Taylor Swift may have written one of Toy Story 5’s biggest new songs, but it turns out she was just as emotionally invested in the story as any longtime fan.
While appearing on Toy Story: 30 Years and Beyond, the singer revealed that one particular lyric from her original track, I Knew It, I Knew You, still gets her every time.
Swift wrote the song to help tell a new chapter in Jessie’s story, and one line carried extra weight.
“For Jessie, I feel like the line, ‘I watched you drive around the bend for what I thought would be the last time I saw my friend,’ that hits me really hard because that movie just broke my heart,” Swift said. “So I’m really happy to like, give her a happy moment.”
For anyone who spent years recovering from Jessie’s emotional backstory, Swift gets it.
The pop superstar also reflected on joining a franchise she has loved since childhood, calling the opportunity both surreal and deeply meaningful.
“I felt wonderful knowing that I had Randy [Newman]’s blessing to write for this film, given that I’m the first songwriter to get to partake in the Toy Story world outside of Randy,” Swift said. “I was absolutely dazzled by [the movie]. It is my favorite Toy Story movie. Don’t mind me, just really liked the movie.”
The secrecy around her involvement was so intense that even Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were caught off guard.
“They literally pulled us into a room and said, ‘Shut the door,’” Hanks recalled, while Allen joked, “I thought they were going to say, ‘Aliens are real.’”
For Swift, this wasn’t just another soundtrack credit. It was a chance to revisit a childhood favorite—and maybe give one beloved cowgirl the happy ending fans have been waiting for.
