The day was November 12th, 2019. Netflix gulped, Hulu shuddered and CBS All Access cried. Amazon Prime did nothing, acknowledging its place at the bottom of the endless list of streaming services.
It’s the day Disney+ hit the market in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. There’s a lot to this service, so I’m going to review and rate the newest addition to Disney’s money-making machine.
Price
Streaming services aren’t cheap. Gone are the days of Netflix’s reasonable $11.99/month for four screens. The same plan currently stands at $16.99/month and they keep upping the price thinking no one will notice. We see you Netflix, we see you.
Luckily, Disney+ acknowledges its late entry into the market by offering a four-screen plan at $6.99/month. The price bargain also reflects the fact that Disney has less content than rivals like Netflix, and you can expect the price to increase as they accumulate a wider catalogue.
Other rivals like Hulu and CBS All Access sit at $5.99/monthly, but only offer two-screen plans. Amazon Prime is $8.99/month, the cheeky bastards.
So, for four-screens at HD Quality, Disney+ is currently the cheapest thing on the market.
I love it 3000.
Format
When you sign up, the first thing you are prompted to do is create a profile and set a profile picture. Disney+ allows for seven users per account, but keep in mind that only four people can watch at the same time.
The picture catalogue is cool. There is a variety of Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, Disney Princess and Disney Channel avatars to peruse. It is certainly much better than the ugly square emojis that Netflix forces you to choose from.
The site is minimalistic but includes all the necessary components. You can sift through large categories including Disney+ originals, movies, series and anything you add to your watchlist. On the app, you can download all of the content which is wonderful. The actual video player has your basic play/pause, rewind/forward and subtitles.
The one thing missing is genre sorting. They have a few categories like “trending,” “musicals” and “feel-good sports movies” – which is oddly specific, but okay. But they don’t have nearly the same level of category filters that Netflix carries, and they don’t have that coveted “top picks for you” personalization element. At least unlike Netflix, they don’t bombard people with trailers that auto-play on the home screen.
Overall, the format for Disney+ is not quite as Incredible as it could be, but it’s still Super, so it gets 3.5/5 Jack-Jacks.
Content
This right here is the kicker. How much do you love Disney content and do you love it enough to spend $84 a year on it?
Disney has some great stuff for die-hard fans of big franchises like Marvel and Star Wars. In fact, they both have individual pages with content that can only be described as geek nirvana. Star Wars has all the saga movies, older tv shows and their newest Disney+ exclusive The Mandalorian; it’s the number one trending show on the platform and a must-see if you’re getting the streaming service. Marvel has all 23 of its signature superhero movies and they have plans to release their Falcon and Bucky show in the fall of 2020, as well as their Wandavision and Loki shows in the spring of 2021. So if you’re just in it for Marvel, it might be worth waiting until 2020 when original content starts to roll out.
They have every Disney live-action movie from Maleficent to Pirates of the Caribbean, all the Disney princess favourites and all of the Pixar movies you love to cry about. And then there are the series that our generation grew up with: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, anyone? Hannah Montana?
Their original tv series collection isn’t too vast as of yet, but there’s some quality content. Besides the perfection that is The Mandalorian, they have the surprisingly great High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. If you can get over the title, the show is what every HSM fan has been missing. They have Jeff Goldblum star in his own series where he talks about very random things, but it’s Jeff Goldblum so I’ll give it a pass.
The platform is targeted towards families and young adults who want to relive their glory days through nostalgic shows and movies. If you’re that moviegoer who sees all of Disney’s big hit features once in theatres then forgets about them, this isn’t for you. But if you genuinely love the movies, shows and franchises they have built to the point of re-watching things weekly, then you’ll adore the content this platform has to offer.
I give it 4/5 “return-of-the-nostalgia” lightsabers.
Want a quick way to decide whether or not to get Disney+? If you got all of the references at the end of my price, format and content reviews then you should strongly consider it.
Happy watching!