A big wet noogie to the folks at Pixar Animation Studios: Thanks to them, movie-goers of all ages again have a non-human life form as easy to love as E.T. ... And this one doesn't need to worry about phoning home, because he was made here.

He scoots around on fraying tank treads and is unduly devoted to certain Broadway show tunes -- but otherwise he's pretty darned self-sufficient for being the last working trace of mankind left on planet Earth.

His name, based on his robot model, is WALL*E, and you'll meet him on DVD beginning this week in the absolutely delightful "WALL*E" (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, rated G, DVD $29.99, Blu-ray Disc $35.99).

How can we tell WALL*E's a "he?" Because early on he meets up with a saucy little robotic scout from space named EVE, and sparks fly. Literally. You can watch the flame. There's a scene where he takes her home to see his collection of junk, and that's where you'll also see EVE falling for him like homeless human waifs once melted over Chaplin's "Little Tramp."

WALL*E is a mobile trash compactor by design, so it makes perfect sense that he would develop his own appreciation for human refuse in time. And time is what he has had plenty of since people abandoned their exhausted home planet some 700 years before.

Now EVE has been sent to look for a sign that it may be safe to return. And when she leaves to file her report, who should come following after her but the lovestruck pup, WALL*E?

That's all preamble to a post-apocalyptic love story that could only have been realized by the talented producers and directors of "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo." Wait until you get a look at mankind's possible future as a docile populace aboard what resembles a huge cruise ship in space dubbed The Axiom.

We'll save you the pleasure of discovering the rest of the plot's "nuts and bolts" for yourself. Considering the bleak circumstances and the plot's pile-driver of an environmental message, this might have all ended up something of a shrill robo-flop. Instead, it manages to salvage from the wreckage the most precious survival skill of all: optimism.

The single disc DVD offers a commentary by director Andrew Stanton, who estimates that if the movie had been done by just one full-time animator it would have taken 400 years to complete. That's a lesson in the value of teamwork, not to mention discipline and leadership.

Other disc extras include the Pixar short "Presto," about a rivalry that breaks out between a stage magician and his screwy rabbit, some cut scenes and a look at how the movie's sound design wrought miracles all its own. It also contains an original short called "BURN*E," about the struggles of one repair robot aboard the Axiom.

There's also a three-DVD edition ($39.99) that comes loaded with all of the above plus 12 separate behind-the-scenes featurettes and a full-length history of Pixar, its founders and its amazing string of hits. The third disc contains a digital copy for downloading to portable devices. The Blu-ray Disc version has all of the above plus a 3-D set "fly-through," a collection of international trailers for "WALL*E," plus all the on-line Disney "BD Live" features for players with an internet access.

A Budd Boetticher bonanza

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a five-disc "Collector's Choice" box set called "The Films of Budd Boetticher" (not rated, $59.95) that should serve as a model for all such future assemblages. Five of Boetticher's best color Westerns for Columbia Pictures in the late 1950s are included, each one appearing on its own disc along with trailers, commentaries and a specific mini-lecture on its themes and cinematic importance by devoted fans like Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Taylor Hackford.

All of the films star Randolph Scott, but anyone who has Scott pegged as a lightweight leading man of mostly B-movies should have another look at him here. For one thing, he co-produced most of these films under his own company banner, and he specifically chose Boetticher as the director best able to showcase him in iconic vehicles that went straight to the heart of the "code of the west."

"The Tall T" from 1957 is perhaps the strongest of the group. Though it's set in the hostile outdoors and accessorized with saddles and Winchester rifles, it's really a psychological drama with an "opposites attract" dynamic similar to the one between Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart in "The Petrified Forest."

When upright rancher Scott and a few others are taken hostage by a band of killers, Scott senses that his survival depends on stoking the doubts that his peaceful lifestyle represents to the hunted outlaw leader, Richard Boone. It asks: In the final showdown between life and death, what sort of liability is imposed by an unsettled conscience?

All of the scripts are well staged and smartly framed by Boetticher and his cameramen: "Decision at Sundown" (1957), "Buchanon Rides Alone" (1958), "Ride Lonesome" (1959) and "Comanche Station" (1960) may have been low-budget B-movies by studio standards, but there's nothing cut-rate about them, either technically or conceptually.

Adding to the sense of a definitive collection is a fresh, feature-length documentary on Boetticher's career and aesthetic produced by Clint Eastwood and Turner Classic Movies. New interviews and testimonials by Quentin Tarantino and other modern filmmakers are mixed in with archival footage and movie clips in "A Man Can Do That." It's likely to be the final word on this firebrand maverick who somehow did his finest signature work within the most turgid of systems.

Also new on DVD

"A Christmas Story" Ultimate Collector's Edition (Warner Home Video, rated PG, $26.99, Blu-ray Disc $28.99). The late Bob Clark preserved the experience of a small-town, post-World War II American childhood forever in this lovely 1983 block of cinematic amber. Based on a folksy, comic memoir by Jean Shepherd (who also narrates), it follows the efforts of 9-year-old Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) to secure the ideal Christmas present from his oblivious parents. It has been a popular home video title since the mid-1980s, but it gets its best DVD presentation yet in this new version, which includes a 20th anniversary retrospective, a filmmaker's commentary, script comparisons and two new featurettes. The "Ultimate Collector's Edition" gift package ($39.99) comes in a commemorative tin case with a string of leg-lamp tree lights and unique cookie cutter shapes. On Blu-ray Disc, the movie wears its enhanced resolution to good effect, rendering the nostalgic settings and comical action with increased detail and color.

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" (Warner Home Video, rated PG-13, DVD $28.98, Blu-ray Disc $35.99). The pants don't do much traveling in this sequel, but the banalities sure fly fast and loose. The four girlfriends who shared so much adolescent zest and angst in the first teen hit return from their first year at college for a reunion on a New York City street that's nearly identical to the opening of the "Sex and the City" movie. Then it's off in different directions for summer romance, scenic studies abroad, art classes and many more brushes with heartbreak and jealousy before the inevitable "life lessons" signal a fade-out. On DVD, the bonhomie spills over into behind-the-camera looks at the young actresses, blooper reels and "additional scenes."

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