Every time a new Toy Story movie comes along, people think the beloved series is going to be milked one time too often, then they see it and decide ah OK this is actually brilliant and makes a perfect conclusion, rinse and repeat a few years later. The fifth instalment focuses on Bonnie struggling to make friends and the impact of screen time on kids’ creative ply (fairly weighty topics) and, well, I thought it was actually brilliant and makes a perfect conclusion. (See you here in 2034 for number six!)
As extraordinary as Randy Newman’s contribution to these films has been, when 5 was announced I didn’t really expect him to be returning. He hasn’t seemed to be in the best of health in recent years – now 82, he hasn’t released a studio album since 2017 or scored a film since 2019 – so what a delight it was when we found out that he was indeed returning for this one.
No new song from Newman this time, though – for the first time someone other than him was entrusted with coming up with one. Taylor Swift isn’t a bad option to be able to call upon, either (even the more fanatical film score devotees have probably heard of her) and her “I Knew It, I Knew You” (co-written by Swift and Jack Antonoff and heard over the first part of the end credits) is a very nice, fun song. I have to say it doesn’t quite get under the skin of the film like Newman’s songs do but it’s all perfectly pleasant.
What is interesting and different about Toy Story 5’s score compared with the previous four (and also a little ironic given this is the first time he hasn’t written a new song for one of them) is that some of Newman’s song melodies come to the fore as part of the score this time wrong – he hasn’t really done that before, beyond adapting “I Will Go Sailing No More” as a theme for Buzz Lightyear. And in particular this time the composer uses the melody from his quite exquisite “When She Loved Me” from the second film as a theme for Jessie the cowgirl – I wrote in my review of Toy Story 2 about what an extraordinary song that was, particularly in the context of how it was used in the film, and in its orchestral form as used here Newman is aiming for a similar emotional impact (and gets it).
First heard in this score in “Tire Swing Hill” where he mimics the orchestral arrangement of the original song, later it is incorporated into various cues near the film’s finale (even appearing as an action motif at one point). Alongside that cue, another emotional highpoint is “Calling Woody” which also briefly interpolates that melody but puts it against some trademark Randy Newman Americana, a surprising amount of melancholy on display,
“You’ve Got a Friend in Me” makes in appearance in the wonderful “Welcome Woody” (it’s amazing how rarely Newman has used it in any of the underscore for these films, given its iconic status – and what a joy it was seeing him and Swift perform it as a duet at the film’s premiere) and the aforementioned “Tire Swing Hill” also briefly features “I Will Go Sailing No More”.
There’s a new theme for Buzz in this score though – in fact, for an army of Buzzes. The opening score track “Buzzs” (sic) introduces it – a kind of play on “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” filtered through a Russian, maybe Eistenstein/Prokofiev homage – its striking because it’s a rare us of choir in any of these scores, and also because it’s just really great fun.
Other highlights include a western-inspired theme (recalling the earliest moments of the first score, in fact) in “Back Home”, a great piece of self-satisfied-sounding jazz in “Smarty Pants”, a gorgeous brass band feel in parts of “Blaze” (a lengthy cue which actually features loads of great features), the beautifully balletic “Bad News” and the rollicking action finale “Highway Robbery”.
There’s no doubt that the score just doesn’t have the non-stop energy of the previous four – while part of this is presumably a simple reflection of the composer getting older, part also seems to have been by design, with considerably more moments left over for reflection than has previously been the case. This does mean it has a slightly different feel, but there’s never any doubt that we’re firmly within Randy Newman’s Toy Story musical universe.
I make no apology for saying the same thing I always say about these – Newman’s great gift in these films has been his musical portrayal of joy. While others have come and gone from the filmmaking team, his constant presence is a real unifying glue that holds the whole thing together and rarely more than a few seconds of this score pass by without me breaking into another big grin. If this one really does turn out to be the last one then it’s quite the legacy he’s left here (and as a brief closing thought, how utterly extraordinary that for one weekend in 2026, the number one movie at the global box office featured a score by 82-year-old Randy Newman and the number two movie featured a score by 94-year-old John Williams).
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