Textual Analysis: BURN-E

BURN-E is an accompanying short film for Disney Pixar's 2008 feature film WALL-E. Made by Angus MacLane who was lead animator on WALL-E, it tells the story of BURN-E, a maintenance robot whose day is interrupted and made very difficult becuase of WALL-E's presence. The film was added to the special feature's of WALL-E's DVD and Blu Ray release.

It is a short film typical of Pixar in that it focuses mainly on humour with a lighthearted storyline. It bandwagons on the success on WALL-E and therefore aims at the same audience of children and parents who helped WALL-E to gross $534 million worldwide. It could therefore be said to be in the Childrens Short Film Genre.

The narrative is linear and tells the story BURN-E. He's a maintence robot sent out to the edge of his ship to after a small rock breaks a light. BURN-E is given a replacement light which he begins to install until he is disrupted by WALL-E's pursuit of EVE. The clips of WALL-E and EVE are actual footage from WALL-E and are therefore quite rewarding to those with the cultural capital to recognise them. BURN-E loses the replacement bulb and then heads back to fetch another, only to again be disturbed when fitting it. He is distraught and angered at this and so he heads back for another replacement which is begrudingly given to him by SUPPLY-R. This time, BURN-E fits the light without a hitch, however when he attempts to re-enter the ship, WALL-E and EVE beat him to it and thus BURN-E is sealed outside. After a few attempts to get back in, we see a montage af shots which indicate temporal elipsis as BURN-E waits to get back in. Eventually, he realises that he can cut a hole in the door using a blowtoch and proceeds to do so. After travelling back to the robot which will allow him to turn on the light, BURN-E's story looks to be complete, however once again WALL-E's antics disrupt BURN-E's plans and make the entire ship begin to roll, sending BURN-E rolling uncontrolably back out to the light he just fixed. BURN-E is left clinging to the light until the captain puts the ship back on course and into hyperspace, which leaves BURN-E pinned to the hull. Eventually, the ship slows and lands on Earth so BURN-E heads back inside to finally reactivate the light. However he finds the ship is deserted and there is no sign of SUPPLY-R. To overcome this, BURN-E heads to the flight deck and uses a periscope to search for SUPPLY-R. He eventually finds him and uses an ejection pod to get down to him. He bursts out of the pod and goes to SUPPLY-R where he turns on the light and is ecstatic. However his joy in once again shortlived as the roof of the ejection pod he just got out of hits a light and breaks it again, causing BURN-E to faint to the floor in disbelief and anger.

It's is shot in a standard way, using general shots and editing to tell the story in a simple, accessible way for children. Because none of the robots talk, their body movements are exaggerated to tell their feelings and this works successfully to convey the story brilliantly. The body movements are combined with small soundbites of robot 'voice' which are basically one word repeated but in different tones to create the effect of emotions.

My interpretation of the film gave me the message that your actions always affect those around you, whether you are there to witness those effects or not. This is communicated by showing small clips of WALL-E but then large segments of BURN-E that show the effects of his actions. It's a wholesome message which is the sort of thing Disney Pixar is aiming for, given that they are targeting not just children, but the parents which pay for the children to go to the cinema or buy DVD's. Having this wholesome, apolitical and clean image means that parents will have no qualms about taking their children to see a Pixar film because they know it will not be rude or innapropriate.

In conclusion, I find BURN-E to be quite innovative in that it is neither prequel nor sequel to WALL-E but manages to recreate and add to the experience and storyline of it. It is shot genreically but not in a boring way and is mainly something to tack onto the DVD special features of WALL-E.