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 WallE 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 WallE, 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 WallE 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, WallE 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 BurnE 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.
I saw this little film on the DVD of WallE, 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 WallE 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, WallE 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 BurnE 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.