Having already paid tribute to the “incomporable” Randy Newman for creating “the Toy Story musical world” that she’s just become a part of, Taylor Swift has now performed with the great singer-songwriter at the premiere of the fifth film in the series.
Taking to the stage, Swift’s first surprise for theatre-goers was a solo rendition of I Knew It, I Knew You, her new song for Toy Story 5, during which she accompanied herself on the piano.
The piano then slid away, only to return with Newman playing it. “He is the king of making us feel the absolute most and pulling at our heartstrings and making us laugh,” said Swift as she introduced him. “He's one of our friends, you know what I mean?”
“Very kind of you,” said Newman in response. “Thank you for the kind words. I deserve them.”
He was being typically ironic, of course – “I don't deserve them,” he then said, as the audience chortled – but he sounded sincere in his appreciation of Swift’s addition to the Toy Story musical canon. “You did a hell of a song,” he told her.
He couldn’t leave without singing the classic Toy Story song, though, and Swift joined him as they performed You Got A Friend In Me together.
For Swift, this must have felt like a full circle moment. She says that she’s been watching Toy Story since she was a child – the first movie came out when she was just five years old, and she arrived clutching her very own VHS copy of it, which she had signed by stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, who voice Woody and Buzz.
