On...TS x TS

At this point, I think it's safe to say that something is happening between Taylor Swift and Pixar.

Which, if you know  anything about me at all, you know that I'm full on fangirling over here.

An official Taylor Swift x Disney collaboration? cue Lizzie McGuire music

With the benefit of hindsight, this isn't the biggest surprise. After all, Disney+ was the exclusive home to the Eras Tour concert -- and that was before Taylor also released the Eras Tour documentary and updated tour with the TTPD setlist on the streaming platform.

Then, in April 2026, American Idol -- while the show originally aired on FOX, it moved to ABC, owned by Disney, in 2018 -- had its first ever Taylor Swift night.

[Sidebar: I don't watch American Idol anymore, but I did love Rolling Stone's recap of the night, as Rob Sheffield -- with a delightful amount of not-so-subtle snark -- pointed out:

The show was a tribute to Swift’s strength as a singer — her timing, her guile, her intricacy — and watching these talented amateurs attempt her catalog just showed how tricky her melodies are.

Ah, vindication to all the haters who, in Taylor's own words, spend so much time "grumbling on about how [she] can't sing"...

Back to the point.

All of this to say: there has been evidence of an increasingly strengthening relationship between Taylor Swift and Disney over the past few months and as a professor who literally teaches courses on BOTH OF THOSE TWO THINGS in a single semester, I am here for it.

I. The Evidence So Far

I'm not going to spend a ton of time / textual space on this, mainly because a quick social media and/or internet search can easily get you plenty of results. I highly recommend Jojo a.k.a. @swiftieinkc's IG account, because her posts are (1) grounded in evidence and (2) an excellent balance of Swiftie-fandom and factual reasoning.

1. The Countdown

Let's start with the mysterious countdown -- the most convincing piece of evidence IMO.

I took this screenshot a few weeks ago after watching a TikTok / reel where the creator was like, "I don't think its Toy Story; I'm sorry, guys. She's not using the New York Times like songwriters interview for Toy Story 5." And I think I saw another one where the creator basically said "those are not the Toy Story clouds."

And...as someone who literally teaches Disney/Pixar movies and ANALYZING them for a living, I was screaming into the social media void that they were absolutely the same.

Are there slight differences? Of course. The Pixar clouds look a little fatter, a little rounder, a little squatter.

Taylor's version (see what I did there?) of the clouds are a little taller, maybe a little squished in.

But from a design perspective, yeah. They're the same.

And what matters even more -- from an IP / copyright perspective, they're the same. Like, if you draw clouds for clipart or a doodle or something, you're probably not going to draw the Toy Story cloud with the flat "bar" on the left-hand side and the same exact poofy pieces. (I know, I know. I'm not an art person and don't have that vocabulary.)

The point is, Taylor Swift's team would not "accidentally" use those clouds.

2. The "Wizard of Oz" Outfit One of the things I quickly learned after I started teaching Taylor's Version, is how much Taylor Swift will "egg" things -- how often -- ingeniously -- she will hint at / tease / lay the groundwork for future projects not only in her social media posts, but most notably in her fashion choices for her "public" appearances (when she "lets herself" be photographed by the paps and doesn't, you know, hide in a box or behind a wall to avoid them.)

For the past few weeks, we've gotten several of these appearances, which as my favorite veteran Swiftie accounts are quick to point out, usually means ✨something✨ even if we don't know what it is.

On April 27, we got this ensemble ➡️ ➡️ ➡️.

I initially thought it was very Wizard-of-Oz-coded: the blue dress, red shoes, yellow (brick-road) handbag.

There were so many social media posts & articles about the possible eggs here. Vogue pointed out she was recreating her engagment look.

People pointed out that there were flowers and a bee on the purse, which could be a nod to "Honey" -- thought to be about / for Travis, and a sweet nod for a date night fit.

Others thought the horse-shoe necklace was a subtle now to her country roots (horseback riding...cowboys?) and a possible egg to the release of Taylor's Version of her first album.

And maybe the horseshoe necklace was the crucial piece.

What if it was a subtle nod not to country music in general, but to a specific cowboy?

One who's known for his friendship with one Bzzzz Lightyear -- represented by the bee on the bag?

All of those things may be true.

But, on a simpler, color-theory level, she's literally wearing the color scheme for the franchise.

Also, please note the design aesthetic / logo here, because that will come into play later. Specifically, this is how Disney/Pixar advertise the movie -- specifically, "Toy Story 5."

Up until yesterday, I don't think people were fully convinced that there was a collab between the two. (Maybe the Disney Adults did.) There were lots of people insisting that Taylor Swift would "never sink to the level of a Disney movie" (like, what? Like being involved with a Disney movie is a step down from anything? BEYONCE WAS NALA IN THE LION KING, SHARON.)

And, as Disney/Pixar starts doing press for the movie, the producers even addressed these rumors. Andrew Staunton (king that he is), though, said this:

The sad truth is, we watched the movie being mixed last week, done, and the song on the end of that was not Taylor Swift’s song.

Which...is an oddly specific way to phrase that response, you know? Almost as if they were being very intentional about what they said / did not say...

3. Current Day

   So, here we are: May of 2026. Notably, yesterday was May 30, the one-year anniversary of Taylor Swift's announcement that she owned her own music again -- a day which many people suspected ✨something✨ would happen. Lo, and behold, these billboards started popping up:

Now, the fact that these are ads for a Pixar film is undeniable:

• This is from the official Pixar & Toy Story account

• Disney / Pixar are clearly featured on the billboards

• And those are, as we've established, the Toy Story clouds.

But, here's where things get interesting:

• There are 13 clouds on every single billboards -- even when you change the orientation or the sizing. (And 13 is, of course, Taylor Swift's lucky number.)

• Also -- let's go back to the branding of the movie. This is NOT how Toy Story markets its films. On all the promotional marketing materials -- especially for THIS film -- it's "Toy Story 5."

I mean, just look at their Instagram account:

You can clearly see the difference in this "new" marketing design versus the traditional one.

New: The "T" and the "S" are side by side, equal sizes.

Traditional: The word "toy" is always in yellow letters outlined in blue, above the word "story" which is always yellow letters on a red background, above the number 5.

We are definitely meant to see these as two similar, but not identical, promotions.

Then last night we got this, not-really-final, but definitely key, piece of the puzzle:

It's the same stylized billboard, with the clear TS -- only this time we've added a dancing Jessie to the bottom.

The key here?

The caption: "She's making those moves up as she goes."

Which...is undeniably a reference to "Shake It Off," from Taylor Swift's 1989.

Or, as it's known among Swifties: TS5.

Because while Pixar doesn't have a history of marketing Toy Story films as "TS#," Taylor Swift definitely does -- people are speculating now about TS13, and before we knew the name, The Life of a Showgirl was known as TS12 (and so on, and so forth).

Which makes ✨perfect✨ sense, because as @swiftieinkc pointed out, Taylor Swift has "TS" copyrighted. So Disney/Pixar would absolutely NOT be using TS casually or unintentionally.

II. What Does It All Mean?

Which brings us to the current question : what does all of this mean?

The only thing we know with relative certainty, is that there is not a Taylor Swift song playing over the end credits of Toy Story 5 (at least, according to Andrew Staunton. But then again...it's a well-known PR tactic for someone to deny something even when they know the opposite to be true. For example: please enjoy Andrew Garfield repeatedly denying he's in Spiderman: No Way Home when, in fact, he absolutely was.)

Taken in my car, this morning ☁️

The one thing that has remained constant is this connection between Toy Story 5 + Taylor Swift + TS + Clouds. All over music streaming platforms, we're seeing little nods to this, which many content creators have covered. For example, the cover of 1989 famously features seagulls: those seagull have now been replaced with -- you guessed it -- clouds.

Does this mean that this is specifically related to 1989 -- as in, a song from that album will be featured in the film?

I don't think so.

I think all the attention being placed on this album is just for the connection to TS5 -- drawing a link between Taylor Swift and Toy Story.

So. What are we getting, then?

I do think it's somewhat likely that Taylor Swift could be doing a featured cameo. We know that Bad Bunny is doing one, for example.

But I don't think that's it. This type of all-in synergistic campaign wouldn't be for just a voice-over.

My likely guess is that we're getting an ✨original✨ song, that will be featured -- not over the end credits -- but during an emotional moment of the film.

Here's why:

• When I think of Toy Story + music -- I immediately think of Toy Story 2, and the song "When She Loved Me." This song was written by iconic Toy Story composer Randy Newman and performed by Sarah McLachlan.

• That song is at the emotional heart of the film: when Jessie is telling Woody about how her original owner outgrew her.

• Notably, the song won a Grammy for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media." This isn't super important, though, because Taylor already has buckets of Grammys.

• Also notably, the song was ALSO nominated for a Golden Globe AND an Oscar for "Best Original Song." It lost -- both -- to Phil Collins' "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan. (So again -- I don't wanna hear any slander about artists "slumming it" for Disney. FR.)

• If Taylor Swift wants to be an EGOT winner, she'll need an Oscar to do that -- and this could be a strong chance for her to do so. (It's not a guarantee by any means; Lin-Manuel Miranda has written so many songs for Disney and still keeps getting beat out. The aggressive marketing campaign could be an effort for that.)

• I don't think the song will be Jessie coded -- since we've already done that -- but I do think it's possible that the song could be focused on ✨Bonnie's✨. From the trailer, it seems like the film focuses on her struggles as she grows up -- and seems to be navigating new spaces and issues with friends; peak-early-Taylor-Swift vibes!! -- which seems Taylor-made for a Swiftian song.

• And as @swiftieinkc pointed out, the hypothetical song that Taylor mentioned in the NYT interview, talks about almost exactly that.

So, yes. My money is on a Taylor Swift song included in the film.

• I think it's likely she and Randy Newman could have collaborated together, writing a completely original song --or--

• It's also possible that Taylor brought him an unfinished / draft version of song from the Debut vault and they revised it together.

• Regardless, I do think it's also highly likely that this song -- whatever it is -- will be included on the Debut (Taylor's Version) when that drops (and I think it will be soonish).

• After all, "When She Loved Me" is literally described as "a pop song with light country influences" and...

• ...perhaps most importantly, all the TS marketing specifically does NOT say TS5 -- it's not drawing our attention to TS5 -- either the film (Toy Story 5) or the album (1989). It is specifically referencing TS -- the original, the first. Not the film, of course, but perhaps the album -- the original Taylor Swift.

Either way, I am ✨over the moon✨ about two of my favorite brands working together and the almost certain possibility that we'll be getting new Taylor Swift music. ✨whispers in delusional Swiftie...please let it be Debutation, please let it be Debutation...✨