For Toy Story 3, Newman (with three co-writers) loses the sci-fi, jazz, and ragtime elements and merges the slapstick cartoon material and Western homages with a dose of slight bayou blues, Mediterranean mafia stereotypes, electric guitar rock, vague Parisian romance, and Latin rhythms and acoustic guitar flourishes. Most notably, though, Toy Story 3 is defined by its plentitude of rowdy action sequences of straight orchestral bombast (albeit the somewhat light-handed sort that Newman creates to emulate the Stalling sound). Listeners who enjoyed Newman's take on that classic cartoon sound in the previous scores will appreciate the 20+ minutes of similar material here. It seems frightfully generic, however, and only in the final two cues does the score truly exhibit the heart that occasionally stole the spotlight in the franchise's previous soundtracks. The tender piano and string performances in "So Long" are as subdued and introspective as Newman can seemingly be in this context, yielding a surprisingly lovely and engaging moment. Unfortunately, Toy Story 3 continues to suffer from thematic ambiguity all the way to the end. The sleazy half-blues/half-Mediterranean material for the villain of the daycare clearly occupies the mid-section of the score, and the sentimental theme at the end is unmistakable. But as with the other two scores, the franchise's primary identity, "You've Got a Friend in Me," is all but forgotten. Slight references, such as the brief optimism at the outset of "Going Home," are simply not enough. Thankfully, unlike Toy Story 2, Newman does provide a new song with his own voice, though the melody of the rather bland, vintage, rock-influenced "We Belong Together" does not convincingly anchor the score. Also a nagging difficulty with these scores is the collection of references to mannerisms of other composers, whether it be Ennio Morricone and Marc Shaiman's Western styles or James Horner's solemn piano work. Ultimately, Toy Story 3 is an effective score but by no means memorable. Don't expect it to conclude with a positively rousing, upbeat send-off to infinity and beyond. It's nice to hear this franchise reach its conclusion with Newman's music, but these scores were never that cohesive to begin with. Disney opted initially not to press a song and score album on CD (the two songs, Newman's "We Belong Together" and a Spanish rendition of "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Gipsy Kings, were put on a six-song CD with the other films' songs, sans the original "You've Got a Friend in Me," a stunningly irritating marketing ploy), instead offering over 50 minutes of it for download. As with Up, however, Intrada Records pressed a CD of identical contents a few years later. Both products are simply too long of a presentation for this harmlessly generic score, regardless of Newman's stature and the affable nature of the music.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download