One Man Band is Pixar’s eighth short film which was once again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and rightfully so as it is their return to form after their previous lackluster effort ‘Boundin’.
It is about two street performers who try to win over a little girl with their music in order to get her coin. It quickly becomes a fierce competition between the two only to result in bad consequences. And that is the only problem I had with it storywise – the girl was too harsh to them at the end. It just made her unlikable and very mean. Yes, it is a funny conclusion, but it was still too much in my opinion. But otherwise, it is a very well crafted plot that is riveting from its start to finish. It has a very different and unique setting in its depiction of Italian square and it was for the most part very funny and dramatically played out.
The characters are good. The two musicians are excellent and their competition is very entertaining to watch. The girl is very sweet in the beginning, but rather evil in the end. And as for its technical aspects, the animation is absolutely gorgeous and the animators perfectly brought to life its square setting with great mood colors and of course terrific character design that is once again incredibly realistic in its approach. But the biggest problem I have with it is that, just like ‘Tin Toy‘, it doesn’t have any music whatsoever when the two aren’t playing and that just was weird and to me never appealing whatsoever.
One Man Band has some troubles including the lack of soundtrack at times and the girl in the end is too mean, but it is still a very funny and very dramatic film that perfectly sets the mood of the story with its charming plot and exquisite animation.
One Man Band Review
