The FILMharmonique Orchestra will perform at the Canadian debut of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story in Concert in Toronto. The concerts take place November 21 and 22, 2025 in celebration of the iconic movie’s 30th anniversary.
The classic animated film will play on a big screen, with live musical accompaniment of the score created by composer Randy Newman. The music will be played note-for-note as it appears in the film.
Production of the film cemented the current practice of using scratch — or temporary vocals for all reels, which are later replaced by the fully produced soundtrack.
Toy Story in Concert played to packed houses on its debut at the Sydney Opera House in Australia earlier this year, with music performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
LV spoke to FILMharmonique conductor Francis Choinière about the event.
Francis Choinière: The Interview
“This is really Michael’s production, and he approached us, the FILMharmonique Orchestra, to do it,” explains Choinière. Michael Bastoli is described as a Disney superfan who writes about Disney and Pixar animation, and the creator of GTA-based event producer DJB Live Entertainment.
It was a natural choice.
“The FILMharmonique Orchestra is the first orchestra is Canada devoted to soundtracks,” he continues. “He sought us out for this collaboration.”
The orchestra has a growing catalogue of film scores, but Toy Story is a first. It’s part of what he sees as an ongoing and quite recent trend.
“Ten years ago, orchestras were much more distant to this kind of repertoire,” Francis says. “It’s kind of a part of almost every orchestra’s programming these days.”
He underscores the importance of engaging audiences via orchestral music through various media.
“As there are more and more of these projects, what is important to us as an orchestra is putting the orchestra in front.”
Toy Story, as he points out, was created during the golden age of Disney animation, when there were budgets to hire a 70-piece orchestra to record the score. That is much less frequent nowadays, where digital soundtracks, or much reduced instrumentation are the norm.
The Music
“He has a lot of jazz influence, as well as classical music,” Choinière says of Randy Newman’s music. He likens it to the early and mid-20th century Bugs Bunny animations, where the beats were synchronized to action on screen like running and jumping.
“These active elements are portrayed in the music.”
He also points out the use of leitmotifs for specific characters like Woody and Buzz, elements that are developed in various ways throughout the film.
“They give us another emotional dimension.”
Performance
Randy Newman’s distinctive prerecorded vocals are used in the alongside the live orchestral performance. Many moments of the score are tightly synchronized to motions in the film, in contrast with the music for films like Lord of the Rings or the Star Wars series, which are more ambient in nature, and not tied to each step the characters take.
Precision in performance is key.
“I’m following a click track, and then communicating with the orchestra,” Francis explains.
For the musicians, it’s both challenging and rewarding.
“We’re aligning much more to the downbeat of the conductor, but we do that in opera too. We have to be very meticulous.”
What happens if the timing strays?
“Where it differs, it happens sometimes where we are off the click, misaligned by fractions of a second,” he says. In that case, the conductor accelerates to match the clicktrack, then immediately relaxes back to the original tempo.
“Of course, we make the audience never hear.”
The orchestra is composed with a good quotient of freelance musicians, along with those who perform regularly with FILMharmonique.
Orchestral Discovery
He sees the family-oriented film as an ideal way for all ages to discover the magic of orchestral music. “I think it’s a wonderful discovery for audiences,” he says. “It’s a really great way to introduce, not just kids, but adults […] to appreciate an orchestral score.”
As he points out, back during the days of Warner Bros. and Bugs Bunny, few people considered the fact they were listening to the work of a 70-piece orchestra. He’s hoping the event will showcase the artistry of the music along with the animation.
“We live these moments as they happen,” he says, noting that the musicians also react to the emotions of the movie in real time.
“The sad part is coming from the screen to the musicians.”
- Find tickets and other show details for the November 21 and 22 performances of Toy Story In Concert [HERE].
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