★★★★☆
Cast your mind back about 31 years to the mid-1990s, if you can, and you might recall a time of Nintendo 64s, The Spice Girls, Myspace – and a little film called Toy Story.
It was this sense of warm nostalgia that sprinkled charm across a packed QPAC Concert Hall on Saturday night, as QPAC and Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) presented Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story in Concert.
The audience spanned music lovers of all ages keen to experience the musical brilliance QSO is renowned for. And what an enchanting escape it was.
Led by charismatic conductor Nicholas Buc, QSO performed Oscar® and Grammy®-winning composer Randy Newman’s Toy Story film score with mischief and precision.
The 1995 film screened in its entirety above the stage, offering a stunning juxtaposition of movie and musicians. The musicians’ delight at the interplay between Woody and Buzz Lightyear, on screen and in the underscore, was evident in their lively playing. Children and adults laughed, gasped, and cheered throughout. The atmosphere was celebratory.
As the first full-length, 3D computer-animated movie, Toy Story was ahead of its time. A collaboration between Disney and Pixar, the filmmakers strived to create characters that were authentic, layered, and relatable.
Woody has a fear of being replaced. Anxieties plague Rex the Tyrannosaurus. Buzz grapples with his identity. These quirks and personalities resonated with audiences around the world; children and adults alike across the last 30+ years have clicked with the characters. The secret hope that toys come to life is instantly recognisable.
The soundtrack was just as progressive, too. Buc said in his introduction that, at the time, people expected a standard musical soundtrack to accompany the film. But composer Randy Newman had other ideas.
He wanted a score woven through the movie that contributed to the storytelling. An ever-present force for the characters as they grow and squabble and ultimately succeed.
The result was a spritely underscore, alongside standout hit You’ve Got a Friend in Me, played with frenetic energy and playfulness by the talented QSO musicians. Across brass and woodwind, strings and percussion, the full orchestra played with technical precision.
Having never been to a QSO performance before, it was enormous fun getting lost in watching the full orchestra – only to remember the film was playing, too. It added a humanness, a joy, to the experience that you don’t get from watching it on a TV screen.
In 1996, the soundtrack was released (in a pre-streaming world) on cassette and CD. It was wonderful to see how it has endured through time and across generations.
The voices of children singing along while the credits rolled (not a squirm in sight!) was heartwarming. As was the sight of a single child carrying toy figures of Woody and Buzz down the stairs and outside the theatre, back into the real world.
Toy Story in Concert ran for two performances only on Saturday 11 April. Presented by Queensland Symphony Orchestra and QPAC.
The season has now ended.
Website: https://qso.com.au/events/2026/for-movie-music-lovers/toy-story-in-concert
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/qsorchestra/ and https://www.instagram.com/atqpac/
Images supplied.
