This week's Friday Feature should come as no surprise. There's one movie on more minds than any other this week: Toy Story 3, the 11th effort by Disney's Pixar Animation Studios. Like the other films in the series, it promises to be a funny, adventurous and touching affair that adults will connect to as easily as kids. Like the others, it promises massive box office returns and universal acclaim (as of this writing, film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has not picked up a single negative review, a feat also astoundingly attained by the previous entry in the series).

And, like the others, it will feature a score by Randy Newman. One of the sharpest pop/rock writers of the latter half of the rock era, Newman's no slouch as a film composer. That phase of his career took off with a pair of Oscar nominations for the 1981 film Ragtime and an Elmer Bernstein-esque score to The Natural in 1985. (A year later, Newman would collaborate with Bernstein on Three Amigos! in 1986 - and a bit of mind-bending trivia: Newman also co-wrote the film with Steve Martin and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels).

For the younger generation, though, Newman is renowned for those soundtracks he did for Disney films. In addition to all three Toy Story pictures, Newman scored A Bug's Life (1998), Monsters Inc. (2001) and Cars (2006) for Pixar (as well as the stop-motion animated adaptation of James and the Giant Peach in 1996 and last year's The Princess and the Frog). While they were all solid scores, the two Toy Story films are head and shoulders above the others.Newman shines by writing catchy, pop-oriented tunes for key scenes in the films, from the unforgettable "You've Got a Friend in Me" to the heart-rending "When She Loved Me" (a song that the author cannot hear without getting emotional). But his instrumental themes for the characters are heroic and hummable, and even casual listeners can hear the scores on their own and harken back to the finer moments of the films.

Though the first two scores are out of print (and the third one has only been released digitally), all three would be a worthy addition to a fan's CD shelf. Perhaps if Disney ever gives its scores the catalogue love they deserve, we'll see reissues of the Toy Story soundtracks in due time. (Note: spoilers abound in the track titles for Toy Story 3.)

Randy Newman, Toy Story: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack (Walt Disney Records 60833-7, 1995)

1. You've Got a Friend in Me
2. Strange Things
3. I Will Go Sailing No More
4. Andy's Birthday
5. Soldier's Mission
6. Presents
7. Buzz
8. Sid
9. Woody and Buzz
10. Mutants
11. Woody's Gone
12. The Big One
13. Hang Together
14. On the Move
15. Infinity and Beyond
16. You've Got a Friend in Me (Duet with Lyle Lovett)

Tracks 4-15 are score tracks

Randy Newman, Toy Story 2: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack (Walt Disney Records 60647-7, 1999)

1. Woody's Roundup - Riders in the Sky
2. When She Loved Me - Sarah McLachlan
3. You've Got a Friend in Me (Wheezy's Version) - Robert Goulet
4. Zurg's Planet
5. Wheezy and the Yard Sale
6. Woody's Been Stolen
7. Chicken Man
8. Woody's Dream
9. Jessie and the Roundup Gang
10. Woody's a Star
11. Let's Save Woody
12. Off to the Museum
13. Talk to Jessie
14. The Cleaner
15. Al's Toy Barn
16. Emperor Zurg vs. Buzz
17. Use Your Head
18. Jessie's in Trouble
19. Ride Like the Wind
20. You've Got a Friend in Me (Instrumental) - Tom Scott

Tracks 4-19 are score tracks

Randy Newman, Toy Story 3: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack (Walt Disney Records (digital), 2010)

1. We Belong Together
2. You've Got a Friend in Me (Para el Buzz Español) - Gipsy Kings
3. Cowboy!
4. Garbage?
5. Sunnyside
6. Woody Bails
7. Come to Papa
8. Go See Lotso
9. Bad Buzz
10. You Got Lucky
11. Spanish Buzz
12. What About Daisy?
13. To the Dump
14. The Claw
15. Going Home
16. So Long
17. Zu-Zu (Ken's Theme)

Tracks 3-17 are score tracks