Bass, a skilled and proud street performer, plays a routine tune on his wind and percussion instruments in a deserted Italian village square in the afternoon, waiting for a pedestrian to tip him in his rusty iron cup. Soon, he spots Tippy, a humble peasant girl clutching a big gold coin, intending to drop it in the large plaza fountain to make a wish. Bass, seizing the opportunity, immediately plays an impromptu piece, capturing the girl's attention.

Just when Tippy is about to drop the coin into Bass's cup, a newcomer steps onto the scene. Treble, a suave and flamboyant street performer, plays a more attractive tune on his string instruments, effectively stealing Tippy's attention, much to Bass's anger. Not to be outdone, Bass ups his ante, and Treble dares to take it even further. As the two unleash their arsenal of musical weapons, vying for Tippy's attention (or rather, tip), she cowers in their wild musical cacophony, and in the process, accidentally drops her coin, which falls down a drain and is lost in the village sewers.

Heartbroken, Tippy sniffles, but angrily demands from Treble and Bass a replacement coin for the one they made her lose. When they come up empty-handed, Tippy takes one of Treble's violins and Bass's iron cup in an attempt to get her money back by playing solo. She tunes the violin and plays it like a true virtuoso, prompting a unidentified passing pedestrian to drop a large bag of gold coins onto her cup.

Elated, Tippy hugs the bag and approaches the fountain, but not before she pulls two coins out of her bag and tempts Treble and Bass. But as they eagerly reach out to grab the coins, she tosses them into the top of the fountain, out of reach, much to their dismay as payback for their fighting over Tippy's earlier coin.

In a post-credits scene, it is nighttime, with Treble standing on Bass, trying to reach the coins. As they start to fall backward, the short film ends.

Beginning development shortly after the completion of the superhero movie The Incredibles, One Man Band was directed by Andrew Jiminez and Mark Andrews, who had previously worked together on films such as The Iron Giant and Spider-Man.^[4] In late 2004, they were approached by Ed Catmull and asked to visit his office; according to the duo, they were initially concerned about the implications of this, but were later relieved after Catmull requested that they begin working on a brand new short film for Pixar.^[4] Jiminez and Andrews decided to create a film centered around music, a subject which they were both decidedly passionate about, and began developing a story about two musicians quarreling over the donation of a young peasant girl. The short was pitched to Pixar CEO John Lasseter and The Incredibles director Brad Bird, who quickly accepted the film for production.^[4]

The violinists featured in the score for the film are:

• Clayton Haslop ("Treble")
• Mark Robertson ("Tippy")

The score was recorded at the Paramount Scoring Stage in Hollywood, CA. The filmmakers used a 38-piece orchestra as well as several soloists, including the ones listed above.^[5]

The music during the credits is Pablo de Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen.

The film debuted on June 11, 2005, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France.^[6] It was shown with the theatrical release of Cars,^[7] which was released in the United States on June 9, 2006. In 2017, One Man Band was re-released with Cars in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, IMAX 3D and 4DX formats.

Pixar included the film on the DVD release of Cars in 2006 and as part of Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1 in 2007.

• Official website
• One Man Band at IMDb