- Free Solo
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I really enjoy watching documentaries about any type of sport and I like climbing so this one was perfect for me. I already watched clips from this documentary but I had never watched the full film until I got Disney +. This is the first thing that I decided to watch on Disney +, which may be a weird choice, but I loved it. It’s a documentary about Alex Honnold, who is a professional climber but he is best known for his free solo ascents! Free soloing is where you climb without any ropes, harnesses, or anything else that could help you not die. This documentary focuses on his dream of free soloing in El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. El Capitan is a big deal to climb for most climbers but free soloing it is a completely different ballpark. The whole film is a little scary because you realize how dangerous this climb could be for Honnold but it’s interesting enough and beautifully shot so you just have to keep watching.
- Wizards of Waverly Place
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Wizards of Waverly Place was one of my favourite shows when I watched Family Channel as a child. Now I get to watch my favourite episodes again in one place. I always thought this was a cool show because it revolved around a family of wizards who also ran a sandwich shop. I thought it was interesting that they had very normal lives but in their basement, they had a magical lair. I also really liked Alex because she didn’t care about what other people thought and just did anything she wanted and it usually worked out for her. I started with the first episode and got bored. So then I watched some episodes in the second season, and I watched the episodes where they get on board on the S.S Tipton. I also loved rewatching the episode where we meet Mason for the first time, one of Alex’s boyfriends. It’s really cool to be able to rehash old memories while watching these episodes, so that’s another reason I like it.
- Johnny Tsunami
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This was one of my favourite Disney movies when I was a kid. It’s my dream to be able to surf so I thought that the premise of this movie was really good. If you’ve never watched it, it starts off by introducing the main character, Johnny Kapahala, who lives in Hawaii with his parents and his grandpa. His grandpa is a pretty big deal in the surfing world and people call him Johnny Tsunami because of this one crazy wave that he rode. The movie follows Johnny Kapahala as he has to move to Vermont with his parents and leave his beloved Hawaii and his grandpa behind. Moving to Vermont brings its own challenges with the rich kids being skiers and the poor kids being snowboarders and how these two groups are not allowed to interact with each other or share the mountain. It’s interesting because Johnny goes to the school for rich kids but he wants to snowboard so the rich kids consider him a traitor but it’s ok because Johnny brings everyone together in the end. It’s a fun movie that I’ve always loved so I’m so glad I got to watch it again.
- Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board
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This is the sequel to Johnny Tsunami. I like this movie even more than the first one because they are back in Hawaii again. Johnny Kapahala returns to Hawaii after a couple years because he has to attend his grandfather’s wedding. Drama ensues once he meets his soon-to-be step-uncle son who is a boy named Chris. Chris is a very angry kid in the beginning with his only happiness being when he is hanging out with the Dirt Devils who love to dirtboard (which is basically just skateboarding on dirt). The whole movie basically revolves around Johnny trying to get along with Chris and it ends with a happy ending.
- John Carter
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This is not only one of my favourite Disney movies, but also one of my favourite movies of all time. I don’t know what it is about the movie, whether it’s the characters or the beautiful imagery, but I just simply love this movie. The basic premise revolves around one main character, John Carter, who is a former American Civil War Confederate Army captain. After escaping people trying to kill him, he ends up in a cave and in this cave, there is someone who tries to kill him. This person isn’t an ordinary human because he holds something that allows John Carter to travel to Mars (he doesn’t know that he’s on Mars when he first arrives but he soon realizes that it’s definitely different from earth). He gets captured by Green Martian Tharks, and they are interested in him because he can jump really high and far and is very strong thanks to his different bone density and the planet’s gravity. The movie then follows his adventures on Mars and he soon realizes that it’s not that different from Earth in terms of its political problems. There is obvious corruption and he soon realizes that he must make a decision to help or to leave. I would say more but it’s just a movie that you have to watch yourself and I definitely recommend it!!
- High School Musical: The Musical, The Series
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Okay, so here it is. I was one of the biggest fans of High School Musical as a child. Honestly, not just as a child, I still am. I don’t know what it is about it but I have always loved it and I will continue to love it till the day I die. Of course, every hardcore fan of the series would be skeptical of this new show because honestly most of the new Disney shows are not good. BUT, I will say that this show is pretty good because of its premise. Instead of trying to continue living in the High School Musical world, the characters live in our world and it starts off with all the kids wants to audition for High School Musical which is the musical the new drama teacher picked. There is a classic love triangle involved and other characters that you can imagine will start drama but overall, a very pleasant show.
- The Mandalorian
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I’ve been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid and I watch it with my family all the time. So you can imagine that I was pretty excited once I found out that there was going to be a tv show set in the Star Wars universe. This is the description I found on the Star Wars site:
“After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.” (https://www.starwars.com/series/the-mandalorian)
So far I’ve only watched the first episode so I haven’t really seen much of the story yet but I’m excited to continue to watch as the next episodes come out. (Currently there are two episodes out as I write this).
Overall, I recommend Disney +, and its great if you want to share with your roommates or your family, but I wouldn’t say that it’s necessary to have. I do appreciate the amount of content that is from my childhood and the content that is to come, (like new Marvel content) so I’m excited to see how it turns out for this streaming service.