Fred Willard's a part of the cast of Pixar's animated family comedy WALL-E, but he's not just lending his voice to an animated character. Willard actually appears onscreen in WALL-E as a real flesh-and-blood human. That's right. Willard is now part of the Pixar movie family, but he's not a CGI creation.

Willard plays Shelby Forthright, the CEO of Buy n Large Corporation. Buy n Large's plans for a 'great big beautiful tomorrow' didn't exactly turn out the way they advertised, and as Earth's overrun with trash, the humans have vacated the plant.

Meanwhile WALL-E, a robot designed to clean up, is left behind to carry on with his lonely job.

"As an actor I love it of course, because you don’t want to be anonymous," explained Willard about not taking on the part of an animated character in WALL-E. "I've done voices in movies. Actually I was in Monster House and I looked at my character they drew for me and I said, 'I like the character better than me. He's more expressive.' But it's fun to be the only person."

Shelby Forthright could be compared to a slick car salesman or a politician, but Willard found his inspiration for the character elsewhere. "I based him more on the pilot of an airplane. We get on an airplane and that very soothing voice, 'We'll be taking off very shortly. Flying time is 3 hours and 40 minutes. Get comfortable.' And then you sit a long time and something's up. 'This is your captain speaking. Unfortunately we have a little delay.' And then by the end it's, 'I have some bad news. We’re going back to the gate. The flight has been cancelled.

We should have you on another plane in no time.' That night you're in a cheap motel waiting to fly out the next morning. But that's it – that's his idea. Keep a good front, do the best they can. The pilot's even…everyone is doing the best they can but it's out of everybody's hands."

In the world of WALL-E, humans have transformed into basically big babies unable to do anything for themselves after decades of having everything done for them. The film also carries a message about taking care of our world before it's too late. Willard thinks both messages are important for kids. "If I was a kid and saw that I would say, 'This is what I want to stay away from.' They say our kids today are getting fat and I don't think so. I think kids today are more into sports. They all want to be football players, basketball players, baseball players, track stars. They're skiing. And I think this would show me as a kid, 'Oh you don't want to be that way. Get up off your rear end and get out and do something.' Now these poor people up in space weren't able to do that. But I think it should also be a subliminal message to kids who aren't that aware of nature yet, that they have to take care of what's there. You don't want to cut down trees. You build a house - leave the trees around your property. If you have to cut one down, plant another one. Stop paving over nice lawns and making parking lots. Conserve energy."

"I think it’s a wonderful movie," added Willard. "It teaches kids. Everyone should like it. Adults, I’m an adult. I loved it. I loved the space ship part of it where you get up there and see what they provide for people that they never have to move, they just mention something they want and it’s handed to them."