I have some relatively small issues with Disney+, which I’ll talk about later, but my biggest problem with the newest high-profile contender in the streaming TV services wars is more ethical and philosophical. Amazon, Netflix, HBO, NBC. None of these massive corporations are your friends. They all just want money. But there’s just something about Disney’s expanding entertainment monopoly, and their skill at making it seem so friendly, that feels uniquely menacing.
With Disney+, the strength of that monopoly is on full display. So in a sense, I find the very existence of this service viscerally disturbing. And yet if you’re looking for an affordable treasure trove of great, recognizable, and sometimes legendary movies and TV shows you won’t find anywhere else, especially if you have a family and want to keep your kids from YouTube online right-wing grifters, I can’t help but recommend Disney+.
After a week-long free trial, you can subscribe to Disney+ for $7 per month or $70 per year. Disney also offers a bundle with the other streaming services they own, Hulu and ESPN, for a discounted price of $13 per month. So Disney+ on its own compares favorably to niche streaming services. And the bundle is at that Netflix sweet spot (for now) while filling in some of the biggest gaps in the Disney+ library itself: sports and R-rated material.
As expected, the huge influx of ten million users meant Disney+ didn’t have an entirely smooth technical launch. But it didn’t take long for me to eventually easily access the service on my computer or through my iPhone. The interface is straightforward with rows of boxes and highlights for special collections like “Marvel” or “Pixar.” You can create your own watchlist and pick out a cute little Disney avatar for each profile. Sadly, there was no Emperor Sheev Palpatine icon.
The video quality itself obviously depends on the source material. You’ll be looking at some grainy 4:3 goodness if you queue up some forgotten early 2000s Disney Channel sitcom like Phil of the Future. On the flipside the original Star Wars films (now with Maclunkey) are lavishly presented in 4K HDR. But the presentation quality isn’t consistent. Some episodes aren’t listed in order. And one of the more egregious examples going around is the awkward widescreen crop of The Simpsons cutting out certain visual jokes.
All the classic Simpsons episodes on Disney+ are in cropped widescreen format — this means you miss out on tons of great visual jokes, like how Duff, Duff Lite and Duff Dry all come from the same tube. pic.twitter.com/cTy9adulFl
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) November 12, 2019
But this is still the streaming platform with all of The Simpsons! Even though it’s been infuriating garbage for twenty years, I absolutely adore the first ten years of that perfect show with all of my comedy-loving self. It’s a part of my identity. I think it’s criminal that Disney can just buy Fox and pretend that Homer Simpson is and has always been one of their beloved mascots. But the appeal of streaming Simpsons is too powerful to resist.
And leveraging, even exploiting, that fundamental connection with the material is how it is for almost everything on Disney+. For nearly a century Disney entertainment has colonized you so completely that you can’t help but see something here you’ve loved since you can remember being alive. It could be a classic cartoon like Aladdin or Steamboat Willie. It could be a bizarre live-action movie like The Shaggy Dog or Halloweentown. Every Pixar movie is here. Every Star Wars movie is here. The service is chock full of Marvel cartoons. Gargoyles!
It’s not 100 percent comprehensive. There are MCU gaps left to fill. I was surprised by the lack of ABC programming. And the Fox acquisitions aside from The Simpsons and Avatar feels incredibly spotty. If Disney wants to freeze out classic Fox movies from indie theaters the least they can do if offer them here. But overall the sheer nostalgic gravitational pull of a fully opened Disney vault is positively frightening.
Even the original content, which is pretty limited at the moment, is playing this same iconic game. Disney’s power is just so well-suited to shows and movies that feel grown in a lab for mass mainstream appeal. Imagineering meets the algorithm. Anyone who saw Thor: Ragnarok is going to be down for a Jeff Goldblum National Geographic show. I don’t care about Anna Kendrick as Santa Claus’s daughter but surely someone does. And you can read our full review of The Mandalorian, which does successfully bring Star Wars to live-action TV at last.
If you’re a childless adult who truly doesn’t care about any of these properties, not only do I recommend you not buy Disney+, I envy you. For the rest of us poor saps though, subscribing to Disney+ feels like an enjoyable, if existentially entropic, inevitability.
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So many streaming TV services to choose from. Where do you start?
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Although it no longer has a free option, Hulu is a great streaming TV service that is worth paying for.
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From buying to renting to subscribing to individual channels, Amazon offers a bevy of streaming TV options.
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YouTube Red subscribers can watch original shows from streaming stars, but YouTube TV lets you watch actual live TV.
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You have to buy channels in bulk and still deal with commercials, but with DirecTV Now you get the real live TV experience delivered through streaming.
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If you want to stream shows and documentaries that actually teach you something, go with CuriosityStream.
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AMC Premiere just focuses on current AMC shows, but for Walking Dead super fans that might be enough.
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With Boomerang, tons of retro cartoons, from Looney Tunes to Scooby-Doo, can all come back to you
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FuboTV may be the escape from cable that sports fans are looking for. It’s pricey, but being able to easily stream live sports and more from dozens of channels with only one subscription might very well be worth it.
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Brown Sugar has all of the classic Blaxploitation movies you could want and then some. It’s niche, but it’s one of the most impressive niche libraries we’ve seen.
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For the true cinephile, FilmStruck has a large collection of classic films from all eras and countries, including movies from the Criterion Collection.
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Along with presenting streaming services like Netflix and Sling through one box, Dish AirTV also lets you watch local over-the-air channels with an additional installation.
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Get a streaming media device to enjoy these services on your TV. Our favorite is the Amazon Fire Stick.
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