One Man Band (2005)

Directed by: Andrew Jimenez, Mark Andrews | 4 minutes | animation, short film

Prior to the full-length Pixar film ‘Cars’, the original and funny animated short ‘One Man Band’ could be admired. A great fun movie, not least because of the way in which music is an integral part of the story, and also provides the atmosphere of the movie, but the downside of the screening for ‘Cars’ is that that movie – the main movie, which should be the focus of most attention – inevitably disappoints. This has to do with the mediocre quality of the feature film on the one hand, and the fresh approach and strong execution of the short film on the other.

‘One Man Band’ has a fairly simple idea, which has been worked out in an exuberant, smashing way. Moreover, the simplicity of the idea is exactly what is needed for the right tone of the film, and such an idea is not always quickly or easily conceived. For a long time it was the intention of the makers of the film to eventually bring the two competing one-man bands together, with the idea – and as Bert Haanstra already showed in ‘Fanfare’ – that only when these two competing musicians come together, really beautiful and harmonic music is created. A nice thought, and a concept that the makers tried to come back to time and time again. But as much as they tried, they just couldn’t get this idea funny. Harmony is simply not funny. It’s only fun when things go wrong and someone has the last laugh. However simple the idea of ​​’One Man Band’ may eventually seem, it has been preceded by some brain activity. And the resulting choice of story flow turned out to be the right one.

The original idea can still be found in the music band. When the two bands are frantically playing against each other, the viewer, or listener, hears that it’s the same melody, and that it sounds quite funny together, especially because it involves different instrument groups and styles – the one big band, with many wind instruments and drums; and the other mainly string instruments, with the occasional piano.

The way they conjure up more and more instruments to overwhelm the little girl with her coin is comical and interesting, but especially the little girl herself makes the film a great success. How she keeps getting enchanted by then one band and then the other, with her big eyes and cheerful smile, is very contagious. But the best moment happens when she drops her coin through the overconfident one-man bands and rolls it into a well. At first she is sad, then angry, with an expression on her face that is priceless. Angry, she stretches out her arm and holds out her hand, (non-verbally) begging the two musicians for money. When they have nothing, she demands an instrument to earn money herself and put the two one-man bands on their own.

‘One Man Band’ may not always be hilarious, but with its attractive integration of music in the film, the fun central idea, and the different emotions that the girl shows, it is an absolute hit.