UPDATE: It turns out my account was borked somehow. While most people who signed up got assigned to the Singapore region, mine was apparently set to the US, which is why a lot of local content is missing. This article has been edited to reflect my new views.
After a looooooooooooong time of being relegated to second class citizen status, Disney+ (or Disney Plus) is finally here.
I’ve had a few hours to play around with the local version and compared to its US cousin, it’s…meh.
Here are reasons why you should and shouldn’t get Disney+.
Get IF:
You love Marvel
Disney+ has a TON of Marvel content. It has nearly all of the MCU movies (the new Spider-man movies, Captain America: The First Avenge, The Incredible Hulk and the Marvel shorts are missing) and even most of the other Marvel movie properties. That’s a pretty good haul if you want to rewatch most of the MCU again.
On the bonus side, there’s a ton of old school cartoons like the awesome 90s X-men and Spider-man series. Even the corny Fantastic Four series (with its two different theme songs!) are included! I’m going to be binging every one of them and partying like it’s the late 90s again!
You love EVERYTHING Disney
As far as I can tell, pretty much every Disney cartoon series is in it. Darkwing Duck, Talespin, Ducktales, Gummi Bears…all in. Even the awesome Gargoyles (Keith David rocks!) is available!
Needless to say, the classics like Beauty and the Beast and Snow White are all in too so if you want to take a trip down memory lane watching old the old school Disney animated classics, you’re all set!
You love National Geographic content
If you love documentaries, then you’ll probably find a lot of love with the National Geographic stuff. There’s a good amount of material to wade through, which should take you months, even if you binge watch so you’ll be set for the foreseeable future at the very least.
DON’T GET IF:
You love horror movies
Disney+ is so lacking in horror titles that even its search engine doesn’t give a crap. So…Zorro is considered horror now?
There’s only a handful legitimate of horror titles (less than 20 by my count…but I could’ve missed some), all under the STAR banner so there’s ZERO reason to subscribe if you’re into horror.
Go to watch Vudu’s offerings instead. They’re free and they have HUNDREDs of horror films.
You want to stream everything in 4K with HDR
If you want to watch content on 4K with HDR, you’re out of luck. Only the recent entries in support them. That mostly means modern movies like the Marvel MCU films and scattered entries throughout the Disney+ catalog.
The rest are simply in HD or in the case of old content like the cartoons, simply in SD.
You’re expecting constant new and varied content
Right now, Disney+ is only tying up with STAR for additional content that doesn’t fall under their banner. That means if you’re constantly looking for content from other publishers you’re out of luck. There probably will be none coming for the foreseeable future.
Sure things might change in the months ahead, but till then, all you’ll be looking forward to is more Disney and STAR content.
To be fair, it’s STAR that’s failing to keep up with the variety.
Disney is pretty much a one shot wonder with its content aimed at kids and young adults. STAR on the other hand can pick up the slack and introduce TV series and movies geared for mature audiences…which doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment.
The Bottom Line
Compared to other streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Vudu, Disney+ is pretty underwhelming…yet overwhelming at times. It certainly succeeds in giving a ton of Disney branded content (which is pretty much its goal) but fails in variety.
For me? I’m subscribing…but probably only for a few months. Once I’m done with the content I’m interested in (the cartoons, WandaVision and a few other movies), I’ll probably move on…unless Disney radically adds in more content from other publishers.