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What Is There Not To Like About Toy Story 4?

Music Press Asia: Disney/Pixar Toy Story 4. Why we can't do without Randy Newman?

Music Press Asia: Disney/Pixar Toy Story 4. Why we can't do without Randy Newman?

It would be hard to imagine another Toy Story production without Randy Newman.

Having watched “Inside Out” and “Up”, I began to loath excitingly about the latest release of Toy Story. Loath may even sound too modest a word to describe because of the nature of all Pixar’s film: they remind us all of the child in us and that nothing else matter and that love would conquer all. Not to forget the tears that come in all Pixar productions.

And although I haven’t been a Toy Story enthusiasts from the very beginning — it took me years to realize how prodigious and compelling the story line is — it was the sequel of an animated trilogy and music that finally broke the spell. We are lost for words, and here’s why.

It’s hard to imagine any Toy Story production without Randy Newman as he’d become synonymous with the story as much as the music he’d written. In the new Toy Story 4, Newman has written new materials (themes) for Duke Caboom, Bonnie and Gabby Gabby.

New songs are added to the film, titled “The Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy” and “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away”, the latter performed by Newman. The new version of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” was later released on June 21, 2019 with the film.

Featuring accordions and mandolins to represent Duke Caboom’s memories of rejection, Newman also wrote a “subordinate theme” for Forky, the spork that believed to hold a “trash” character rather of a “toy”.

Chris Stapleton’s version of “Cowboy” was released as a single on June 5, 2019. And all tracks including the film’s soundtrack are written and scored by Randy Newman.

Newman has scored nine Disney/Pixar feature films to date including Monsters [Inc. & University], Cars [1 & 3], Toy Story [1-4] and A Bug’s Life — and earned the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Toy Story 3’s “We Belong Together” and “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2.

In Rolling Stone’s Randy Newman: My Life in 15 Songs, Newman’s comment on “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”: “I have definitely found a place in animation. But I got typecast. I don’t get offered things like Out of Africa. I’d do them.”

Unfortunately, “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” was only nominated in 1996 in the Best Original Song category despite its worldwide popularity.

Randy Newman posed in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1975.
Photo credit: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Getty Images

For those who’d watched the very first Toy Story 24 years ago, you’ve probably been oblivious to the fact that Toy Story was part of an intense deal between Pixar and Disney; between the teams led by Steve Jobs (Pixar) and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s, Disney’s film division.

According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, the feud of who actually owns Toy Story and the master mind behind its striking story telling. The festering issues highlighted at its dueling premieres may briefly described the questions that was brought up: Was Toy Story a Disney or a Pixar movie? Was Pixar merely an animation contractor helping Disney make movies?

Toy Story’s success commercial success saw it recouped its cost, with a domestic opening of $30 million, beating Batman Forever and Apollo 13, with $362 million in receipts worldwide.

Cooley’s film tells the tale of deep meanings in relationships. Bleak in nature, its consistency following a trilogy of its characters, confidently sends a message of independence, courage and benevolence, is what makes this film a stellar series following great relationship values for every age and gender.

More details on Soundtrack credits, click here.

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