Toy Story 5 is already smashing Disney records — and Taylor Swift is why

Well, that escalated quickly. Taylor Swift wrote a new song for Toy Story 5 and it just blasted straight in at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. That is a first for any Disney animated or Pixar movie, ever. For a series that started with a cowboy and a space ranger arguing over shelf space, the fifth lap is already making new history before the opening credits even roll.

Jessie finally gets her song — and Disney gets a new kind of No. 1

Swift’s original track, 'I Knew It, I Knew You,' is built around Jessie — the cowgirl whose Toy Story 2 backstory still wrecks people on rewatch — and the song leans into Swift’s country roots with banjo and pedal steel. She co-wrote and co-produced it with Jack Antonoff, it dropped June 5, 2026, and it arrived with a video stuffed with clips from across the Toy Story series. Fans wondered if her involvement would just be a shiny headline attached to a sequel. Instead, the song turned into its own event.

The headline stat: it debuted at No. 1. Two other Disney songs have reached the top spot before — 'We Don’t Talk About Bruno' and 'A Whole New World' — but neither opened there. That’s what makes this one a first for Disney and Pixar.

• Song: 'I Knew It, I Knew You' (Taylor Swift), inspired by Jessie
• Creative team: Co-written/co-produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff
• Release: June 5, 2026, alongside a franchise- spanning music video
• Debut: No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the first Disney/Pixar film song to open at No. 1
• Context: Only two other Disney film songs have hit No. 1 at all — 'We Don’t Talk About Bruno' and 'A Whole New World' — and neither debuted there
• First-week momentum: 27.2 million official streams and 46.7 million in radio audience impressions

Hanks and Allen are back — even if they don’t record together

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen hit Good Morning America to talk Toy Story 5 and, yes, the band is back together. Allen admitted he wasn’t sure about coming back after the emotional endpoints of the last two movies — especially Toy Story 4 — but ultimately signed on. The reasoning tracks: if the story has somewhere honest to go, you go.

'I loved (Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4) was, it was just so intense,' Allen said.

They also shared a peek at their very unglamorous, very normal process: Hanks said he often closes his eyes in the booth to picture Woody, Jessie, and the gang instead of the mic and the walls — and despite decades of onscreen chemistry, he and Allen usually record their lines separately. Not shocking if you’ve followed animation, but still a fun reminder of how the sausage gets made.

The new threat isn’t a villain — it’s a tablet

Story-wise, the fifth film pulls Woody, Buzz, and Jessie back into the same orbit and throws a modern problem at them: Bonnie’s new electronic tablet, Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee. It’s not evil; it’s just dangerously good at stealing a kid’s attention. That tech-versus-toys angle feels very 2026 in a way Toy Story hasn’t really tackled head-on before.

Pixar has the movie locked for June 19 theatrical release, which means the franchise is rolling into summer with a rare Billboard milestone already in its pocket. The question now is whether the film can match the music’s moment. Honestly? The setup is there.