She gave us so many signs. For weeks, the early advertising for Disney’s upcoming fifth Toy Story movie has hinted at a Taylor Swift song on the soundtrack (or maybe some other involvement from the superstar), with “TS” billboards with 13 puffy white clouds popping up around the country.
On June 1 Swift’s website posted a countdown featuring a short animation of cowgirl Jessie, and by midday, we had our answer: Yup, she’s going for that best original song slot once again!
“It’s a *Toy* Story 🤠 You knew it! My new original song ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ for Disney and @pixar’s @toystory 5 will be yours on June 5th,” Swift shared on Instagram. “I’ve always dreamed of getting to write for these characters who I’ve adored since I was a 5 year old kid watching the first Toy Story movie. I fell instantly in love with Toy Story 5 when I was lucky enough to see it in its early stages, and I wrote this song as soon as I got home from the screening. Sometimes you just know, right?”
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It’s not a huge surprise, given Swift’s history with Disney (her Eras Tour movies and documentary series live on the Disney Plus platform) and Toy Story’s legacy. Unlike other Disney-Pixar franchises, it’s not a musical, but there’s a tradition of song-based storytelling, starting with Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and continuing with the Newman-Sarah McLachlan collaboration “When She Loved Me.”
At this point, we still don’t know what Taylor Swift’s “take” on Toy Story will be—is Jessie an Easter egg, or just the female face of the franchise? She and her big red hat are prominently featured in all three versions of the album artwork, so we’re betting she’s not incidental to the song. But we’ll have to wait and listen on Friday.
Elizabeth Logan
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