BURN·E (2008)

The adventures of BURN-E, a robot on the same ship as WALL-E and EVE. BURN-E's main job is fixing damaged machinery. He pretty much spends his entire day welding (hence his name). His daily routine is severely disrupted due to WALL-E and EVE's romance, as this causes all sorts of mishaps with the spaceship. Not only are his work and routine disrupted but one such mishap results in him being locked out of the spaceship. From there all manner of adventures ensue.Cute, sweet short, made in conjunction with the movie WALL-E (2008). A nice little add-on to that great movie. An interesting plot with a great punch-line at the end.

I first saw this short when I rented 'WALL-E' a few years ago and while it was initially forgettable apart from BURN-E being locked out, two further viewings since recently owning the film gave me a better understanding of what the short's about.Basically the short is about BURN-E's several failed attempts at fixing one of the exterior lights on the Axiom whilst taking place alongside different parts of the film in a similar manner to 'Jack-Jack Attack' tying in with various scenes in 'The Incredibles.' The opening shot of WALL-E running his hand through the rings of Saturn whilst clinging onto the ship destined for Axiom is beautiful as is the segment of WALL-E and EVE dancing in the sky to gorgeous music. Shortly afterwards they fly back inside the Axiom and cause BURN-E to be locked out, thus making it the best and most memorable part that ties in with the film. Not only was the sky-dancing music a treat to the ears but also BURN-E humming 'Song Of Joy/Ode To Joy,' which was used as the closing theme. I did find this short a tad rushed due to it taking place alongside several scenes of 'WALL-E,' but it has a lot of the same elements as the main feature and the usual metallic textures.Overall this is one of the best feature-related Pixar shorts that is only just above par with 'Dug's Special Mission' and 'Jack-Jack Attack.' 8.5/10 to round up to IMDb's 9/10 rating.

Having absolutely loved WALL-E, I was all for seeing the short film that came with it. Burn-E is just as good as the movie it featured with, and while not quite in the same league as Geri's Game, Knick Knack, Jack-Jack Attack, Presto and One Man Band, it is one of Pixar's better short films to me. The animation with beautiful colours and atmospheric backgrounds is amazing, the music is haunting and understated and the story has an enchanting atmosphere to it. Burn-E may be a one-joke short, but seeing as the joke itself is funny, it works brilliantly. Burn-E, like WALL-E, is not just endearing but there is a very human side to him which makes us identify with him all the more. In conclusion, beautifully animated and enchanting, this is a great short film and perhaps one of the better one-joke animations I've seen. 9/10 Bethany Cox

When an external light by a docking bay is reported as faulty, a Basic Utility Robot Nano Engineer (BURN-E) unit is dispatched to resolved the issues. It is a simple task that the robot is programmed for and is essentially the reason it exists, so it is a very straightforward job. However, with the arrival of Wall•E on the ship, a simple job immediately gets a lot more difficult than it should be.I saw this little film on the DVD of Wall•E, which I'm sure was the Christmas present of many kids this year and I'm equally sure that many adults were happy to buy it as the film is easily good enough for them to watch as well. The customary short film on Pixar releases generally picks up a side character from the main film and does a new story with them as the focus. In this case that is sort of true because the short actually looks back at the final third of the main film and essentially retells that but does it quickly and by focusing on a very minor character. That character is a robot we see being locked out by Wall•E and EVE after their dance in space. This device is clever to a degree but it didn't totally work for me as I did feel like it was giving me too much of the film again – but this was a problem that only came after I had thought about the film again because, during watching, it isn't an issue.The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, Wall•E is such a great film that I didn't really mind seeing clips from it again as part of this, but this is not the main reason it works. The main reason is the high quality of the new material. The joke is simple (robot is continually frustrated in his attempts to fix light) but it is played out very well by not just having simple pratfalls or physical humour. As with the main film, we are easily drawn to this little robot and the main "directing" computer that assigns him his task because of how well they have given them human characteristics. We see frustration, embarrassment and impatience (love the change in the action of handing Burn•E a new light pole) and they all make us recognise this character. As we are drawn to like him, we laugh more when the jokes come because we have been charmed into loving the film. Of course it helps that it is funny and indeed it is very funny right down to the punch line.A slightly different short from Pixar then, but not a lesser one by any means. It is charmingly delivered with the high standards of the main film and delivers several good laughs even though it is essentially one joke repeated. A welcome find on the DVD.