"Wall-E" probably needs no help to win next year's Oscar for best animated feature, but the adorable robot just got a nice boost. The New York Daily News reports that, although he's an android made of metals and plastic, Wall-E is based upon a real person. Two people, actually.

Writer-director Andrew Stanton confessed that Wall-E is based upon Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

"We looked at everything those guys did," Stanton said. "We watched a Chaplin film and one of Keaton's at lunch every day for almost a year until we saw their entire body of work. We walked away thinking there's almost no emotion you can't convey visually. It gave us the courage to take a risk to get it across: If those guys did it, we could too."

That's significant because Oscar voters adore portrayals anchored in reality, of course. Consider just the lead-actress race over the past nine years. Seven winners assumed the identities of real gals: Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose" (2007), Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II in "The Queen" (2006), Reese Witherspoon as June Carter in "Walk the Line" (2005), Charlize Theron as Aileen Wournos in "Monster" (2003), Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" (2002), Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich in "Erin Brockovich" (2000) and Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry" (1999). The two exceptions: Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball," 2001) and Hilary Swank ("Million Dollar Baby," 2004) portrayed fictitious folks.

"Wall-E," which opens this Friday, probably doesn't need an Oscar push, considering it's from Pixar studio. Over the seven-year history of the academy contest for best animated feature, Pixar has won three times ("Ratatouille," "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo") and lost only twice ("Cars" was surpassed by "Happy Feet" and "Monster's Inc." got squashed by "Shrek").

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