BURN-E

How many Pixar animators does it take to change a light bulb? Thousands, apparently …
Normally I wouldn’t review an 8-minute short here, but this is special. It’s included on the DVD of WALL-E (or at least on the version I bought, which is the 3-disc edition; it’s on the first disc, with the feature), a little bonus for the buyer. And it is absolutely brilliant. BURN-E is a little robot character you glimpse a few times during the feature film, carrying out some chore around the gigantic spaceship where the elephantine remnants of humanity live, just one of thousands and thousands of such specialized robots. An extra, in other words. This is his humble story. What he’s doing, we quickly learn, is replacing a burned-out light bulb on the exterior of the ship. (Hey, we’re not all cut out to be big-shot navigators; somebody’s got to do maintenance.) He is very dedicated to his work, very conscientious. We quickly begin to root for the industrious little bugger. Then what happens is, we see scenes from the movie, only from BURN-E’s point of view. He has no idea what’s going on, he’s just trying to change the fercocketa light bulb, but all the ruckus is thwarting him every time. He loses the bulb into outer space. He gets locked out. He … well, I won’t give it all away, but he keeps persevering all the way back to distant Earth, and the ending just made me howl. I’m not kidding, it’s worth buying the DVD just for this short, even if you hadn’t intended to get it for the pleasure of seeing WALL-E again. Plus, there’s another animated short about a hungry rabbit and a magician and two magical hats …