Disney Plus is six months old, has it kept its promise?

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• Disney Plus is six months old, has it kept its promise?

Disney Plus is the future of streaming services, for better or worse. Instead of major content living on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video like it used to be, the future of streaming is each media conglomerate launching its own streaming service, with its own material. This means that people have to spend more to get everything they want, a situation that won't improve with future releases of HBO Max and Peacock, but also translates into deeper catalogs and content offerings. More specialized. Disney Plus sums it up, with decades of obscure material you might not have found on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Disney Plus launched six months ago in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands on November 12, 2019. It was released a week later in Australia and New Zealand, with a UK release. in March 2020. If you like Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars, this is definitely the service to get, and that hasn't changed. Its basic movie offering is still green (who wouldn't want to see something Star Wars related on May 4th?), and the price is reasonable for what you get compared to its competitors, especially with the generous helpings. 4K HDR movies available. Six months later, this file is still the main reason to get Disney Plus. If you're an older user without children, you may find the service less appealing than Netflix or Amazon Prime. Family-oriented, however, means it's the ideal service for children's viewing habits: that is, watching the same movies over and over again, until songs from Frozen or Moana are breakthroughs in your brain. At this level, the file does its job. However, the originals are the obvious area where Disney Plus could use the growth. There are also gaps in the library, especially in the United States, where some leading films like the live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book are still tied to existing offerings with other media. . While the more obvious Disney children's cartoons are factored in too, like DuckTales or Recess, it would be great to see darker, more '90s-friendly prizes like Lloyd in Space or The Weekenders. Another problem was The Simpsons' continued lack of a 4:3 aspect ratio option, with earlier episodes (so the vast majority of the good ones) were pictured to achieve a 16:9 aspect ratio. This should be fixed by the end of May 2020, but it's been an issue for six months now, which suggests that Disney isn't quite as quick to implement changes to their app. Movies are the calling card of Disney Plus though, and that hasn't changed in recent months.

How the pandemic has affected Disney Plus

The one factor in the first six months of Disney Plus that wasn't expected, of course, is the global health pandemic. This has shaped several important service decisions. Pixar's Onward, a film that lost millions of dollars by the end of its brief world release, ended up being an extremely compelling reason to sign on (British viewers, however, haven't expected it yet.) It was also a smart move from Disney. moving up the release dates of Frozen 2 and The Rise of Skywalker. On a similar note, Disney's efforts to make May 4th Star Wars Day a big event was also welcome, as the listing pages for each movie were redesigned with original designs to mark the occasion. It's the kind of touch that makes the service feel like the destination for fans of these fictional universes.

Onward was unlucky in theaters, but it was a huge win for Disney Plus. (Image credit: Disney/Pixar) More recently, Disney made a big move by dropping plans to release the original Broadway recording of the musical Hamilton in theaters in 2021, instead deciding to release it on Disney Plus in July. It was a great decision, and it will open the musical up to a much wider audience. Obviously, you still have to pay for Disney Plus and have a device to stream it, but that drastically lowers the class and geographic barriers that would prevent people from watching Hamilton live. Maybe it wasn't always the plan for the first six months of Disney Plus, but it continued to give people reasons to be passionate about the service. The global number of Disney Plus subscribers was 54,5 million at the beginning of May 2020, and its target was 60 to 90 million in the first five years, indicating a good start. Retention is the challenge for the next few months, especially when yearly subscriptions start to run out in November. But hey, it's a Disney problem, not yours.

And the originals?

The Mandalorian remains the number one reason for Disney to sign on. (Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney) The easiest rock to throw at Disney Plus in the first six months is its lack of much-hyped original content. The Star Wars The Mandalorian TV series ended in December in the United States, and it remains the service's most compelling original offering. Other big hits include the live-action film Lady and the Tramp, which made it to release, the fantastic documentary series The Imagineering Story, and the final season of The Clone Wars. In fact, Disney has released many original shows alongside its Star Wars titles, as well as valuable National Geographic content like the Elephant movie. Did you watch Shop Class, a competition show hosted by Justin Long, with the same enthusiasm that you watched The Mandalorian? Probably not, but the service is intended for a broad audience. The original recipients of Diary of a Future President and High School Musical: The Series are intended for tweens, traditionally the responsibility of the Disney Channel. We have a feeling The Mandalorian is doing too much work in terms of originals, especially since its most compelling offering at the moment is a (big) docu-series on the making of the show. But, as the service rolls out to Japan in June, plus Europe in September, then Latin America in late 2020, this Star Wars TV show remains a compelling incentive to sign up, even if another major original Live would have been. ideal for this first semester 2020.

What happens next?

With the rest of the world, Disney was unlucky on the Covid-19 schedule, halting production of the Falcon and Winter Soldier just weeks after their scheduled completion date. WandaVision, we learned, finished filming in early March. In a timeline where Covid didn't act, Disney would have two live-action MCU series and another season of The Mandalorian in the last four months of this year. So far, Disney has only confirmed that it will hit its previously announced release date. That would guarantee Disney Plus a string of hits in a row. Still, the hype for The Mandalorian must have even exceeded Disney's expectations, as Baby Yoda took over social media, and another season this year is rumored to star Boba Fett and The Clone's Ahsoka Tano. Wars will likely capture imaginations in the same way. Additionally, Disney has reconfigured its schedule to make the upcoming Artemis Fowl movie an original service offering. The trailer for this movie, an adaptation of a popular book series about an early brain, makes a poor first impression in our opinion, even though it's directed by the reliable Kenneth Branagh. It will air on June 12. It's also highly likely that Disney Plus will add The Simpsons season 31 when it airs on Fox this summer, which will be a nice boost for content. And, as mentioned, releasing Hamilton in time for the Fourth of July weekend will be a great deal.

We don't know how long it will be before we see more of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. (Image credit: Disney/Marvel) When it comes to how it reacts to the world of film and TV on hold, it seems Disney is making the right choices. In the long run, a lot depends on how quickly Hollywood gets back to work, and it's hard to consider this a priority given everything that's going on right now. Disney has also committed to offering more original shows, most recently an untitled Star Wars TV series from Russian doll co-creator Leslye Headland, a TV version of National Treasure (probably without Nicolas Cage), and an adaptation of RL Stine's Just Beyond the Book series. Other highlights include a remake of Mighty Ducks, starring original Gilmore Girls star Emilio Estevez and Lauren Graham, as well as the well-known Obi-Wan and Cassian Andor Star Wars shows. According to a THR report in March, more than 50 scripted series and about 50 unscripted shows are in development for Disney Plus.

Our Disney Plus Wish List for the Next Six Months

When you think about it, The Simpsons is about as grown up as any primetime show. Frank Grimes being electrocuted to death is something you can watch on Disney Plus, as is Barney's addiction to alcohol and, uh, Homer's 'ouch' at the hands of a panda. So why not other sharper shows? It always seems like the offering of classic TV shows on Disney Plus is too conservative. Some really obvious things should have jumped out by now. Malcolm in the Middle, which was as close to a live Simpsons as there was during the broadcast, was teased by Disney in August, but after six months, there's still no sign it's coming to Disney Plus. It would be nice to see a more regular all-ages primetime show like this. According to a Reddit user, a Disney Plus survey asked if people would be interested in watching sitcoms like Black-ish and Modern Family on the service. It would certainly be a very good choice. The investigation also mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who is probably too grown up for the Disney image (not that it bothers us). We have asked Disney to confirm if this investigation was real some time ago and have not received a response.

(Image credit: Marvel Studios) Even if Disney isn't quite ready to show off any new originals, it might be nice to get an up-to-date preview of what's planned. Everything we've seen so far from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, and Hawkeye has arrived in the brief Expanding the Universe special on Disney Plus and, of course, a fantastic Super Bowl teaser. Disney will never port their actual tentpole versions to a streaming service before making money in theaters, simply because their budgets are astronomical and they dominate at the box office. But what if you show the first five minutes of Black Widow or Mulan, just to get people excited and remind them to go to the movies once it's safe to reopen? There is room for more experimentation, with the old programming and the new. And Hamilton shows that Disney is interested in trying bold moves.

Disney Plus is off to a good start, but the next few months will be decisive

Disney Plus could certainly use some more prestigious originals. But in an unprecedented period, these first six months of service were backed by regular movie releases and major event engagements to excite subscribers. The next six months will be more crucial than the first, because viewers will really know where Disney Plus fits into their online viewing habits, and we'll see if a slow trickle of big originals works as well as a strategy. Netflix style shoot them.