Relentlessly sentimental science fiction about a cute anthropomorphized “male” robot — a rattletrap contraption of binoculars atop tank treads — programmed to pick up garbage on an evacuated Earth in the 28th Century (his name is an acronym of Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class), all alone on the planet but for the company of an indestructible cockroach, until his world gets rocked by the arrival of a smooth white egg-shaped “fembot,” whom he follows up to a mother ship of epicene, spineless, walrus-like humans. Rather remarkable for any movie are the long stretches of nonverbal narrative, reminiscent of the opening and closing stretches of 2001. (Other allusions to the Kubrick classic — the musical snippet from Also Sprach Zarathustra, the unblinking red eye of HAL-9000 — suggest the emulation is entirely conscious.) No less remarkable, in the context of a Disney computer cartoon, are the distinctive whiffs of post-apocalyptic and dystopian melancholy. The happy ending pretty much ruins it. If the film wanted full credit for evoking those feelings, the best ending it could have held out would be hopeful, not happy. With the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, and Sigourney Weaver; written and directed by Andrew Stanton. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd