Disney’s foray into an online streaming subscription service, Disney+, launched globally on November 12th, and it’s got quite the impressive lineup right out of the gate, dating back to classics from decades past to recent blockbusters to brand new exclusive series. Don’t forget that Disney gets to pull from more than it’s impressive vault – it now owns the rights to everything in the Marvel Universe, Star Wars, Pixar, and the National Geographic Channel.
The company initially used a massive Twitter thread — more than 300 tweets in total — to make the announcement. The thread included obvious titles like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Frozen, alongside older titles like Three Musketeers, Three Men and a Baby, the Home Alone series, Mary Poppins, Swiss Family Robinson, and Fantasia. Disney also used the thread to name some popular TV series that will be available on day one, including the entire 30 years of The Simpsons, Lizzie McGuire, and the animated X-Men series from 2002.
Most of the announcements focus on Disney’s back catalog, but there are some exciting new originals on the list, including the Star Wars live-action spinoff series The Mandalorian, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and The Lady and the Tramp live-action remake. That’s in keeping with Disney’s strategy of selling its streaming service on the concept of nostalgia and whole-family viewing options.
The titles coming to the US are more or less in line with what European subscribers will see, with a few notable exceptions. Part of that has to do with rights distributions — it’s why Iron Man 2 or Spider-Man: Homecoming aren’t available on the service yet. Disney is working to get back rights to the titles it’s leased to other streamers (just as other major distributors, like NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia, are slowly buying back the rights to their top shows for their own streaming services), but given the value of Marvel and Disney titles, the process may take some time.
Still, there’s enough available in this initial launch to keep kids of all ages happy and glued to their streaming service for quite awhile.
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