she discovers vegetation on Earth.
 
But, once aboard massive luxury starcruiser Axiom (after an enthralling, largely dialogue free opening thirty minutes) Wall.E and EVE realise that certain powers-that-be will stop at nothing to prevent proof of life on Earth spreading and sending everyone back home – unless the plucky rubbish-bot can do something and prove his mettle to his unrequited love.
 
Wall.E's design looks incredible and Pixar continue their mission to create more astounding animation with each new movie.
 
But, where the movie triumphs is with its two leads – Wall.E, part Buster Keaton, part Yoda, is the most endearing animated creation since Gromit the dog, and EVE the sweetest ray-gun packing, career-minded feminist bot ever.
 
Whether the two are waltzing in zero gravity, fleeing rogue robots in one of the year’s best chases, or saving mankind in an epic Titanic style climax, they are perfect.
 
As is the film – Oscars all round please.

EXTRASwall.e 10Wall.E

Spartacus with robots, rising up against alien overlords or venal, devolved, gelatinous humans.

Yep, at one point Wall.E looked very different, as director Andrew Stanton and various other animators and writers explain in a bumper crop of extra features.

Befitting one of the year’s best films, this is one of the year’s best DVDs, offering up goodies for the kiddies (the five star support short Presto, plus Burn.E, a bot's life short film that ties up a loose end from the movie), Wall.E 'audition' scenes, robot galleries, and games (on the Blu-ray).

But, the nice folk at the world’s greatest animation studio (other than anime's Studio Ghibli) know the big kids want treats too, so cram the 2-disc DVD with hours of content.

Behind the Scenes featurettes detail the long, fourteen-year evolution of Wall.E from idea to movie, focussing on director Stanton’s obsession with making his movie as cinematic as possible. He called in legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins for a lighting masterclass and ILM guru Dennis Muren for FX guidance, and spent time with bomb disposal robots and the Mars rover to get the look and feel of the titular hero spot-on.

Sound design and scoring featurettes reveal how important sound is in a film where the two leads barely say six words between them.

The director commentary throws out more trivia and insight, while Blu-ray offers an option to listen to the commentary with accompanying production art, a second crew talk track, and 3-D model fly thrus of different locations.

Out of this world treatement for a classic in the making.

FILM: ***** EXTRAS: *****