By BILL HIGGINS

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Wall-E on the red carpet at the film's premiere.

It was a case of space program wizardry meets Mouse wizardry when Pixar's "Wall-E" preemed Saturday at the Greek Theater.

This was one of those high-potential-for-logistical-nightmare preems at which Disney excels. The Greek was remade into a 2,000-seat outdoor movie theater; NASA Mars rovers lined the red carpet. After the screening, 30 vans shuttled guests up the hill to the Griffith Observatory for the party, which included a special setup of super-high magnification telescopes and a powerful spotlight that lit the Hollywood sign from miles away.

Outside on the observatory's lawn, helmer Andrew Stanton called his film "a sci-fi love story" that's distinct from other Pixar pics. "That's why you go to the movies: to see something different," said Stanton, who also directed "Finding Nemo." "I spend four years on these movies. I don't want to do them twice."

For his part, Pixar topper John Lasseter said, "Every Pixar film is different, but they all come from the same DNA."