After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film largely set in space. Most of the characters do not have actual human voices, but instead communicate with body language and robotic sounds, designed by Ben Burtt, that resemble voices. In addition, it is the first animated feature by Pixar to have segments featuring live-action characters.

Walt Disney Pictures released it in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008. The film grossed $23.2 million on its opening day, and $63.1 million during its opening weekend in 3,992 theaters, ranking number one at the box office. This ranks as the fifth highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film. Following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film, Presto, for its theatrical release.

WALL-E has been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews among critics, scoring an approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed $521.3 million worldwide, won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, the final Nebula Award for Best Script, the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards at the 81st Academy Awards. WALL-E ranks first in TIME's "Best Movies of the Decade".

WALL-E, besides being entertaining, is also seen as a critique on larger societal issues. This film addresses consumerism, nostalgia, environmental problems, waste management, and the immense impact that humans have on the earth. There is also a rather major overarching theme through this movie, which is issues of human nature, and the direction that the human race is headed.

Plot
In 2805, Earth is covered in garbage due to decades of mass consumerism facilitated by the megacorporation, Buy n Large (BnL). BnL evacuated Earth's population in fully automated star liners in 2105. Left behind were trash compactor Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class (WALL-E) robots, to clean the planet. Through years of neglect, most eventually broke down due to lack of maintenance. One WALL-E unit has managed to remain active by repairing itself using parts from other broken units, and after 700 years of life-experience has developed sentience. Apart from his regular duties, he inquisitively collected artifacts of human civilization, and kept these items in his storage truck home. He befriended a cockroach, and enjoys listening to Hello, Dolly!

One day, WALL-E discovers and collects a growing seedling plant. Later a spaceship lands and deploys Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator (EVE). She is an advanced robot sent from the BnL starliner Axiom to search for vegetation on Earth. Inspired by Hello, Dolly!, WALL-E falls in love with the initially cold and hostile EVE. WALL-E wishes to hold hands with her. EVE gradually softens and befriends him. When WALL-E brings EVE to his truck and showcases his collection, she sees the plant and automatically stores it, inside herself. She goes into standby mode waiting for retrieval from her ship. WALL-E spends time with EVE and tries to "reactivate" it using multiple methods while she is in standby mode, to no avail. When EVE's ship comes to collect her, WALL-E clings to the hull of the ship as it collects and returns EVE to the starliner Axiom.

On the Axiom, the ship's original human passengers and their descendants have suffered from severe bone loss and become morbidly obese after centuries of living in a low-gravity environment and relying on the ship's automated systems for most tasks. Captain B. McCrea, captain of the ship, mostly leaves control to the robotic autopilot, AUTO. WALL-E follows EVE to the bridge of the Axiom, where the Captain learns that the earth is habitable again by putting the plant in the spaceship holo-detector for verification. The captain plans for the Axiom to make a hyperjump back to Earth so the passengers can recolonize. However, AUTO orders McCrea's robotic assistant GO-4 to steal the plant as part of AUTO's own no return directive.

With the plant missing, EVE is considered defective and taken to the repair ward along with WALL-E. WALL-E mistakes the process on EVE for torture and tries to save her, but accidentally releases a horde of malfunctioning robots. The on-board security systems then designate both WALL-E and EVE as rogue. Angry with WALL-E's disruptions, EVE brings him to the escape pod bay to send him home. There they witness GO-4 dispose of the missing plant by placing it inside a pod which is set to self-destruct. WALL-E enters the plant's pod, which is then jettisoned into space. Fortunately he escapes with the plant before the pod explodes. Reconciling with EVE, they celebrate with a dance in space outside the Axiom. Meanwhile the Captain, learning from the ship's computer, has become fascinated about life on Earth before it was polluted and abandoned.

The plant is brought to the captain. He surveys EVE's recordings of Earth and concludes that mankind must return to restore their ruined home. However, AUTO reveals his directive, which was secretly issued to autopilots after BnL incorrectly concluded in 2110 that the planet could not be saved and that humanity should remain in space. AUTO stages a mutiny and tasers WALL-E, severely damaging him. He also incapacitates EVE and confines the captain to his quarters. EVE realizes the only parts for repairing WALL-E are in his truck back on Earth. She helps him bring the plant to the holo-detector. The presence of a plant in the detector will automatically activate the Axiom's hyperjump. Captain McCrea opens the holo-detector. While fighting with AUTO, chaos on the ship ensues. AUTO partially crushes WALL-E by closing the holo-detector on him. AUTO is eventually disabled by McCrea, who now takes control. EVE places the plant in the holo-detector which frees WALL-E and sets the Axiom on the instant hyperjump to Earth. The human population finally land back on Earth, after being away for hundreds of years

EVE brings WALL-E back to his home where she repairs and reactivates him. After the repair WALL-E no longer recognizes EVE, reverting to his original programming - an unfeeling waste compactor. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a farewell kiss, finally holding hands with him. This jolts WALL-E's memory, and his personality returns. WALL-E and EVE happily reunite as the humans and robots of the Axiom begin to restore Earth and its environment.

During the credits, slideshows through a series of artworks WALL-E and EVE are seen holding hands in front of a large tree, which is revealed to have grown from the tiny plant that brought humankind home.

Box-office performance
WALL-E grossed $223,808,164 in the USA and Canada and $297,503,696 overseas for a worldwide total of $521,311,860, marking it the ninth highest grossing film of 2008.

The film premiered at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 23, 2008.

In the USA and Canada, it opened in 3,992 theaters on June 27, 2008. During its opening weekend, it topped the box office with $63,087,526 which is currently the fifth-best opening weekend for a Pixar film and the fourth-best opening among films released in June. The movie earned $94.7 million in its first week and crossed the $200 million mark during its sixth weekend.

Countries where it grossed over $10 million are the following: Japan ($44,005,222), UK, Ireland and Malta ($41,215,600), France and the Maghreb region ($27,984,103), Germany ($24,130,400), Mexico ($17,679,805), Spain ($14,973,097), Australia ($14,165,390), Italy ($12,210,993) and Russia and the CIS ($11,694,482).

Accolades
WALL-E won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the 81st Academy Awards, which it lost to Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight and Milk, respectively. Walt Disney Pictures also pushed for an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination, but it was not nominated, provoking controversy as to whether the Academy deliberately restricted WALL-E to the Best Animated Feature category. Peter Travers commented that "If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for best picture it's Wall-E." Only three animated films, 1991's Beauty and the Beast and Pixar's next two films, 2009's Up and 2010's Toy Story 3, have ever been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. A reflective Stanton stated he was not disappointed the film was restricted to the Best Animated Film nomination because he was overwhelmed by the film's positive reception, and eventually "The line  is just getting so blurry that I think with each proceeding year, it's going to be tougher and tougher to say what's an animated movie and what's not an animated movie."

WALL-E made a healthy appearance at the various 2008 end-of-the-year awards circles, particularly in the Best Picture category, where animated films are often overlooked. It has won the award, or the equivalent of it, from the Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with Slumdog Millionaire), the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Central Ohio Film Critics awards, the Online Film Critics Society, and most notably the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award. It was named as one of 2008's ten best films by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

It won Best Animated Feature Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, 81st Academy Awards and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2008. It was nominated for several awards at the 2009 Annie Awards, including Best Feature Film, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Direction, Production design, Storyboarding and Voice acting (for Ben Burtt); but was beaten out by Kung Fu Panda in every category. It won Best Animated Feature at the 62nd British Academy Film Awards, and was also nominated there for Best Music and Sound. Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel won two Grammy Awards for "Down to Earth" and "Define Dancing". It won all three awards it was nominated for by the Visual Effects Society: Best Animation, Best Character Animation (for WALL-E and EVE in the truck) and Best Effects in the Animated Motion Picture categories. It became the first animated film to win Best Editing for a Comedy or Musical from the American Cinema Editors. In 2009, Stanton, Reardon and Docter won Nebula Award, beating The Dark Knight and the Stargate Atlantis episode "The Shrine". It won Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Director at the Saturn Awards.

At the British National Movie Awards, which is voted for by the public, it won Best Family Film. It was also voted Best Feature Film at the British Academy Children's Awards. WALL-E was listed at #63 on Empire's online poll of the 100 greatest movie characters, conducted in 2008. In early 2010, TIME ranked WALL-E #1 in "Best Movies of the Decade".