His compositions are easily recognized for his heavy use of strings, tuned percussion instruments, and an almost ethereal electronic sound that gives his works an other worldly feel. He also frequently plays piano in his own compositions, usually during soft mellow scenes.
He was originally picked to score Wreck-It Ralph, but was replaced by Henry Jackman. This may be because he was too busy working on the score for Skyfall.
He was originally scoring The Good Dinosaur as the third collaboration with Pixar when it was set to be directed by Bob Peterson with Peter Sohn, but following Peterson's exit, due to story problems, and Sohn being announced as the project's sole director, Newman was replaced by Mychael and Jeff Danna, resulting being scored Finding Dory as the third collaboration with the studio.
However, Newman would eventually provide the musical score for Elemental as the fourth collaboration with the studio; coincidentally, also being directed by Sohn.
Newman is the second out of six composers to work on a Pixar film (the first being his cousin, Randy).