5 Disney+ deep cuts to watch on launch day
Image: Screenshot: DisneyGraphic: Jimmy Hasse TV Lists 5 To Watch
In 5 To Watch, five writers from The A.V. Club look at the latest streaming TV arrivals, each making the case for a favored episode. Alternately, they can offer up recommendations inspired by a theme. In this installment: With today’s launch of Disney+, The A.V. Club digs up five under-the-radar favorites available on the new streaming service.
In October, Disney+ revealed, one tweet at a time, some of the beloved properties that would appear on the new streaming service: from the 1937 classic Snow White And The Seven Dwarves and the Miley Cyrus star-making series Hannah Montana, to ’90s teen rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You and blockbusters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the combined libraries of the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox contains a lot less widely celebrated titles, too, like The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Turner And Hooch, and Herbie Goes Bananas. Now that Disney+ launch day has arrived, The A.V. Club offers our own personal favorites from the vault. Here are five places to start as you work your way through the Mouse motherlode.
Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971)
Sure, Bedknobs And Broomsticks is a kid-lit fantasy adaptation that casts a titan of musical theater as a magical caregiver improving the lives of British moppets. And yes, the film takes place in a bygone era of Old Blighty, blends live-action with animation, boasts a supporting turn from David Tomlinson, and is packed to its colorful cartoon gills with sticky compositions from the Sherman Brothers and Irwin Kostal. But it’d be a mistake to dismiss Bedknobs And Broomsticks as a pretender to Mary Poppins: First and foremost, the kids are orphans this time around—“three cockney waifs” as the trailer voiceover booms. But Bedknobs And Broomsticks is also unencumbered by the Best Picture-courting import of its more prestigious predecessor, possessing a ramshackle charm embodied by Lansbury’s apprentice witch, Tomlinson’s street-corner charlatan, and the practical-effect regiment of antiquated armor and weaponry they sic on invading Nazi forces. Add a splash of Main Street Electrical Parade psychedelia, and Bedknobs And Broomsticks makes for an absolute hoot from a transitional era for Disney. [Erik Adams]
Freaky Friday (1976)
Before Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis switched bodies, before even Tom Hanks became Big and Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage went Vice Versa, there was Jodie Foster in the original body-swapping romp, 1976’s Freaky Friday. Foster’s Annabelle is the coolest of cool kids, sporting a shag haircut and a puka shell necklace as she traverses her neighborhood on her skateboard, rebelling against her strict mother in the process. But then Annabelle becomes her mother, and her mother becomes Annabelle, and future Oscar-winner Foster and Second City alum Barbara Harris usher in the age of body-swap movies by taking on each other’s personalities. Foster asking her pal, “Could I trouble you for a dime, dear?” is comedy gold, as is Harris blowing bubble gum and heading out on that skateboard. Naturally, everything ends up with a car driving down stairs and a wild water-skiing stunt, because this is a 1970s Disney movie. But the two Golden Globe-nominated leads end up expertly delivering the true message of Freaky Friday: Nobody’s life is as easy as it looks from the outside. [Gwen Ihnat]
Return To Oz (1985)
The film that launched a thousand childhood nightmares, Return To Oz takes the sweetness and whimsy of the original 1939 film and strips it of… sweetness and whimsy. What’s left is a bleak and unsettling story about Dorothy (precocious Fairuza Balk, just 9 years old when it was filmed), now committed to a mental institution, who manages to return to her beloved fantasyland only to find it a barren shell, its citizens turned to statues and the countryside ruled by the Harryhausen-esque Nome King. Director Walter Murch, a legendary sound artist and editor who made his only feature film with Return To Oz, manages to craft some of the most disturbing kids’ entertainment this side of The Last Unicorn. His ear for haunting composition finds its scariest outlet in the Wheelers, the harrowing evil henchman with wheels for hands and feet, and he does cold justice to L. Frank Baum’s world, making it the sort of fantastical haunt of which no child would ever want to come within a thousand yards. There are other “dark and gritty” reworkings of the Baum mythos, but few achieve such a primal sense of trauma. In other words: perfect for family movie night! [Alex McLevy]
Flight Of The Navigator (1986)
Although it hits terminal cuteness sometime around the two-thirds mark—i.e., pretty much the moment a pseudonymous Paul Reubens arrives as the voice of a sentient spaceship who laughs way too much—the first hour or so of Disney’s attempt to cash in on the E.T. craze is remarkably bracing stuff. What’s most shocking about Flight Of The Navigator, to modern eyes, is what a slow, subtle burn it is; though director Randal Kleiser fills the movie’s opening act with tongue-in-cheek references to flying saucers and people staring up in wonder at the skies, the actual abduction that drives its plot takes place in the span of a single, barely noticeable cut. The upshot of all this misdirection is that the audience ends up just as scared and disoriented as poor David Freeman (Joey Cramer), who falls into a ravine near his Florida home one night, and somehow emerges eight years later, untouched by the ravages of time, and with a mysterious extraterrestrial voice yelling in his head. It’s actually a bit of a letdown once the movie gets to the kid-flies-a-spaceship parts that are ostensibly its reason for existing; it’s a better mystery movie than an action-adventure, no matter how many times Reubens does the Pee-wee Herman laugh. [William Hughes]
X-Men: Evolution (2000-2003)
The X-Men properties, be they blockbuster movies or long-running comics titles, mainly explore the goings-on at Professor Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters—but often bypass the last part of that name. Not so with the animated series X-Men: Evolution. Scott, Jean, Kurt, and Kitty are all juggling life at a public high school while also learning to be X-Men, which leads to more adolescent-minded plot developments: The kids throwing a party when Professor X is out of town, which gets perilous when a partygoer discovers the Danger Room, or Scott being jealous of Jean dating the school football star. You can also spot some Buffy The Vampire Slayer parallels (reportedly the Evolution creators were fans), like Shadowcat doing a Cordelia-like dance in the credits, and the guitar-laden theme song. Makes sense: Both series explored the difficulty of growing up while having to save the world over and over again. Luckily, these young X-Men are guided by the patient Professor X, and the not-so-patient Wolverine—but even Logan lets his students just play dodgeball one episode instead of more strenuous training, because “sometimes you just gotta let kids be kids.” [Gwen Ihnat]
268 Comments
No ‘Journey of Natty Gann’? A.V. Club, I am disappointed. That is a Disney deep cut. Far more than a cartoon based on the most popular Marvel comic of all time.
The late great Barbara Harris deserves better than to have her name gotten completely wrong. Fix that pronto, please.
You’re a handsome devil. What’s your name?
Seriously, she is comedy GOLD in the North Avenue Irregulars.
And edited. Thank you!
Where’s Song of the South?
Buried next to Walt’s frozen head. But if you want some old school racist, you still got Dumbo to watch!
Inferring the race of those anthropomorphic crows makes you the racist. Actually their song is the only song I remember from the movie. I had the soundtrack.
Dumbo is not the only option.
Seems fine. Those cats look pretty inscrutable to me.
Nope, sure isn’t…
And the siamese cats in the original Lady & the Tramp
And the Siamese cat in Aristocats
In the deep dark hole the Star Wars Holiday Special recently went into.
Looking forward to the protests about the Bedknobs and Brooksticks stars being SJWs for raising an army against Nazis.
The liquid metal stairs on the ship in Flight of the Navigator are still cool.
Seeing all those alien creatures on the ship brought back some long-dormant memories for me too. I remember loving that movie as a kid, but haven’t thought about it in probably 25 years.
I rewatched it about a year or so ago, and it still holds up. I’m sure part of that is nostalgia, but it’s worth going back & watching it again.
I recognized the title but couldn’t begin to tell you what the plot was. Definitely haven’t thought about it since I was a kid.
As was S-J Parker’s Random Roles response.
https://www.avclub.com/sarah-jessica-parker-on-footloose-sex-and-the-city-an-1830427525
I somehow forgot (or never knew) Flight of the Navigator was a Disney flick. I also never thought that Freaky Friday was a “deep cut,” what with Jodie Foster and the remake and all.
Same here. Maybe because I’m an old but I saw the original Freaky Friday a million times. They even ran it a bunch on TCM: I watched it over the summer with my daughters.
Flight of the Navigator, The Cat From Outer Space, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Black Hole, Dragonslayer, Tron, Popeye (Robin Williams) were all good live action films before the 90s. For some reason I keep thinking Cloak and Dagger was Disney too, but it was actually Universal Pictures.
Probably confusion caused by the Marvel Cloak and Dagger series. Didn’t Henry Thomas murder someone in that movie?
I remember my mom being appalled that a PG movie would have a man threatening to blow off a 12 year old kid’s kneecaps.
It was a surprisingly hardcore movie for a kid’s movie. I remember Dabney Coleman getting shot and he bled out in front of the kid, at the end. I still love the movie, but it was kinda messed up for a kid’s movie.
Right, but that was Coleman as “Jack Flak,” who was in the kid’s imagination. Oh shit, so that means Henry Thomas was imagining that grisly death… which I guess shows how fucked up that kid was.
PG-13 was introduced in July 1984, a month before Cloak and Dagger’s release date (yes I had to look that up) so it was probably grandfathered under PG. Kneecappings and slow gunshot deaths were standard for old-school PG. As were boobs.
Wow, I thought Cloak & Dagger was Disney, too. That was definitely one of my favorites.
I LOVE ‘Cloak and Dagger’, but man that movie messed me up when I was little. Something about the elderly spy couple was deeply unsettling to young me.
I don’t think that movie would have been made in this day and age. There was definitely a healthy dose of WTF elements in that film that would make many a parent recoil if they studied the film to see if their kid should watch it. I still say it was a brilliant movie for a kid as it preps you for a lifetime of gaslighting you’ll get as an adult.
I just looked it up on Common Sense Media and parents say / kids say age appropriateness are 12 and 11, respectively. That seems about right.
Holy shit, I had to look Cloak and Dagger up in IMDB and remembered it. I thought it was some weird dream I had as a kid, but damn. Thanks for unlocking the childhood trauma.
Was Popeye Disney? I only remember that Robert Altman directed it.
It says a Walt Disney Production on the movie poster here. It was also under Paramount Pictures.
Ahhh.I remember forcing my parents to take me to see that at least twice and I still feel bad. It’s a fun movie but I can understand, now, how my parents must have felt.
The Robin Williams Popeye was the first video my folks rented for us when we got our first VCR in like 1982. I still believe that’s the only time I saw it.
Which reminds me that the local video store had a whole separate room for kids movies, and they had all the Disney films available to that time, including all the obscure live action ones like Bedknobs & Broomsticks and Darby O’Gill and the Little People. I think this was before all of Disney’s “vault” bullshit.
I got a good share of Disney flicks growing up as a kid, thanks to Errol’s Video. When they made the switch from Beta to VHS we cleaned them out of their Disney Beta tapes, they were like a buck each. Since we had Beta and VHS, it wasn’t an issue for us to keep the old tapes.
I forget the name of the video store, but it was definitely not a chain. But I do remember where it was and I can still mostly picture the interior. All the videos were along the wall behind the counter in black cases, the regular display ones were on the racks you could browse. Very seventies dark paneling, except in the kids section which was white. I have no idea if they had adult nekkid videos but I imagine they did, I was way too young to know what that was!
My folks were never big buyers of videos, mainly because I think they felt they couldn’t afford it (a movie was surprisingly expensive back in the 80’s). I kind of wish they had been if only because they probably could’ve scored some good stuff that’s hard to find now!
Also, your inclusion of The Cat From Outer Space has me questioning your judgment of “good live action film.” Disney was basically a grindhouse for kids in the ’70s.
I remember it fondly from my childhood. Not every classic is a true classic for everyone else. I have good memories watching it. I knew it was dumb, but something in it appealed to my younger self.
I remember enjoying it as a kid, but I’m not sure if I’d find it as amusing now.But I have kids, one of whom absolutely loves cats, so once they start searching the app, they’re likely to find it, and I’m sure I’ll be watching it again soon enough.I’m also looking forward to revisiting The Black Hole and Condorman.
I just watched a couple clips on youtube and it is kinda painful to watch now as an adult. Great for the wee ones, but probably tortuous for the parents.
Hey, it starred both commanders of the 4077th!
I forgot Col. Potter was in that. I only remember Col. Blake.
Escape to Witch Mountain was solid. I inaugurated Disney+ by watching that with my kids, and then followed up the next night with Return from Witch Mountain.
Another good deep cut is The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Not because it’s particularly good, but it’s just a weird reminder that Kurt Russel was a go-to Disney kid in the 60s.
I like that whole trilogy.
I don’t remember that one as well, although I’ve seen it. The one I remember more distinctly is The Strongest Man in the World. I think of Sky High (a movie I’m very fond of) as being sort of the spiritual successor to it, and to those old Disney live-action movies in general.
As someone who first discovered Kurt Russell in Escape from New York and The Thing, it’s deeply funny to me that he was almost exclusively a go-to Disney kid for about a decade in the 60s and 70s.
Considering how many times Freaky Friday has been copied. I have even heard it used as an adjective for a body swap. IE “In that movie the two leads get Freaky Friday’d”
There’s a terrible song called Freaky Friday in which some hack wishes he was notorious terrible person Chris Brown.
Its like spoiled milk that somehow aged like milk again.
It’s a vicious cycle of terrible-ness.
I wish I could say things like “I have never heard that song before”, but I can’t. I have heard that song and I can never unhear it.
I first hear it because of spoiled brats: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/04/11/miami-students-kicked-out-sorority-after-using-racial-slur-video/506174002/
Does he wish to be him so that he can have his money and be a better role model? I’m cool with that.
#LilDicky
Freaky Friday takes its premise from a comic novel by F. Anstey from 1882 called Vice Versa, in which a father and son switch bodies: the father has to go off to boarding school and the son has to run his father’s business.
Ray on Legends of Tomorrow specifically referred to Jax & Stein swapping bodies as a “Freaky Friday situation”
I only watched “Flight of the Navigator” on Sunday afternoon “Wonderful world of Disney” in Canada, so I always knew this one. Or assumed it at least.
I’ve only seen it once, either a VHS rental one Saturday afternoon, or on cable. So I’m fighting probably 35 years of hazy memories here.
None of these cuts are deep.
Freaky friday is a deep cut if you’re 23, think all media started in 1990, and use the term “ok boomer” unironically.
Return to Oz was one of my absolute favorite movies when I was a kid. As were the Last Unicorn and Watership Down. I was never scared by any of them, so this whole recent slew of people saying these movies scarred their childhoods never made any sense to me. Is it just a matter of age? I was 9 when Return to Oz came out, so I probably didn’t see it until I was at least 10. And I really really hate horror movies now, so it isn’t like I’m particularly robust or anything. I just really enjoyed the deep storytelling these movies did. They felt bigger than themselves, if that makes sense. Probably helps that they are all (at least partly) based on really excellent books. I loved Bednobs and Broomsticks, but I probably haven’t seen it since I was 10! Flight of the Navigator as well. Damn. Do I have to get Disney+ now?
I also saw Return to Oz when I was 9! I wasn’t scarred either, though in revisiting it a few years ago, the early scenes involving electroshock therapy are uncomfortably (or delightfully?) infused with dread. And it’s funny that a film which is ostensibly returning Oz to its roots in the books (the script does a good job of compressing the events and characters of the next 2 Oz books in the series) completely misses the “innocent children’s entertainment” aspect of L. Frank Baum’s writing. It’s very much a piece of the early 80’s dark fantasy vibe of some other films like The Black Cauldron and Dragonslayer. So yeah, I like it.
Man I loved Dragonslayer wayyyyyyy too much as a kid. Probably the biggest reason it jump started me reading a lot of fantasy, which then lead to D&D. So yeah thanks Dragonslayer lol
The movie still holds up! Especially the great looking dragon.
The baby dragons chewing off the leg of Ellsbeth’s corpse was a pretty rough scene when I was a kid.
Watership Down had the added trippiness of the animation. It definitely left you queasy at times.
As a kid I loved all the movies you listed and wasn’t really scared. They were creepy, but not nightmare inducing. I can’t remember if The Peanut Butter Solution was good, but it was also strange and creepy. I’ll also add that Killer Klowns From Outer Space was basically a kids movie too and I loved that as well.
I saw only one scene from The Peanut-butter Solution and I was very young. I spent years wondering how little-me could possibly have dreamed up the horrifying image of a child strapped to a hair-harvesting machine because I was sure there was no way such a movie actually existed.
I watched last unicorn all the time, but was also completely freaked out by it. When the show all of the unicorns being washed into the sea and the bull. 😨
I can’t believe Angela Lansbury made a movie where nobody got murdered.
Shhhhhh! It’s a misdirection. Jessica’s just trying to throw everyone off her trail.
She was quite the dazzling young starlet at one point, believe it or not.
She was fantastic as the princess in “The Court Jester”.
and she was sexy and, well, there, in The Harvey Girls. I mean, she has a long, very long career with dozens of roles that are not related to crime.
After being associated with murder for decades, a film with nazis is where she decides to draw her pacifist line. Really Angela?
You should check out the Manchurian Candidate where she’s a Communist spy running her own son as an asset and is, maybe, fucking him.
Or her turn as Mrs Lovett in the broadway version of Sweeney Todd.
She does raise the dead to fight the Nazis though, so that’s cool
Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee!
Dammit, now the bodies in my basement just rose up looking for a fight
Had she the number of bodies from Cabot’s Cove, she could’ve won the war quicklier.
also my safe word
PHWOAR!
I love a bit of the old “substitutiary locomotion”
I don’t remember any necromancy… I thought she just animated a museum full of armor?
Animated with the ghosts of the dead!!!!Maybe not. Its been a while since I saw the movieI do recall a dance number about Portobello road that heavily implies the ladies dancing are of the working variety.
With hilarity that ensues! Nothing like seeing an empty suit of armor goosestep kicking Nazis in the butt.
Eh, She brings suits of armor and empty uniforms to life. Not really raising the dead.
…you think it’s a coincidence that the kids are orphans?
She starred in it, but it wasn’t a film she wrote…
Bed Knobs and BroomsticksAKAMary Floppins
Hey now, no one and nothing but a rattlesnake dies in The Harvey Girls.
Angela Lansbury’s character in The Manchurian Candidate was so horrible, it made my parents detest Lansbury for YEARS. When this movie came out 9 years later, my parents still wouldn’t take us.
I don’t think anyone was murdered in Gaslight…just, you know, gaslit.
I think they murder the person who originally had the jewels they’re looking for in the movie.
Been trying to access the site all morning. It’s very hit or miss. iOS app is completely down right now. On desktop browser the “Disney” tab is unusable. Tried playing the live action Lady and the Tramp and that started up ok. I think they are getting flooded.
Same for me. Hopefully the kinks get worked out throughout the day
Yeah, and its why i’m holding off on signing up for another month or so. Just like with tech in general, wait for them to sort out the bugs, issues, and update it before using it.
I just wanted to double check that i’ll finally have an easy way to watch old Simpsons and nothing is working on the android app or desktop.
I have a 3 year old and if the Pixar movies aren’t working by 5pm its not going to be pretty
“If I don’t get some Toy Story bitches, you all gonna get a Forky to the eye”
This thread, and especially your comment is exactly why I am here. To make sure I’m not the only one suffering the risk of toddler murder.
I bought Toy Story 4 on DVD last week, specifically to avoid connection-related hassles. I’m on board with the earlier sentiment about waiting a few weeks before signing up; it seems like launch-day bandwidth requirements always exceed the initial hardware investment.
This is why my wife and I have almost every Disney and Pixar animated feature on DVD or Blu-Ray. Streaming is certainly more convenient (Movies Anywhere has been great), but if the internet goes out? Yeah. We also have all but one of the Walt Disney Treasures, and most of Studio Ghibli’s classics.
Well the 3 year old is going to have to learn an important life lesson regarding disappointment lmao
word. its called a “teachable moment” but damn, i don want to fight battles I dont have to
Lmao don’t blame you
Same here. I was able to download one episode of the Simpsons to my phone then I haven’t been able to get on since.
I downloaded 7 episodes of the Simpson’s on my phone while eating breakfast this morning, but the app wouldn’t load on my TV yet at all.
At first I thought you were talking about AV Club and I was wondering “When did G/O get an app?”
It sucks that Disney sucked all these old properties streaming rights back up. Up until recently, I was enjoying them with my kids for free from our local library’s streaming service, Hoopla.
SOCIALIST!!!!…..Yeah it does suck.
This is kicking off a rights arms race among content producers that is going to leave us with basically the streaming versions of channels we used to get on cable, each priced individually at higher rates. Progress!
Wait till they figure out subscribers don’t re-up to watch the old crap, and the best bang for the new content buck is copying the garbage that gets churned out for youtube.
I’m fairly certain that the streaming sub game is providing old crap for subscribers. The largest draw for Disney+ according to surveys is The Simpsons. Netflix most watch thing is The Office and Seinfeld is for HULU. Old crap is what gets you re-ups.
If you have kids and access to all Disney movies, all the time, I could see keeping a subscription to this. Cheaper than renting one at a time or buying blu-ray (for people who still do that).
I don’t know man, regardless of how they might seem now, those spaceship parts of Flight of the Navigator were friggin’ awesome when I was watching it as a kid.
I wouldn’t give Disney money if someone else paid me to give it to them.
I haven’t seen Flight of the Navigator in 30 years. The HD conversion looks great and it still holds up well.
It’s in HD?! Of course it’s in HD…..It’s in HD!
Can confirm, X-Men Evolution is awful and belongs nowhere near this list. Teen X-Men is an absolutely great concept. This show executes it incredibly poorly.Will, how did you not put an emergency stop on this? 🙁
I’ve seen a few episodes and thought it was an “okay” adaptation of the X-Men, but why are they attending a public school when they live in a private boarding school specifically made to keep them separate and safe from the non-mutant population?
Wow. You misspelled The Cat From Outer Space.
Honestly, maybe its because I grew up with those, but they don’t seem very deep cuts. My deep cut pick is the Ugliest Dachshund because all the Disney movies with dogs are fun
I loved that one when I was a kid, as I’ve always been a dog lover. Another deep cut from around the same era: Million Dollar Duck!
I loved that movie. Saw it in the theatre. Mother Funkhouser took Brother Funk and me. She also took us to see “Star Wars” for our second or third viewing cuz she was hearing all the buzz and then slept through the whole movie. We love her anyway.
These are really not very deep at all.For what it’s worth, Something Wicked This Way Comes is mine.
Good pick, but is that deep? I watched it for the fourth or fifth time just last month, got it from the library. But maybe it’s deep.
Maybe not then!
Like you, I’ve seen it a number of times but I’m the only person I know IN THE IRL who has seen it…well, separately of me tell them “you should see this movie!”
One of those people I foisted it on is a hardened Ray Bradbury fan who didn’t even know it existed.
That’s even LESS deep! Major release based upon a classic Ray Bradbury book (though probably made more classic by the movie connection).
My deep cuts are The Gnome Mobile and Watcher in the Woods.
Watcher in the Woods isn’t a deep cut, but it’s a goddamn treasure.
I love the Gnome Mobile so much. I keep debating Disney +, but with the Gnome Mobile, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, and my friend mentioned Oliver & Company today, I just might have to subscribe for awhile.
The one I really want to see is the original Escape to Witch Mountain. I loved that movie.
My deep pick: “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”, a 1959 classic featuring a pre-Bond, Sean Connery singing!
TIL a lot of stuff I grew up with are now “deep cuts”Now if you’ll excuse me there are some kids on my lawn I need to yell at.
Freaky friday is a deep cut if you’re 23, think all media started in 1990, and use the term “ok boomer” unironically.
I have a false memory of Fred Savage starring in Flight of the Navigator and I still get confused when I see images of the other kid in it. I watched that movie to death as a kid, too!
It’s definitely a well-known older movie, but I think most of the hype is around all the Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars stuff, so anything outside the current mainstream probably counts as a deep cut.
You could definitely be forgiven because they definitely bear a striking resemblance and the time period is right haha
X-Men Evolution was also, believe it or not, the very first appearance of fan favorite X-23. Even before the comics. Her first comic book appearance was sometime later in NYX #3.
True! She got the Harley Quinn treatment.
And then got added to the cast of a main X-Men book before she was done being introduced in NYX because that book basically just stopped coming out. God, that launch was a train wreck.
these all suck compared to D.A.R.Y.L. thats the disney movie i want to see.
D.A.R.Y.L. was from Paramount, currently on Starz.
My brother was/is a huge Flight of the Navigator fan, so that’s one of those movies we watched about 500 times when we were kids. But it’s probably been 25-30 years since I’ve seen it. Might be time to revisit on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
GARGOYLES THO
X-Men Evolution is the second best X-Men show after the original 90s cartoon. Prove me wrong. But seriously, Evolution is great. The high school framing actually works, and shit gets really real by the end of season 2. They also had enough respect for the 90s cartoon to not reuse its plot beats, i.e. there is no Dark/Phoenix Saga! They tell new stories with allusions to old ones. Sigh, if only Fox took notes.
Wolverine and the X-Men was on track to be much better but got cancelled. What else is even there to compete with otherwise?
I liked how they made it so distinct from the 90’s show, especially the aspect of mutants not being publicly known yet. They also did a great job with Apocalypse. Some of it feels pretty dated, like Spyke’s name and skateboarding, but the original has that too with Jubilee and it’s still so much fun anyway.
Yes! The first season was definitely “What if X-Men but high school” complete with all the usual high school tropes, but things jumped into some interesting gears with the big status quo shift in s2. Also I like the flexibility they allowed themselves by letting Storm, Wolverine, and Beast serve as veteran teachers as opposed to being students themselves. The Apocalypse arc was a great slow burn. As for Spyke, he went through some crazy character development. Hell, they all did. And this is the show that created Laura Kinney, don’t forget.
Teenager Wolverine would’ve been so weird, thank goodness they kept him as an adult, complete with a Captain America teamup episode. They also didn’t use him too much, which is remarkable considering the show was in the wake of the Fox movies’ success.
I kinda hated how Spyke (who was created for the cartoon) had to be Storm’s nephew. Why the black people gotta be related?
Yeah, that and he eventually was more or less written out when he went to the sewers with the Morlocks.
I might squeak Legion in at #2.
Yeah, really cool, really underrated. And I didn’t really get to see it end the first time around so I was pleasantly surprised to see this on the menu.
I would recommend Candleshoe over Freaky Friday if your in the mood for a 1977 Jodie Foster Disney flick. Much better movie in my opinion.
These are deep cuts?Bedknobs and Broomsticks=Deep Cut?
Yeah I know every single one of these. The only one that even comes close is Flight of the Navigator. I want to say I saw B&B in school as a kid in the early 80’sWhile I have never watched FF I know of it and all the remakes Annnnnd all the movies it inspired (and the Lil Dicky song) I remember reading the next Oz books then seeing this movie and thinking wow this follows the books quite well. And while the books were a bit more kid friendly the premise of them was definitely on the creepy side. So I can see how the movie got its tone.
Was disappointed that Something Wicked This Way Comes, Watcher in the Woods, & Condorman weren’t on here, but let’s hope it will someday. Happy to see The Black Hole and The Black Caldron on here!
I’d love to see someone try again with The Black Cauldron. I loved those books as a kid, and lord knows there’s plenty of market right now for Medieval-era fiction and YA.
I first saw Flight of the Navigator the weekend it was first released in theaters and I loved it right up until the part where the computer lost his mind. I never did like Peewee Herman even back then so it doesn’t surprise me at all that I hated that new and improved voice.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks was one of my favourite movies when I was a kid but I haven’t seen it since I was like 8 years old so I will be giving that a watch for sure. If Disney+ ever loads.
First thing I watched was The Black Hole. I am excited to watch Flight of the Navigator with my 9yo though!
One thing I would request from Disney is to create a category for the Wonderful World of Disney original movies. There is some work needed on categorizing the shows and movies.
I would like to see those movies, not just in “movie” format, but also as individual WWoD episodes, complete with Walt’s intro/outro bumpers and the WWoD open.
I agree, the good and bad , including all the terrible yet fun remakes that seem to have made up the 80’s early 90’s Sunday movie.
Like Toothless, Safety Patrol, or Once upon a Mattress?
I’m thinking even older then that, like the multiple Parent Trap sequels, Condorman, the movie with the kid with that creates the superbike, etc.
I love Flight of the Navigator. I remember seeing it several times as a kid on Wonderful World of Disney Sunday afternoons/evenings. Watched it last year & it holds up.
Return to Oz and Something Wicked This Way Comes were two overlooked movies from a brief period in the 80s when Disney attempted to allow directors to do something a little different and less formulaic/treachley than their their usual product. Unfortunately, lack of box office returns put a stop to the experiment that never got a chance to get it’s footing.
Something Wicked probably freaked adults out more than kids. Mr. Dark tearing pages from the book of Robards’ life was scary as a kid, but I’m sure a gut punch to their parents (and grandparents).
One thing I didn’t appreciate about this movie as a kid was how damn good Jason Robards was. Most of the townspeople actors came across as pretty regional theater-caliber, so when Jason Robards was onscreen the difference in acting quality was palpable.
For myself I’m going with X-Men The Animated Series, Spider-Man The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and Kim Possible!
It’s not the original Spidey cartoon is it? From 60s/early 70s? Cuz if so, O M G.
Im talking about the 1990s one. But yes the original is there.
No, the original is not there. It’s Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, which was early 80’s. And Spider-Man also early 80’s. But the first late 60’s/70’s one with the famous theme song isn’t on.
I don’t think fan-favorite Spectacular Spider-Man is there either. Personally I’d also like to see that Neil Patrick Harris MTV spider-man too.
Actually, looks like you’re wrong. They have 60s/70s Spider-Man, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, 90s Spider-Man, and Spider-Man Unlimited. They’re lacking the BEST Spider-Man cartoon (Spectacular), but have a bunch of the ones made since then, if people like those.
Nope. The earliest show labeled just ‘Spider-Man’ was the one that aired in 1981.
Also the Spider Woman series from 1979
Return to Oz is a borderline horror movie. The fact this was marketed to kids at all is amazing. Flight of the Navigator was hands down my favorite movie as a kid. I remember having a meltdown once because it was going to be on TV, but i messed up what time it was going to be on and missed the first hour.
I remember when I was a kid, at some used book store I found a book adaption (which is kinda ironic that there was a book adaption of a movie adaption of a book). It had some shots form the movie in the center (if memory serves me right) it both fascinated and traumatized me
As a kid, I owned the novelization of Batman Returns. Complete waste of paper.
Huh. Steaming Streaming hot garbage without The Cat From Outer Space.
Yeah, since none of the primo servers are working, might as well settle in with a hot cup of tea and enjoy “G-Force 2 – 2 Guinea, 2 Piggy”
Return to Oz is a great movie, I loved it, but damn those wheelers creeped the shit out of me as a kid. Bedknobs & Broomsticks is also a great film and a personal favorite. I’m still not subscribing to yet another streaming service. I’m just contemplating the modern day cheater box scenario in the near future since the streaming wars are just as bad as cable was.
Come on…all this talk and nothing about “Gus”?
I probably watched both Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Freaky Friday twenty times each. Those were definitely two of my favorites. I love Barbara Harris doing bicycle kicks in a black cocktail dress, and the nazis fighting with Angela Lansbury’s nightgown.
Whoa that Return to Oz trailer just unlocked some memories that I had apparently locked deep down in the basement of my mind. That movie totally creeped me out and weirdly fascinated me as a kid! And now, thanks to Disney+, my own children can have nightmares about the wheelers!
One throw in for The Computer that Wore Tennis Shoes! The Kurt Russel vehicle that started a load of Disney-fied College Adventures with Dexter and his Gang.Plus it gave me the answer to phones I don’t call ID “Sherwood Forest – Robin Hood speaking”
Return to Oz was definitely the scariest movie I ever saw as a 9 year old, and I still think of it with dread to this day. I thought I was the only one…. Thank you for returning some of my dignity.
Is this thing going to have all the 70s live-action randomness that I barely remember from my early childhood? Because I want to re-watch all of itThe Cat from Outer Space
Gus
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
The Apple Dumpling Gang
Pete’s DragonAnd many I don’t remember but now want to watch after Googling:The Barefoot Executive (??)
Candleshoe (???)
The Boatniks
The Biscuit Eater (???)
Unidentified Flying Oddball
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (????)
The Strongest Man in the World
The Boy Who Talked to Badgers (?????)
No on The Barefoot Executive, The Boatniks, and The Boy Who Talked to Badgers. Everything else you listed is there.
I remember renting Computer Wore Tennis Shoes in around 1985, good popcorn movie.
BLACK CAULDRON
BLACK HOLETRON
I recall X-Men Evolution being available on YouTube not too long ago. Amazing how well the animation holds up, especially compared to some of Marvel’s more recent offerings.
I watched Flight of the Navigator again a few years again and was disappointed. All the cool alien and spaceship stuff I remember happens in like the last 25 minutes of the movie. Everything before that was kinda dull.
Plus the Kurt Russell Disney movies. Great fun. I hope they still hold up.Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes.Strongest Man in the World.Barefoot Executive. I think these are all on there; probably others too.
+1 applejack
Oh god, computer who wore tennis shoes is atrocious.
Yeah, I’m feeling like a Teenage Kurt Russell Movie Marathon this weekend.
Sky High is unfortunately not available until December 2020 due to licensing issues.
Darby O’gill and the little people is where its at.
Generally was a fan of X-Men Evolution but if anyone here hasn’t seen Gargoyles, please prioritize that first.
this × infinity
Where’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People?
I loved Flight of the Navigator as a kid but the most memorable thing about it for me was that after the movie we snuck into Transformers, Aliens, and The Fly which were all playing in the same theater at the same time (1986 was wild)
Glad to see X-Men Evolution getting some love. I always thought it was criminally underrated and overlooked. I discovered the show my freshman year of college and binged the whole thing in a weekend.
Ooo boy can’t wait to watch Song of the South.
I remember watching Flight of the Navigator a lot with my older brother when I was a kid. I also, for some reason, always misremembered the lead as Fred Savage. Not sure why that is!
What? No Song of the South?
The Wheelers are terrifying and all, but scene where Dorothy is pursued by a headless evil queen who is making disgusting gurgling noises from her exposed throat while the long hallway display of her disembodied heads scream “DOOOOOOROTHY GAAAAAALE!!!!” rivals anything I’ve seen in any horror movie. What I can’t figure out though is why the PG-13 rating exists.By the way I’m about age-contemporary with Fairuza Balk and was, at age eight, totally into her.
See and the Fairuza Balk that I knew and grew up with was the American History X/The Craft Fairuza, so she kind of haunts my nightmares lol. Damn good actress though.
I saw Return to Oz on tv about 1989, I’d have been 8ish. Scared the bejeezus out of me. I think I still see those wheeler guys in my nightmares. I also think I already had a thing for Fairuza Balk.
I feel so old — to me, growing up in the 70s/80s, most of these are legit and well-known classics, not obscure deep cuts….. but bravo for highlighting them.
Can someone tell me if Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is available?
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is there. Two seasons, so if that’s all they made it’s all there.
Song of the South or GTFO.
More like Zippity-DON’T-da, amirite
Calling Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Flight of the Navigator, Freaky Friday, and Return to Oz “Deep Cuts” makes me feel really really old.
I am excited for X-Men Evolution, it was such a different take on the original concept, I wish they could’ve kept going with it but the ending was still satisfactory. I liked flight of the navigator UNTIL Paul Reubens starts doing his Pee Wee schtick. then it got silly.
I’ve never seen Flight but your synopsis sounds like the same fate the similar “Explorers” suffered. Silly second half.
Literally none of those are “deep cuts”. Next recommend The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, Monkeys go Home! or That Darn Cat!
Good choices!Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Always loved the whole battle at the end, where the suits of armor fight the Nazis. There’s just something really awesome about it:Also, there were some genuinely great songs in the movie – “The Soldiers of the Old Home Guard” for example!
All of these “deep cut” films were among my childhood staples.
Nope to Return To Oz. That film gave me so many nightmares as a kid.I haven’t seen Navigator in probably 30 years. I loved that movie so much as a kid that i’m afraid to watch it with adult eyes.
Don’t know why you would be worried. Definitely still holds up. I’ve watched it a few times over the last few years. Love it.
I rewatched Flight of the Navigator for the first time in about 30 years last month and it was great. I wasn’t expecting much but it really holds up
Sadly it turns out Disney did not release the library they said they would at launch. Bonkers for example (reason #2 I wanted the service) is now missing all but its first season.
Really? These are your deep cuts? Movies that were on in syndication when most of this site’s audience were kids?
Flight of the Navigator is and will always be one of my favvourite movies as a kid and holds up incredibly well today.
My votes for deep cuts are two of the early Kurt Russell live action vehicles — The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Strongest Man in the World.
REAL deep cuts:Fun and Fancy FreeMelody TimeSaludos AmigosEmil and the DetectivesJustin Morgan Had a HorseSultan and the Rock Star
Flight of the Navigator was one of my favourite movies as a kid, and even then I was really impressed by the eerieness of the opening half.
… hey, is The Black Hole on disney+?
Yep!
Compliance!
Someone needs to do a fanedit of FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR where Paul Reubens is replaced by Werner Herzog.
X-Men Evolution was a great show, too bad it ended early.
Where the hell is Escape to Witch Mountain, The Three Lives of Thomasina, and Darby O’Gill and the Little People?
Wait…. FotN is a Disney movie??? I’ve seen it so many times and yet never noticed that.
The fanboys/girls of Disney blow my mind. Just like the Apple fanboys/girls. Just gotta have anything related to the company. Just like every other streaming service, 99% of the stuff is old. And the new stuff will just be pirated anyways.
Who really wants to watch old Disney movies? The again the same people are the ones that go to Disney and somehow enjoy it. I never understood the appeal. And yes I grew up on Disney also. Guess I just don’t get sucked into the nostalgia and lure of such things.
The old stuff is great. The new stuff sucks. It’s not “nostalgic” to appreciate hand drawn animation and/or animatronics over shitty, generic, talentless CGI.And I’m totally the first person to ever say things were better back in the day.
We watched Pixar shorts “Bao” and “Kitbull.” So Disney+ is a success. Plus, we’re getting it free for a year through Verizon since we have an unlimited plan.
Jodie Foster made that Disney family film the same year she played an underage hooker in “Taxi Driver”.
This a list of a few movies I love/have fond memories. I actually own Bed knobs and Broomsticks that I bought on apple and I got my first iPad because it is my favorite disney live action movie (next is original Hailey Mills parent trap). Flight of the navigator was the first movie I saw with friends without adult supervision. And I think I have mentioned this before – I saw return to Oz at Radio City Music hall as a kid when it first came out. It was so cool and it was the first time I ever went there because my Jewish parents did not take me to the Christmas or Easter spectacular.
I can’t believe that disney isn’t trying to bury Return to Oz, given how dark and fucking weird it is. I love the movie! But it just seems so off brand for them now.
I wouldn’t call these “deep cuts” — by my definition, a Deep Cut is something a significant portion of the population has never heard of. Bedknobs and Broomsticks is not a Deep Cut. The North Avenue Irregulars is a Deep Cut.
I was actually excited to find episodes of the 80’s cartoon Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Was hoping they’d have those horribly animated but dripping with atmosphere 70’s marvel cartoons as well, but no luck.
Loved Bedknobs and Broomsticks growing up (90s) it was one of my favorite movies. My grandma introduced me to it and we watched a VHS to death lol.
If you can get it to work lol
List fails without ‘The Black Hole’, the disney/family friendly one anyway.
Is it just me, or is the Disney+ app available on Samsung Smart Hub Tvs after all?
I went straight to the end of the first X-Men: Evolution episode so I could hear that rockin’ outro theme again. Of course it wasn’t there. Here’s what I was looking for:I can’t find Spectacular Spider-Man either. Anyone know if it’s coming later?
Why no Charlie the Lonesome Cougar?
“Series A-Z,” Disney? Really? You haven’t learned from your own property, Hulu, and Netflix, that making it possible to just look through your catalog, without such titles being featured isn’t what people want?
Is there a “Dean Jones Collection” tab I can select? Barring that, a “Live-Action 1960s-70s Movies You Probably Watched When It was Snowing During Recess” option?
Candleshoe or GTFO.
You posted a super fake trailer for Return To Oz.
Lots of good choices; but despite Red Letter Media pooh-poohing it, I’d like to submit The Black Hole to the list – I found it chilling and gripping as a kid and still get goosebumps.
Also, Candleshoe.
I wonder if One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is available, given the widespread yellow-face and (if not ironic, certainly parodied) yellow-peril theme.
Roger Ebert described the film as “inoffensive” at its release, which is a quaint reminder of mid-Seventies sensibilities. Although almost certainly referring to the plotting and production rather than problematic portrayals of the Chinese characters; I think the film is a fascinating curiosity that isn’t (although my memory might be letting me down) as turgid as popular opinion seems to consider it.