I’ve been complaining about Disney+ since the day they announced it. It’s finally here now, so let’s talk.
It’s basically what everyone thought.
Despite some last minute scare tactics, it looks like everything they pre-announced is actually on the service. Reports came in early this morning that the service had far less content than was originally announced. It looks like that was just people loading it too early.
No, you can’t binge the entire MCU because not every film is there. Neither are the recent remakes of Aladdin and The Lion King. Yes you get 4K versions of Star Wars films for the first time, but they’re remasters of the 1997 versions not the originals. You’ll have to look elsewhere for the X-Men films, too, despite the fact that Disney now owns Fox.
The price was published some time ago. At $6.99 a month you’ll pay less than you do for Netflix and Hulu. But, you’ll pay more than you do for Apple TV+. It’s a decent value for now but it’s going to get better once Disney+ can actually stream every Disney film.
After some last minute maneuvering, it looks like the service is available on basically every major streaming platform including Android TV. It took some last minute brinksmanship to get it to Amazon devices but it seems like we’re all set now.
There are, of course, scattered reports of service interruptions and slowness, and that’s to be expected too. I can’t think of a streaming launch that didn’t suffer from this problem on day one.
But is it worth it?
Personally I think it isn’t, at least not today. Chances are that your youngster doesn’t care if they can watch That Darn Cat (available on Disney+) but they probably want to see Toy Story 4 (not available yet.) If the kids find something they want to see then maybe get it’s worth it.
The big story everyone should be talking about is The Mandalorian, Disney’s new show that takes place in the Star Wars universe. I’m still pretty cautious about this one myself. Even though I’ve been a fan since I was young, I feel like the constant attempts to expand the universe through films and TV series have made it overall less magical. I haven’t had a chance to sample The Mandalorian yet. I’m strangely uninterested. I hope it’s a genuinely new take on an adventure show but genuinely new has never really been one of Star Wars’ strengths. Even the very first film was a recycling of 1930s film tropes wrapped around a remake of The Seven Samurai.
My advice at this time is that if you have something else to do with your life, don’t rush out and subscribe to Disney+ today. If have nothing to do this weekend — or even better, next weekend — take the free trial and see if it’s for you.
Even better, wait until the summer.
Disney+ will continue to grow in value as the company can pull its films away from other services like Netflix. I await the day when I can press one button and binge the entire Infinity Saga in order. That’s going to take some time, but when you can do that, and when you have access to every single animated classic, the service will have earned my money. Until then, it’s just another way that streaming is getting as expensive as satellite, and I don’t need that.
