Imagine typing this phrase into a blank computer screen: “a bowl of soup that looks like a monster.” A few seconds later, a creature knitted out of wool—and bathed in soup—could be smiling at you.

“WALL-E” director Andrew Stanton on the film's arthouse origins and why it makes sense for the Pixar hit to be in the Criterion Collection. I always imagined that Hayao Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor Totoro” ...