Director(s): Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews
Date Released: 2005
Theatrically Released Alongside: Cars in 2006
That girl is diabolical.
Creativity thrives throughout One Man Band, with the animators probably having a field day designing all the short’s unique mechanisms and facial designs. A street performer named Bass (Pixar bringing back the names) notices a local girl about to drop a gold coin in the town square’s fountain. He beckons the girl, named Tippy, over and plays for her—gesturing to an iron cup made for tips. Just as Tippy’s about to tip Bass (the genius of Pixar naming), another performer named Treble shows up—playing a superior song which redirects Tippy’s attention (gold coin still in hand). Frustrated, Bass one-ups his performance, only for Treble to do the same. A vicious competition erupts between the two, causing the frightened Tippy to accidentally drop her coin into a drain. In a surprisingly dark turn, Tippy furiously demands retribution, taking one of Treble’s violins and Bass’ iron cup. After some fine-tuning, Tippy begins playing at a professional level, prompting a passing stranger to drop a large bag of gold coins in the iron cup. Tippy proceeds to offer false generosity—two gold coins—to the eager performers, before tossing them into the highest, unreachable part of the fountain. The end credits reveal the two performers up all night, vainly trying to reach the coins.
Alongside The Incredibles, One Man Band showcases Pixar’s mastery over animating humans. The character’s facial features are expressive and detailed, revealing their thoughts through non-verbal communication. One Man Band takes it a step further in creativity, using instruments to further illustrate exchanges. When Bass sees young Tippy about to throw her coin into the fountain, he issues a loud instrumental noise with his one-man band—“wait!”—before two short, yet deeper blows, “come over, come over.” Bass’ facial expression looks pleading, and the viewer can tell he’s in desperate need of money. Treble has artistic arrogance written all over him, believing his musical skills far superior to Bass’ (despite being relatively even in talent). When Bass tries (fruitlessly) to overtake him in pizzazz, Treble briefly head shakes in snobbish disgust, swiftly, yet elegantly, returning to his piece. The animators get creative with the crazy additions both performers have in their one-man bands: Bass has a device which creates over a dozen mini trumpeters (all performing), while Treble can mechanically play ten violins at once.
It’s the young girl Tippy who has the best expressions, as well as the most surprises. The supposed innocent girl turns out not so innocent after losing her coin—brow furrowing against her unusually dark, purple eyes. Her face becomes stuck in a permanent frown, glaring up once at the performers while tuning the violin, as if daring them to say something patronizing. After adjusting the violin a second time (professional thoughtfulness written across her face), she begins playing beautifully—her expression instantaneously changing to joyful at the dropped bag of gold coins. My only gripe with One Man Band is its rather mean-spirited ending; yes, both performers get a little over-competitive, but they hardly deserve Tippy’s unnecessarily cruel taunt (after all, they’re both just trying to make ends meet). Nevertheless, One Man Band is an enjoyably expressive short, thriving on creativity to tell a fun, dark comedy.