Show of hands: How many of you signed up for Disney+ ahead of its launch last November? Okay, now: How many of you are still subscribed to Disney+ now that the first season of The Mandalorian is over? We can’t actually see you, but we’ll go ahead and guess that a fair amount of you canceled your subscriptions—and understandably so, given that Disney hasn’t exactly fulfilled its initial promise. The uploading of new content (both original titles and classics from the Vault) has been slow going, and of the original offerings available, only a couple have stood out (Baby Yoda show included). All of which is to say that THR’s latest report, which reveals that one of Bob Iger’s new goals is to “fix” Disney+, isn’t very surprising.
The lengthy piece goes behind the scenes of the streaming newcomer, which has had trouble establishing a strong identity for itself beyond the basic Disney branding. And as it turns out, a Disney product will make plenty of money, but it hasn’t exactly made much in the way of “good” entertainment. Per THR’s report, Disney+ “has more than 50 scripted shows and some 50 unscripted shows in development,” which seems both wildly ambitious and potentially ill-advised. Three original titles were scrapped, including the previously announced Muppets Live Another Day from Adam Horowitz, Eddy Kitsis, and Josh Gad; Book Of Enchantment, which would’ve featured Disney villains; and a new Tron adaptation from American Crime’s John Ridley, which wasn’t made public until now (and is probably the biggest downer of the bunch, depending on how you feel about Tron).
Other recent hiccups include the Lizzie McGuire revival, which was already in production when creator and showrunner Terri Minsky exited the series in January over creative differences with the studio. That discord arose from the revival’s exploration of more mature storylines and themes, leading star Hillary Duff to publicly implore the company to move the series over to Hulu—as it had with High Fidelity and Love, Simon. Disney’s nebulous guidelines for family-friendly content are undoubtedly a factor; the mature language, content, and occasional violence of The Simpsons is seemingly permitted because it’s a cartoon series (though the real reason probably has more to do with the fact that the title is a significant draw for subscribers).
Just last month, Bob Iger announced he is stepping down from his longtime post as CEO of Disney and transitioning to the role of executive chairman. In his new position, Iger says he will focus on “getting everything right creatively,” which we’re sure will work out beautifully, and we look forward to enjoying the influx of flawless content on Disney+ in the near future.
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I signed up because I’m an unapologetic MCU fan, and I’m gonna want my Falcon & Winter Soldier, Loki, and Wandavision. Hurry up with that. Also nice to be able to revisit seasons 3-10 of The Simpsons on demand. Also nice for the kids to be able to soak in some legacy Disney animation as well as Pixar. Kids also digging the NatGeo stuff. Honestly, The Mandalorian, and the Star Wars stuff in general, is a much smaller draw for me – I’ve watched the movies so many times they’re basically committed to memory at this point.
I looked at the release schedule for the MCU shows, and made a decision not to jump at Disney+ until those shows actually start coming out. I’ll catch up on Baby Yoda before Season 2, which is good enough for me.
That’s funny because my unapologetic MCU fandom is exactly why I HAVEN’T signed up yet; some of that won’t be out til 2021
I do NOT understand how the planned the service for two plus years and couldn’t have ONE mcu show at launch. NOT ONE???
“How many of you are still subscribed to Disney+ now that the first season of The Mandalorian is over?”I am! The new season of Clone Wars makes paying the ~$7/month totally worth it, though I wish to hell they’d update their UI because it’s poor to say the least.
*Love, Victor
I canceled my subscription last month because, as THR points out, I don’t fall into the camp that is satisfied watching the same movies every month. As much as I like Marvel movies and The Simpsons, there really isn’t anything to grab me until Falcon & the Winter Soldier arrives.
spoiler: white hot shite
Slowly burning my way through The Simpsons since the service debuted. I’m on season 6, and even though I’ve seen the first 10 or 11 seasons many times, I’m still struck once or twice a season by a joke that I’m just AMAZED made it onto this platform.
Have they fixed the aspect ratio yet?
Hah! Glad I’m not the only one.
No. And even though it bugs me that they couldn’t be bothered to do that beforehand, I’m not bothered enough to stop myself from watching it.
Have they fixed the aspect ratio yet?
I actually subscribed to the service for “The World According to Jeff Goldblum”, and since that show is getting a second season and the price is pretty reasonable (I don’t bundle it with Hulu, etc.) I’m keeping it for a while. It is nice to be able to catch up on catalog titles and old Simpsons episodes, and now that they’re getting newer movies onto the service about a month or two after the DVD release, I don’t have to rely on the spotty local library selection. Also, the Pixar SparkShorts have been consistently good and even excellent.
That said, they have been slow to add more of the library content I want (where’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “Never Cry Wolf”?) and I’m not interested in most of their original productions aside from the ones I mentioned. I’m not surprised that there are plans for retooling.
Whoever had the idea for Goldblum’s show is a goddamn genius. I could watch him be genuinely enthralled by just about anything, and that’s what the show is.
“If you, ah, think that’s great try, yes, yes, try being me.”~ Jeff Goldblum
I wanted to once in my life watch all the Star Wars movies from Episode 1 to Episode 9 over a small period of time. So, that’s what I did with my free time in February, capping it off by going to literally the last big screen showing of Episode 9 in my town. That was fun. Now I don’t need Disney+ until I decide I want to re-watch every Marvel movie. That will be awhile.
why would ANYONE, even a “fan” re-watch those badly written movies TWICE? you MISSED something in IRON MAN 2? let me spoil it: it didn’t make any fucking sense
Then you can try it again when it’s possible to watch the real versions of the originals (or “the middle three”).
I’ve got kids. I’m going to be subscribed to it for the next decade, at a minimum, regardless of whether they put out anything new I, an adult, like to watch. I suspect the majority of the people signing up for the service are like me.
This is just cold hard reality setting in for the streaming networks. After Netflix similarly chopped shows left and right anyone could have seen this coming. In a lot of ways this is just pay TV mimicking the history of broadcast TV. In the early through mid sixties the three networks went crazy with smarter than average, high concept shows many of which were quite expensive to produce. It all came to a peak in 1966 when every series was finally in color and there was a huge wave in fantasy/sci-fi programming. The networks quickly realized that most of these new shows weren’t pulling in the ratings to justify the expense and that most viewers really just wanted their old westerns, variety shows and sitcoms. Subsequently, TV got very safe and predictable again for the most part until Norman Lear and Mary Tyler Moore showed up.I think the blind panic for eyeballs that led to last year’s spending orgy among the streamers is clearly running out of steam and we won’t see money thrown at the wall the way it was even a year ago. These companies are realizing, much to their dismay, that TV is still TV and there is no winning formula nor a cheap one. At some point they are all going to have surprise hits with surprisingly dumb little shows no one thought anyone would watch and new TV is going to quickly resemble old TV. It’ll be Poptimism in 4K.
wow…incorrecttrue, shows like star trek were cancelled for low ratings but variety shows were CHEAP and got high ratings which is GOODand norman lear essentially was PUT on television he was ANOINTED as the man who would make america SMART so they cancelled hee haw and the western shows except for gunsmoke and replaced them with high brow “important” programmes like MAUDE all in the family, etc but this was not a NATURAL progression it was the networks FORCING programming on peopleWHETHER IT WAS “good” OR NOTfor every I SPY, there were five “GET CHRISTY LOVE”s
I pay solely for the Simpsons at this point.
If Disney were to upload their full library of animated shorts (Maybe leave out a few of the more controversial ones or slap some warnings on them) there is a certain type of animation fanatic that would subscribe and never look back. I’m looking at you too, Warner Bros.
no one has fond childhood memories of disney cartoonsNO ONEWHERE were you going to SEE these cartoons? in a movie theatre in the 1950s? on teevee ONCE a week? (magical world of disney) the only reason to watch a mickey mouse cartoon is to marvel at HOW BAD they are compared to LOONEY TUNES
The Disney Channel used to show them all the time before they morphed into the Tween Sitcom channel.Warner Bros. Was clearly superior, but there was a certain charm to the Disney shorts. Especially the Donald and Goofy cartoons.
Goofy’s sports and instructional shorts were great (Hockey Homicide is brilliant) as was the series where he played ‘50s suburban everyman George Geef.
There’s a “Goofy buys an HD home theater system” short from recent years that’s just excellent.
I love Mickey’s trailer.
Yeah, I understand why — especially from the 1990s onward — people prefer WB shorts to Disney’s (Mickey Mouse, at least after he started getting a larger supporting cast, is just a bland everyman and Looney Tunes got far more mileage out of verbal comedy), but the Donald and Goofy shorts are more than worthy of rediscovery.
Maybe, but I want that Winnie the Pooh where he gets stuck in Rabbit’s hole. And the one where he covers himself in mud so the bees think he’s just a rain cloud and not a bear trying to steal their hunny.
You’ll be pleased to know that those were all merged into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which is available on Disney+.
:squeal:My kids mainly know Pooh from Christopher Robin. I wonder how they’ll react to cel-animated Pooh?
I had VHSes of the shorts, usually 3-4 around a theme (Chip & Dale, Sports, etc.). If my memory is correct they also used to have a short with some VHS movie release of older movies.
I do.
Don’t be so emo, just because you don’t doesn’t mean others don’t. My little nieces love watching old Disney cartoon movies.
There are a lot on there already, including some with vague content warnings. But the interface doesn’t always make it easy to find things.
I’m old enough to recall ‘the wonderful world of color!’ sung on the original Disney TV series and I mostly remember old Disney was dog shit bad. Their cartoons were bad in a ‘don’t understand the concept of humor’ way. Their movies were downright dreadful even by 1960s standards. Their nature programs were a folksy narrator over stock footage of random animals. The pop-culture term ‘lemmings’ can be traced back to a Disney nature film that bizarrely claimed lemmings committed mass suicide – over footage of poor little lemmings being shoveled over a cliff.
CORRECT. there is NO nostalgia for disney cartoons, esp mickey mouse
Not really trying to defend Disney nature films here, but your last sentence kind of contradicts your second-to-last. The problem a lot of people have with the footage is that much of it was staged, not that it was “stock footage of random animals.” Some of them actually won awards for nature cinematography, and a lot of people didn’t start having problems with them until it came out how much things were manipulated.
Now you’re just being ridiculous! The lemmings weren’t “shoveled off a cliff”! The producers made a spinning table that flung them off of it!
It was a Producer, named Susan. She was very lazy and couldn’t be bothered throwing them off so used the turntable.Chinese restaurants were the only winners here.
Man, those Imagineers can create anything!
We signed up, but I quickly realized we already owned most of the movies on the site (all the MCU and Disney shit), or had seen them enough times to know we didn’t need to see them again, and we burned through the new material in a matter of weeks.So we cancelled. Why wouldn’t we?
We subscribed for one month for The Mandalorian (we waited until 30 days before the final episode). We don’t watch a ton of TV as a general rule (we haven’t had any kind of pay TV service, e.g. cable/satellite, for like 15 years) so we don’t leave streaming subscriptions active unless there’s something specific we want to watch. We even let Netflix lapse every month and then reactivate it a few days later when someone wants to watch something on it.My kids decided they wanted to watch the entirety of The Clone Wars, but my wife and I had no interest in subbing again on the household entertainment budget, so the boys are paying for it out of their allowance. The Clone Wars is literally the only show they’re watching on Disney+.
Same, subbed for a month, kids weren’t interested in anything and I never did get around to finishing the mandalorian so I just cancelled. First 5 EPs were good but I could really care less about how it ends.
It turns out the real Baby Yoda was the friends we made along the way.
From what I saw I can’t imagine that’s too far off. (Although part of me was hoping baby yoda was actually the bigbad but that’s no way to sell toys)
I am a huge fan of the Mandelorian, and Spaghetti Westerns, so calibrate your tasts to that. I think the big bad at the end was more clever than that. They set a bunch of things up for season 2. I would also suggest watching the bit between two storm troopers in the last episode if you like starwars. Taiki Waititi did a nice little bit of levity there.
It’s entertaining enough but it never really grabbed me. Amusingly, the last couple of episodes are much more interesting than the first several, in that something resembling an actual story shows up. A lot of people praised the show for not being particularly serialized in episodes 3-6, but I don’t really understand that. The reason most TV drama (and even a lot of comedy) is serialized now is because we figured out that serialized storytelling is a lot deeper and more compelling than random episodes that can be watched in any order. To praise a show for going back to a narrative model that was popular 50 years ago is bizarre.
Im sure I’ll go back to it, probably in the leadup to season 2 but I’m also not one to become emotionally invested in tv shows, probably the only one in the last decade was Leftovers and that was barely hanging on to relevancy throughout its run. But yeah, nothing on D+ is a priority, esp. if the kids don’t give a shit either
I desperately wanted to see the now-canceled Ad-Rock Muppets show, and then I googled and learned it was a different Adam Horovitz who is a screenwriter and producer. I assume this is also what happened to Disney.
Sounds a little like Bill Murray’s story about accidentally agreeing to do Garfield.
“They said I wasn’t who they wanted and they were cancelling my show! It feels like some kind of … I don’t know … where someone attacks what your doing from the inside to stop it being successful. What’s the word for that?”
My husband is a lifelong Disney and Star Wars fanatic. We’re both Pixar and MCU fans. He’s been to WDW a zillion times (me, about 6?). We were very much “shut up and take my money” when this launched. And we do still have the service. Husband’s watching the new season of Clone Wars, and every so often we browse through and put on a movie we haven’t seen yet, or in awhile. Also, the zillions of shorts are great for watching on a plane or in a waiting room or anywhere you want to kill 20 minutes but not get too heavily invested. I agree that the Pixar SparkShorts have been great.
I’m always kind of surprised that Disney couldn’t manage to make TRON a thing. It seems like it had all the ingredients — cool cyberpunk/religious themes, neat visuals, pretty unique overall. Oh well. Maybe in another 30 years they’ll give it another try :)ETA: to clarify, the movies were OK at best. I’m surprised/disappointed they couldn’t manage to make them awesome.
I was totally onboard for Tron. I enjoyed Tron Legacy quite a bit and was looking forward to the 3rd movie. The original Tron movie hasn’t aged that well of course, but I remember when it came out and how revolutionary it seemed at the time.
Much as with Blade Runner, I’d be kinda chuffed if Disney kept making Tron sequels once every 20-30 years. God knows Garrett Hedlund is likely to be needing the work in 2042.
Tron legacy had lovely visuals and a sensational score, but aside from Jeff Bridges and the always remarkable talents of Michael Sheen it was an inexplicably boring movie.
Like, how do you make a premise of being in a video game world as strangely boring as the tron movies seem to do it?
Disney was making a big push into TRON in the early 2010s, but TRON: Legacy only did alright at the box office, so when they bought Star Wars they decided that was all the sci-fi stuff they needed. Shame. I love Legacy and Uprising, and I really hope they manage to get a new movie or series out.
Tron Uprising was pretty great! Still angry it got buried (like 2am air time) and cancelled without giving it a chance. I don’t think Disney actually cares about the franchise at all.
yes!!! so good
Muppets Live Another Day sounds awesome if it’s just 24: Live Another Day (Disney owns Jack Bauer now, right?) redone with the Muppets.
I ended up signing up for 2 months, which was enough time for me to get through the Mandalorian and 4 seasons of Star Wars Rebels. Then I was left with nothing I was particular interested in watching, so I went ahead and quit the service. The Mandalorian was totally worth the cost of a month, but until they start pushing out some new content I’m interested in, I’ll wait before signing back up.
That stinks about the Tron series. I love that franchise.
Random thought, triggered by another article today – can we get Mike Schur to make a Muppets show for Disney+? It seems like he has the right touch, and it might be amazing. I know he has a deal with Universal, but Disney has *all* of the money, so I imagine they could make it work.
We canceled the Muppets and Tron, but stay tuned because there are still 48 scripted shows in development! And 48 of them are wacky tween sitcoms starring the kids from our last batch of tween sitcoms as the parents to the new batch of main characters in tween sitcoms!
Also, more unscripted shows that really just pushing various Disney-owned IPs and theme parks even though the only one Disney thinks is worth promoting (and has renewed) doesn’t…
I subscribe because I have a toddler and it’s genuinely fun to revisit Disney classics with her. When I was younger I did not realize the quality in earlier Disney animation. There’s a big difference between Sleeping Beauty and The Rescuers, although I like both. The only downside is that my daughter is going through a dog phase and mostly just wants to watch movies about dogs. She likes to watch Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations again and again.
The axe came down on the Tron series when they realized Baby Flynn was just a regular baby and not all that marketable.
Test audiences did not react as well as Disney expected to a gif of Baby Jeff Bridges slowly blinking while drinking a White Russian.
and is probably the biggest downer of the bunch, depending on how you feel about TronAs one of the… let’s say handful of people who unapologetically liked TRON: Legacy, I’m a little bummed. But that movie’s charms were almost entirely down to the The Dude Kevin Flynn and Commander Sheridan Alan Bradley being charming for a paycheck. Hard to imagine anyone’s attention being held without Bridges and Boxleitner.
Oh hey, I wondered who the other fan was.Did you watch the Tron:Uprising animated series? It did feature Bruce’s voice and I thought it was pretty decent TV. A good main cast and guest stars helped – Elijah Wood, Tricia Helfer, Olivia Wilde (Playing Quorra), Aaron Paul, Lance Henrickson, Kate Mara, Ben Schwartz, Paul Rust, Paul Ruebens, Lake Bell, Paul Scheer, um… Mandy Moore etc. etc.).
Fan #3 here. And I loved Uprising. There was an 18-month or so period where half a dozen of the animated shows I was watching got cancelled (including The Clone Wars and Young Justice), and Uprising was the one that hurt the most. So much potential.
One more and we’ll have ourselves a posse.What shall we call ourselves? The Recognizers ?
Huh, no, and that’s a hell of a cast so I’ll take a look. Thanks!
My boyfriend is a big, big capital b i g fan of Disney. I am not, outside of my love for Pluto, Phineas and Furb and Donald Duck. We got it because it’s free for a year if you have Verizon.I can’t believe they are dropping Tron. Here, in Tron, they have their own homemade sci-fi franchise and they do nothing with it. Never you mind a sci-fi/gothic horror redo of the Black Hole.
I think I am exactly the kind of sucker Disney+ is counting on. Never finding the time to watch anything (after The Mandalorian, that is), but too lazy to cancel, thinking, “Oh, I’m sure I’ll binge the entire X-Men animated series soon” and other similar stupid thoughts.
Shut up and take my money, indeed.
Ram lives
We still have it. It gets watched more then any other streaming service by my kids and its absolute great for family movie night. More new shows will show up but the back catalog on Disney+ is huge and full of a lot of great old stuff.On the other hand, once Picard is over. CBS all access will get cut.
Good thing they aren’t doing anything stupid, like building a Tron roller coaster in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Oh wait….. they are.
I really wish we could’ve gotten a second season of Tron Uprising.
In my opinion, streaming services need to match or exceed what Netflix can produce or better. Theres generally a new series or movie every week on Netflix. About every other week, its something I would watch, or binge. And that’s the key. That set a very high bar for streaming value. Disney has the intellectual property assets to do this for a lot. Cancelling muppets and Tron because of old tv financial metrics isn’t the way to do it. They need to put out a lot to see what keeps it from bleeding subscribers. They need to meet the needs of the people who pay for it, as well as the kids who watch it. The family friendly nature is what is making Disney harder for me to want to keep paying for it after my YEAR subscription runs out.
Also — they dodged a bullet with “Book of Enchantment”. I’ve read the first three of the Serena Valentino quasi-YA novels that were to be its basis and they were all underwhelming at best. (The derailing of the “Beauty and the Beast” characters was particularly bad.)
I recently did a back-to-back Tron and Tron: Legacy watching. The original has incredible charm as a relic. Much as the effects pushed the envelope of their day, I think the key to its appeal is that the movie’s fascination with the possibilities of CGI allowed it to make strengths of the developing technology’s weaknesses. So you get this weird, ethereal, neon simplicity that’s sometimes reminiscent of abstract art in the Piet Mondrian vein. It’s the definition of something being “of its time” in a good way, as opposed to “dated.” While Legacy did look great, and I like the idea that the look of that world would change as our technology advances, it didn’t have the uniqueness that comes from working within limits. Also, the script was so-so, the hero was utterly forgettable, and de-aged Jeff Bridges looked terrible.Regarding Disney+, I’m getting limited use out of it. Where’s my Watcher In the Woods and Something Wicked This Way Comes? I did get in a first time viewing of The Black Hole, which I thought was similarly interesting to Tron in terms of the art design creating a unique, creepy mood. Still, in terms of relatable stories, A New Hope it ain’t. It’s more like an extended, high budget Twilight Zone episode.