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YOU don't often cry at the movies because of the beauty of what's unfolding before your eyes.

But that's what you may experience with Pixar's new film Wall-E, if you're a soft sap like me. This, their most ambitious feature to date - and that's saying something, given their back catalogue - is the tale of possibly the most adorable creature ever to adorn cinema screens, a robot named Wall-E.

In a dark, dystopic future Earth, he's responsible for cleaning up the rubbish we've all left behind, compacting it into neat cubes. One day, his carefully ordered existence is thrown into disarray when a glamorous new 'bot arrives.

Eve is trigger-happy and rather frightening, but Wall-E's in love. And so he follows her around like a puppy, and tries to woo her by showing her some of his favourite possessions, and playing her scenes from his favourite film, Hello Dolly.

When he presents her with a small shoot of a plant he has discovered, Eve takes it, clams up and a spaceship arrives to remove her. But having waited all his life to find her, die-hard romantic Wall-E's not going to let her slip away that easily.

The first half of this film is poetry in motion, a near-silent introduction to Wall-E's character which will leave you completely smitten by this ET/Johnny Five lookalike with his bottomless, imploring eyes.

Your heartstrings will twang as you watch the pride he takes in the space where he keeps the things he likes, how he treats his cockroach friend, and how he longs for the companionship he sees on screen, all accompanied by Thomas Newman's glorious score.

This robot is 100% heart, and surely there's not a soul alive who could fail to be moved by the sight of him tucking himself up for 'bed', and then rocking himself and the cockroach to sleep.

The plot progresses to develop the environmental message which has been present from the start, introducing just what exactly has happened to the humans who've left Earth in such a state.

And even though it takes us away from our hero for a while, it's all still of the highest quality as far as storytelling is concerned, introducing a possible end result of today's rampant consumerism.

The input of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, who was nominated twice in his category at this year's Oscars, cannot be underestimated, too. He has aided the filmmakers in providing an absolutely outstanding framework for their story, scene-setting which rivals any widescreen epic.

Wall-E's message hearkens back to classics of the sci-fi genre, particularly Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, musing on connection and contact, and emphasising that a supposed machine can be more human that the humans.

As you watch Wall-E and Eve dance among the stars, propelled by a fire extinguisher, you'll feel a surge of something magical, essential and completely life-affirming, absolutely believing that, as a Liverpuddlian supergroup once sang, all you need is love.

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