The eponymous hero of Andrew Stanton's sci-fi romance admires one of his treasures culled from Earth's detritus. All images © Disney•Pixar.

Last year Brad Bird hosted an edit bay preview of Ratatouille for a select group of online journalists at Pixar on the eve of WonderCon. This year we were invited back for an early glimpse of Disney•Pixar’s WALL•E (opening June 27). Only this time, instead of showing a few clips, Andrew Stanton screened the entire first act in the big screening room: 35 glorious minutes of the studio's first foray into animated sci-fi.You've all seen the trailers -- WALL•E is funny, touching and inventive. In other words, pure Pixar -- only more so, as director Stanton emulates the spacey look and feel from classics that boomers grew up with, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

"This story takes place in the distant future," Stanton recounted. "Earth is covered in trash, and mankind has left the planet on a mandatory five-year trip while robots clean up. Our story asks, 'What if mankind had to leave the earth, and someone forgot to turn the last robot off?'"

Stanton set up the first act with the following intro: "This is a labor of love that was the spark of an idea we had a decade ago. A radical idea. It took a few hits in a row before it was time to take a chance, so after Nemo, we got [the confidence]… It's not as commercial, but I don't feel from a film history standpoint that we're doing anything new…"

Stanton then explained that the character of WALL•E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class) gets its primary inspiration from R2-D2 and Pixar's signature Luxo Jr. lamp. This provided the challenge of imbuing an inanimate object with a personality -- an animator's dream. Naturally there was a long design phase, but Stanton realized early on that "it should be a machine first and a character second." Even though the Robinson Crusoe-like premise was "gold" and offered lots of funny bits of business, it was a lonely start to find the story. Stanton said it was fortunate that they worked very linearly. Despite its sci-fi trappings, though, the heart of WALL•E is a love story between the happy-go-lucky trash collecting robot and a mysterious probe droid named EVE.

We begin in space, of course. Beautiful images of stars, a nebula and other iconic celestial shots as we hurl rapidly toward Earth. But wait: What's that song about being "Out There"? "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly!? What a hilarious juxtaposition as we meet WALL•E picking up garbage and all sorts of human thingamabobs that would make Ariel envious, with a likable roach on top of him as his lone friend. We glimpse the robot at work, gathering garbage at the dump, and compounding it for easy storage and disposal. Junk is piled high in trash towers in this abandoned city, as live-action promos featuring Fred Willard promise adventure in space on the Axiom cruiser. Evidently that's where all the humans have gone.

With utmost curiosity, WALL•E examines bras, car keys, paddleballs, jewelry and a fire extinguisher (which provides quite a jolt when it goes off). Once WALL•E settles in for the night in his home (a modified truck, no less), he pops in his favorite and only video, Hello, Dolly!

After several iterations of this daily routine, a mysterious ship drops off a probe droid named EVE -- the exact opposite of WALL•E. She's sleek and white, but all business. As Stanton points out, if WALL•E is a tractor, then EVE is a Mercedes. And if she happens to look like she was designed by Apple, all the better, since Apple design guru Jonathan Ive was even seduced by her.

The robot immediately seizes the opportunity to impress her, though, providing a guided tour of his truck and all its paraphernalia -- including the singing fish on the wall, an eggbeater, a Rubik's Cube, light bulb and bubble wrap (her favorite, of course), and sitting down to show off Hello, Dolly! and a bit of romance. EVE, who's quick to blast, certainly needs to lighten up, and WALL•E's happy to oblige, teaching her how to dance and chill.

Then something strange happens -- after WALL•E shows EVE a plant, she grabs it and suddenly shuts down, with only a glowing green plant insignia flashing. WALL•E must now protect EVE at all costs, including following her into space when she's picked up by her ship to rendezvous with the Axiom cruiser by Saturn, where their adventure really takes off…