Musically-speaking, treble and bass represent the opposite high and low ends of audio pitch. The parable hopes for an end to competition as the genesis of beautiful music. Your rival can’t simultaneously be your spouse, parent, or child. The desire to be right or the need to assert your identity will ultimately kill any relationship (or church, for that matter!).
Instead of playing a sweet sonata or a hearty march, their combined melody sounds like “ Dreams of a Witches’ Sabbath.” What’s true of the short is true of life in general: any relationship containing competition will eventually end in defeat. Instead of musicians holding instruments, they become brutes wielding weapons. The desire to win consumes each so that they can no longer recognize themselves or their surroundings. The struggle between Bass and Treble frightens the girl, losing the coin (and a violin) in the process. What we find in this short animated film is a simple, but powerful parable about the destructive nature of competition. They no longer try to charm the young girl with pleasant music, but each tries to outshine the other. Without realizing it, each performer has turned away from the girl and only look at each other. The simple struggle over a single coin quickly escalates into a war.
With his fancy strings Treble wins the young girl away from Bass. His light-hearted tune is interrupted by a new performer named Treble. A street performer, “Bass,” tries to persuade a young girl to give him her only coin. The plot of “One Man Band” is fairly straightforward.
For further reading, see our book The Gospel According to Pixar. Since most of our posts on the studio have focused on its feature-length output, we figured it was time to highlight one of their brilliant vignettes, “One Man Band” (video below). In case you haven’t noticed, we at Mockingbird happen to be big fans of Pixar.
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