L'homme-orchestre

Pixar's one man band get cacophonous when two buskers vie to get a gold coin from a little girl. The short story starts with an avuncular busker playing simple music with his trumpet, when he sees that a little girl is about to drop her coin in the fountain, perhaps for a wish. But he manages to lure her with his music and immediately pushes his bowl so that the coin goes into his pocket. Just when the girl reaches to drop the coin into the bowl, another violinist begins to play his instrument. This man is lanky and he plays his instrument mellifluously.

The war begins and the girl gets confused as both the buskers get more and more competitive. The ending is unexpected, and I'm glad Pixar didn't go for an emotional ending. The animation is quite vibrant and detailed for a short film and the humor is subtle. My rating: 7/10

The short is so wonderful! I can not remember in what movie this short is in, but even now I can still remember the short. The graphics is superb, with great attention to details to the characters and scenery. Kudos Pixar! Even thought he short is very short (thus the term short, d'oh), it is very entertaining. When I watched his short in the cinema, the crowd enjoyed this short very much that the cinema roared with laughter. It almost felt like watching your favorite team scored a goal in a football game.

This is an experiment by Pixar. There are other shorts made by the animation giant like the short about a group of birds sitting on an electric wire, and another short about a bear (or is a penguin? Sorry, can't remember what it is actually) wanting to and find his girlfriend but ended up trapped in the snow globe. Both are two examples of the shorts made. Sorry though, because I forgot both the titles to the shorts I mentioned above.

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.

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.

Highly recommended!

The 2 street musicians battle for money. And one little girl was wondering which one is better musician to give some tips.

And accidentally, she drops the coin in the hole. She was disappointed, so she begging money from them, but they don't have enough money so they gave one guitar to her.

She played the guitar so well and she could make more money than another musician.

The 2 musicians were expected to collect money from her but she throws coins into the pond. I enjoy watching this movie, thank you.