L'homme-orchestre

One Man Band is simply one of the best shorts ever produced. The minute I saw it I was enchanted and knew I had found my favorite Pixar short to date. Pixar's meticulous attention to detail is conveyed in the brilliance of the story and the craftsmanship of the animation. The short plays like a silent film. No dialogue. Just pantomime. It tells the story of two street musicians trying to compete for the gold coin of a young peasant girl who just wants to cast it in the town square's wish fountain. A simple story told with lots of wit and humor. Plus, there's a twist. It doesn't end the way you think it will. As always, the animation is spot-on and very impressive. The character designs are so cute and appealing. The sound quality is top notch. And the surrounding Renaissance world is a feast of warm colors and visual beauty. It's funny, original, and clever. Proves the simplest ideas are often the best. If I have one complaint about One Man Band is that it isn't longer in length. I was hoping for more! Great addition to the Cars DVD!

After its final credits, it continuous in your mind. the music. the characters fight . the coin. the fountain. and the feel to be part of film yourself. because it is ( almost ) perfect. no reason to explain why. but the emotion and smile and the young woman who could be an old one, the clothes of performers and the musical instruments are so...lovely than the animation is more than great or amazing. its simplicity and the care for each detail transforms it in one of memorable story about music, competition and ...the wise choice.

Pixar, at least the preDisney Pixar, uses shorts as experiments. They've used them for new volume computation routines. Remember the birds squooshed together on a telephone line? Remember "Boundin'" which investigated the use of quickly changing space? This one is an amusement of course, they all are. But its reason to be what it is, is the opportunity to explore how characters define space. A problem with the type of 3D animation Pixar does is that the characters become harder. Their skin becomes more of an edge that separates them from their context. Human actors have ways around this. Digital puppets don't have this same possibility.

But they have others, and one of those is to be compound beings. But how to use this so the characters "read" well is unknown. So we have this experiment. As with all Pixar projects, its a triumph. Its more amazing when you know the problem they were solving.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Unfortunately, the theater's projection screen ruined the animation nuances -- strangely, "Cars" didn't suffer the same way. So this should be better suited to the DVD medium. Think of it as a high-tech nod to Melies.

As for the metaphor, it's a Pixar jab at the big studios. This is a reminder that little Pixar doesn't need frippery to succeed. The competition only offers bells and whistles; Pixar offers core values first. Notice that the 'big guys' don't understand why they haven't won the 'gold coin'.

Sadly, this is the end of Pixar as an uncompromising entity. The Disney deal will probably spell an inexorable slide into mediocrity.

This animated short film tells the story of two street musicians, who engage in a spectacular battle of skills to try to win a child's gold coin.

The film is fun to watch, as the two musicians do everything they can and more to win the coin. Yet, the outcome of the battle is perhaps predictable, but what happens after that is not what I can predict. It is an interesting tale with a twist at the end.