Burn·E

The next short, in the "Shorts" section on Disney Plus is "Burn-E", which was originally produced to be a DVD extra for "Wall-E" and that takes place on the same ship, at a parallel time to the events in that film.

Burn-E, a maintenance welding droid on board the Axiom Starship, is tasked with fixing an exterior sensor on the hull. Eager to please, he sets off but is distracted by Wall-E's actions further up the ship and is loses his replacement sensor overboard. His further attempts to complete this basic task and return to the ship are repeatedly but accidentally thwarted by the actions of Wall-E and Eve.

Some of the shorts in this section of Disney Plus have perhaps felt like deleted scenes that have been given a lick of paint, but this does give the impression that it was a specifically designed side story, written to interact with certain moments from the main film and in that regard, in every regard in fact, it's utterly charming. It's clever, how it weaves the problems of this little robot around the bigger narrative and funny, how the reactions of this machine can be so expressive and adorable.

As I say, this "shorts" section has been a mixed bag, but this was excellent stuff.

While Wall-E is chasing Eve around the space ship, as told in the Pixar movie of that title, what else is going on? That's a big ship, filled not only with enormous, lazy humans, but lots of robots working hard to make them happy and to keep the place running. This short subject form Pixar tells the story of Burn-E, a welding robot aboard that ship, who has to deal with all the problems that Wall-E creates.

Well, he has to try, anyway, because that's his job. He's assiduous about doing his job, even when it becomes impossible.

Animated in the same style as the feature, this excellent short cartoon first saw light as an extra on the DVD release of WALL-E.

With seven and a half minutes of duration, "Burn-E" was directed by Angus Mac Lane, and tells the story of an unlucky robot who tries to change a light bulb on the Axiom ship. WALL-E pursuit of EVE causes problems for a welding repair robot (Angus Mac Lane)... Cute... If BURN-E, a robot welder, had known how much work he would have because of WALL-E and EVE, he would have taken the day off...

Despite remembering very little, almost nothing of the original Wall-e, I watched it a long time ago, however this cult is so nice to watch, that we are left with a taste of wanting more, I watched it at my goddaughter's company who also adopted... good, very good... Cute...

Produced as a DVD extra for the movie Wall-E. This gives the animator to make a spin off short and have an excuse to feature scenes from Wall-E.

BURN-E is a small repair robot. When an external light is faulty, BURN- E goes to repair it but at each attempt he is thwarted by the arrival of WALL-E or the chaos he creates.

The makers do well in giving BURN-E personality in such a short space of time when there is a danger of the character being constantly upstaged by the appearance from WALL-E and the footage from the parent film. Children will of course find this short animation fun.

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