Disney+
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Where Disney meets so much more...
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Disney+ (pronounced Disney Plus) is an American subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service owned by the Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International division of The Walt Disney Company. The service debuted on November 12, 2019, in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands and launched in Western Europe in March 2020 (in the UK and Ireland).
Disney+ is focused on film and television content from Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television. Original films and television series based on new and existing properties are also available, including content from Disney, Lucasfilm/Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic, 20th Century Fox/Studios, (Fox) Searchlight Pictures, and Blue Sky Studios. The service competes with other general-interest subscription services and complements ESPN+ and Hulu as part of Disney's over-the-top strategy. Disney+ has a general entertainment content section named "Star" in many international territories. In India and most Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, a version of Disney+ is called Disney+ Hotstar, and local content is available from those regions. Disney+ was launched in India on March 29, 2020, using its existing service, Hotstar, rebranding its paid tiers as a co-branded service. Disney acquired Hotstar during the Fox purchase, and it has become the dominant streaming service in the country. Disney+ was also launched as Disney+Hotstar in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. In Canada, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, Hotstar is a streaming service targeting overseas Indians, focusing on Star India's domestic entertainment and sports content; Disney+ operates as a standalone service in these markets. Star, a content hub, was launched on February 23, 2021. The hub is available in a subset of countries where Disney+ is operated. Star features television and film content from the libraries of Disney subsidiaries, including FX, Freeform, Hulu, ABC Signature, 20th Century Fox Studios, etc. Star is available in Canada, the UK, Western Europe, South Africa, and some parts of Asia-Pacific and will be made available in Eastern Europe, Israel, Turkey, and some parts of the Middle East and Africa on the dates Disney+ is set to launch in these countries, ranging from early June to June 16, 2022. In Latin America and Brazil, a separate streaming service, Star+, was launched on August 31, 2021.
The service has 129.8 million global subscribers as of January 1, 2022.
Why It's a Plus-One for Disney
- Very low price; it only costs $7 every month. The "Disney Bundle" is $14, adding access to Hulu and ESPN+ (for sports).
- A good range of original series, including
- The Mandalorian
- WandaVision
- 101 Dalmatian Street
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Star Wars: the Clone Wars
- Monsters At Work
- Dug Days
- The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse
- Muppets Now
- Forky Asks a Question
- Marvel Hero's Project
- Short Circuit
- Loki
- Star Wars: The Bad Batch
- What If...?
- Diary of a Future President
- Star Wars: Visions
- The Beatles Get Back
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- Hawkeye
- The Simpsons: "Playdate with Destiny" (the first ever Disney+ Simpsons short, the first ever piece of Simpsons media that is made for kids (as you can tell it got a G-rating unlike the prequel, "The Longest Playdate", which got a PG-rating) and a good one to start things off for The Simpsons Disney+ original shorts.)
- Moon Knight
- Ice Age: Scrat Tales
- Disney+ has a very large back catalogue:
- Classic TV series like Gargoyles, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Phineas and Ferb, The Muppet Show and Spider-Man: The Animated Series are on there, too. Even The Simpsons of all shows is on there, and all seasons, too! (except "Stark Raving Dad", see the first bad quality)
- Almost every Disney film ever produced (live-action, animated, and even Disney Channel movies) is on the site.
- It even includes some content from 20th Century Fox/20th Century Studios, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, and National Geographic, which can appeal to viewers who aren't very interested in Disney content.
- Since Disney owns a majority of the streaming service Hulu, it also distributes programming from the content hub FX on Hulu outside the United States because Hulu is not available outside the United States.
- It has everything a Disney fan, Pixar fan, Marvel fan, Star Wars fan, or National Geographic fan needs, from the very first Disney short film (Steamboat Willie) to the recent films like Avengers: Endgame and Return of the Jedi.
- From 2022 to 2026, movies from Sony Pictures will arrive on Disney+ after finishing their run on Netflix; however, this only applies in the US version of the service, as the movies are offered to Amazon Prime Video and other services in all other countries.
- With the launch of Star, it even has content for mature audiences, including Die Hard, LOST, The X-Files and even the entirety of Family Guy (except "Partial Terms of Endearment", see the first bad quality), Futurama, Bob's Burgers, The Cleveland Show and American Dad!. (however, Star is only exclusive in Canada, the UK, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and South Africa; in the United States and Latin America, Hulu, and Star+ respectively, fill this role instead).
- The service includes Disney-related content as well as content that Disney+ doesn't explicitly own but still bought the rights to (in most territories), such as Bluey, PJ Masks, Paddington, and Paddington 2.
- Many shows, like Dinosaurs, have been digitally restored for the service as well.
- While similar to Netflix, it has its own identity and makes its original content less Netflix-esque.
- The Disney+ Original logo is well-made.
- Content can be streamed in resolutions up to 4K Ultra HD in Dolby Vision and HDR10, with Dolby Atmos sound on supported devices.
- It has tons of great original movies, like Hamilton, Clouds, Safety, Togo and Flora & Ulysses.
- Unlike Netflix and Paramount+, device sharing can be registered for up to ten devices.
- The Star Wars prequel and original trilogies finally got color-corrected and even have the 20th Century Fox logos in the beginning.
- Unlike most streaming services, once the movie/TV show is on Disney+, it stays on the service permanently (sometimes).
- Just like Netflix, it became an international streaming device in Latin America, the UK, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and South Africa (as well as Israel, Eastern Europe, the Middle Eastern countries and Turkey starting in June 2022).
- The videos on YouTube such as "Celebrating Two Years" and "Start Streaming Now" we're beautifully edited with all movies and shows combined and a nice orchestra and it's a perfect way to promote and to celebrate Disney+.
Bad Qualities
- Due to Disney's handling of the shows and movies on the service, they have censored some content in movies and TV shows for bad reasons:
- The Simpsons episode "Stark Raving Dad" was not included due to the episode being removed from syndication by the producers in March 2019 following the Leaving Neverland controversy.
- In Latin America, only Seasons 29 and 30 of The Simpsons are available on Disney+. This is because another streaming service, Star+, was announced to have all 33 seasons of the series, which launched in August 2021.
- The Family Guy episode "Partial Terms of Endearment" was not included with Star because the episode was banned from TV airing in the US and digital distribution worldwide due to the controversial focus on abortion.
- Many episodes of Bluey have notable censorship issues, with many scenes in episodes being cut out, including the horse pooping scene in "Markets", Bingo asking how babies are born to Bandit in "Daddy Putdown", Bluey's line "It's a piece of poo" being replaced by "It's a slug" in "Trains", as well the two episodes, "Teasing" and "Flat Pack", not being on the service due to both episodes being banned for using the phrase "ooga booga".
- Some episodes of The Muppet Show that features Spike Milligan aren't available to watch in Europe; the reasons are unknown, but possibly too many stereotypes or music rights.
- One fake blooper scene in Toy Story 2 (Stinky Pete talking to two Barbie dolls for a role in Toy Story 3) was not included due to it being removed following the John Lasseter allegations for #MeToo movement that led to his resignation.
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody episode "Smart & Smarterer" was removed due to its insensitivity towards mocking children with dyslexia.
- The Bizaardvark episode "The First Law of Dirk" is not available on the site for unknown reasons; however, this is likely because Logan Paul, who guest starred as Dirk's brother Kirk in the episode, became an infamous and controversial figure after his suicide forest video incident.
- Any Andi Mack episode with Ham Mack is unavailable on the service just because his actor, Stoney Westmoreland, was charged with (and subsequently terminated by the network for) soliciting a minor. This hits season 1 the most, reducing it to only two episodes.
- Seasons 6 and 7 of Bunk'd are unavailable on Disney+, ending at season 5. Fortunately, these seasons can be watched on Netflix.
- Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything is entirely absent from Disney+ for unclear reasons; possibly due to legal reasons.
- The beginning of the first episode of K.C. Undercover is cut off for unknown reasons. Thankfully that part of the episode can be watched on Hulu.
- The Simpsons episode "Stark Raving Dad" was not included due to the episode being removed from syndication by the producers in March 2019 following the Leaving Neverland controversy.
- Premiere access is an annoying feature where people need to pay to rent the movie before it is released everywhere, which makes some people irritate themselves by drying up. They even dare to charge users $30 (or $35 in Canada/Australia) to rent certain movies on top of their subscription, which is an example of absurd pricing. When you rent those movies, you are granted early access to them for up to 3 months, when they are later available to all users, meaning that you never owned them in the first place.
- To make matters worse, this is the same price that Disney charges for most of their films on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format in the US.
- Much like Netflix, they like to label several movies and shows (such as Soul, Luca and Turning Red) as "Disney+ Originals", even though the distributor are not involved in their creation, played in theatres without Disney+ in some countries, and released them on home video anyway in all countries, which makes them unnecessary, egotistical and nonsensical.
- It doesn't have all the content that Disney owns:
- Song of the South has been out of print for decades because the film has offensive African-American stereotypes.
- Many Disney cartoons are not available either, such as Dave the Barbarian and Marsupilami (because Disney lost a lawsuit from the estate of the character's creator).
- Many shows that aired on Playhouse Disney like Stanley, JoJo's Circus and Jungle Junction are not on the service for unknown reasons, either because Disney did not have the money to add them to their platform, or they were forgotten about long since they ended their run.
- The development of this site was the reason for Disney's widely criticized acquisition of 21st Century Fox, which had its positives and negatives.
- Some 4:3 programs are stretched or cropped to a 16:9 ratio. Or in the case of Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, in 4:3, despite being produced in widescreen.
- The Simpsons' cropped aspect ratio for the first 20 seasons was so problematic, that Disney decided to release the first 20 (excluding the ones produced after the HD and widescreen transition) seasons in their original aspect ratio in May 2020.
- Despite claiming that "nothing expires", some content on the service has been removed mainly due to rights issues and pre-existing contracts with premium channels (such as HBO and Starz in the USA); thankfully, this issue only applies to the United States.
- Several bad or mediocre original films and specials exist, such as:
- Artemis Fowl
- Mulan (2020) (despite claiming Premier Access)
- Home Sweet Home Alone
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)
- The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild
- Cheaper by the Dozen (2022)
- The Simpsons: The Good, The Bart and the Loki
- The Simpsons in Plusaversary
- The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
- Disney is often way too reliant on this service, to the point where they tried to get people to buy this in certain countries by shutting their Disney channels down beginning in 2020 as well as home video (both physical and digital) distribution arrangements being terminated in most countries. However, Disney still manufactures Blu-rays and DVDs in North America, the UK, Western Europe, and Japan.
- This also makes executives semi-ageist more so than ever when it comes to their other broadcasting divisions since the pandemic hit, which gravelly make bad decisions of which shows fit their new age rating system like it has caused The Owl House to cut down the season 3 episodes short, by converting them into 3 44-minute long specials, just because Disney Channel is now truly meant more episodic-based and assume that kids' will be confused with the show's myth arc. The show was developed from 2016 to 2019 and finally aired in 2020. And long before Disney+ came into existence.
- Also by releasing their Pixar movies, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red exclusively on the platform as Disney+ Originals. This disappointed both Pixar employees and animation fans.
- In the language selections on some of the movies they stream on their platform, like Winnie the Pooh: "A Very Merry Pooh Year" have an off-putting choice to include an English UK dub, even though a lot of the Disney movies and shows don't even have a British dub since most of the Disney properties and shows licensed for streaming are all readily dubbed in America. It's not like Thomas & Friends or Bob the Builder, where you go on YouTube to watch an episode of either show in either English dub (which are not Disney properties, by the way). With Disney+, the language selection menu on some of the movies they stream allows you to press "English (UK)" even though there is no English dub. It's a noticeable error if you think about it.
- It's also possible because there are alternate English versions of Disney films for the British market, such as minor characters being voiced by British celebrities and versions of Disney songs covered by British artists such as Vanessa-Mae, among others.