Disney Plus Review: More Than Just Child's Play
Disney Plus is branching out with more mature offerings and a slate of high-quality originals.
Our Experts
- Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
- Though Kourtnee hasn't won any journalism awards yet, she's been a Netflix streaming subscriber since 2012 and knows the magic of its hidden codes.
Pros
- Wide catalog of popular TV and movies from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and National Geographic
- Low monthly price
- Easy-to-navigate interface, with 4K HDR available for some titles
- Ability to choose content ratings
Cons
- Little customization of kids' profiles
- Long and unpredictable wait times for new, original TV series
Disney Plus is more than a streaming home for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. It's a universe filled with rebels and mystical Jedi knights, and a place where Marvel heroes and villains have the power to alter timelines. It's a classroom to learn about nature or the cosmos, and where Disney princesses can defy the odds -- and stereotypes -- in a safe space. And it's the only place to stream the latest Pixar films like Elemental.
Like so many other Disney properties, from Rise of Skywalker to Encanto to WandaVision, its streaming service is a phenomenon. Disney Plus launched in the fall of 2019, and today, the platform has a little more than 148 million subscribers.
Its marquee original series, The Mandalorian, immortalized Baby Yoda. Its first Marvel Cinematic Universe-set series WandaVision quickly became one of the most popular shows worldwide. Its back catalog brims with classics. All this success has Netflix and other big names taking notice. And at $8 a month, Disney Plus is still one of the best values in streaming.
While another price hike in October 2023 affected all Disney and Hulu streaming subscription plans, Disney Plus is still one of the more affordable streaming services around. As a standalone option, Disney Plus Basic is $8 a month if you don't mind commercials, and the premium version is $14 a month if you do. But there are multiple ways to bundle it with Hulu and ESPN Plus to save even more money.
The big question: Is it worth the money to you? If you're a cord-cutter, especially one with children, then Disney Plus is likely a must-have. It's the best streaming service for kids, and as the home of Star Wars and Marvel movies and shows, it appeals to older viewers, too.
Whether it allows you to ditch Netflix, Max, or Prime Video depends on your budget and priorities. Disney Plus lacks the steady firehose of new, original TV found on Netflix, for example, but it still belongs in the top tier of streaming services. It has a massive catalog of popular TV shows and movies you can't find anywhere else, a well-designed app and an affordable price.
What you can watch on Disney Plus
The Percy Jackson series is one of the many series you can stream on Disney Plus.
Disney hit the ground running with 500 movies and 7,500 TV shows on its first day, and includes shows like The Simpsons, Doctor Who, Abbott Elementary and Tales of the Jedi in its library. The catalog continues to grow with additions such as Goosebumps, Andor, X-Men'97, the upcoming The Acolyte and more. There's a ton of Marvel, a bucketful of Star Wars, a boatload of Pixar and a healthy sprinkle of National Geographic (which is owned by Disney). Depending on the content and device, there is support for both 4K HDR video and Dolby Atmos surround sound.
With so many movies and TV shows already online, it's likely that if you can think of a Disney movie or TV show, it's there. And you can also get a serving of ABC, FX and Hulu originals. Even before you try searching, the interface serves up plenty of suggestions, including a great mix of nostalgia, princess movies, originals and superhero action.
Some of Disney's pre-1990s-and-beyond content may have been forgotten in the annals of your mind, but the streamer's interface will reacquaint you with movies from its past, such as Flight of the Navigator. While not everything is there -- missing episodes of Andi Mack and Recess may disappoint young fans -- the search interface works in a similar way to Netflix by suggesting similar content instead. There's no lack of things to watch.
More recently, the platform has been adding more adult-leaning content like Daredevil, Marvel's Echo, and a slate of Hulu fare. For grownups who thought Disney Plus was a G-rated service that caters to kids, it's worth noting that more is available, and even more is on the way.
Hulu on Disney Plus
In efforts to make the streaming experience more convenient, Disney has integrated Hulu content into the Disney Plus app. The single-app experience officially launched on March 29. If you have both streaming services, you can watch Hulu titles with just a couple clicks. The catch? You must either have a Disney bundle or standalone subscriptions for both Hulu and Disney Plus that use the same email address to log in.
It's a breeze to access Hulu on Disney Plus. You can opt to click the Hulu hub button, or scroll through titles by using the navigation bar menus for originals, series and movies. Shōgun, American Horror Story: Delicate, Dune and The Creator are among the titles you can stream right now. Hulu content is mixed in with everything else on the app unless you activate parental controls to prevent its selection from surfacing.
There's the Hulu hub on Disney Plus for subscribers who have both services.
The interface
If you've used any streaming service at all, bar Disney's own Hulu, then the interface of Disney Plus will be instantly familiar. The very top of the home screen is a web-like carousel with a selection of Disney's featured picks from across its brands.
Underneath this, its most popular properties appear across the page as static icons: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and Hulu. Hover over each and the icon will animate, and if you click on it, a short animation will appear before the branded page appears. While the interface is designed to scale to low-powered devices like USB sticks, we saw little difference between any of the dozen or so devices we tried.
On the branded pages as well as the home page, the rows of icons are titled according to genre and help to hone the content to your requirements. Disney told us that, like the Netflix engine, the Disney Plus interface will adapt to the types of content that you watch over time.
At the left of the screen is a Netflix-like sidebar that lets you search for content or choose from your preselected genre profiles such as movies, series, or originals.
The only real way to configure Disney Plus is through user profiles, and by default, your Primary profile offers access to all of the content. It can't be set to a kid's profile, but you can turn autoplay off or on or alter the main language. In comparison, kids' profiles work to surface content suitable to younger viewers and has a brighter, blue background.
The biggest problem I found with the interface is that some popular offerings might be hidden -- you may not know The Muppets is there, for example. But this is an issue that larger services such as Netflix also suffer from.
Read more: Disney Plus vs. Netflix vs. Apple TV Plus vs. Max: Which Streaming Service is Right for You?
We tested Disney Plus on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, iOS, smart TVs (LG and Samsung), Android TV and the web, and they all worked in the expected fashion. Voice commands worked well on Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku in directing us to the show title or the Disney service in general. If your streamer supports 4K HDR then there is a healthy selection of titles like the recent Marvel movies and shows and newer Star Wars content like Andor, but others like Percy Jackson and the Olympians are only in HD.
It is also worth noting that some of the content on Disney Plus may have changed since you last watched it elsewhere. For instance, The Simpsons is currently only available in widescreen, with no 4:3 option for older seasons that were not HD native.
Disney Plus prices make it competitive
The Disney Bundle has four price tiers, starting at $10 for Disney Bundle Duo Basic, which includes the ad-supported versions of Disney Plus and Hulu but excludes ESPN Plus. An ad-free Duo Premium plan includes Disney Plus and Hulu for $20. The Trio Basic bundle costs $15 per month and gets you Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus -- all with ads. The $25-a-month Trio Premium bundle comes with downloads, ad-free Disney Plus and Hulu, and ESPN Plus with ads.
Hulu Plus Live TV customers receive Disney Plus and ESPN at no extra charge, as long as you're being billed by Hulu. New and existing Hulu subscribers who don't have the live TV package can sign up for the Disney Bundle.
Compared to its competitors, Disney Plus is in the middle of the price pole, even without ads for $14. You get four streams on all subscriptions. With Netflix costing $15.50 per month for its two-screen streaming plan and Max charging $16, it comes down to your wallet and viewing palate. But bundling Disney Plus and Hulu is a great value if you enjoy the content and want to save money.
Disney Plus vs. Max, Netflix, Prime and Hulu
| Disney Plus | Max | Netflix | Prime Video | Hulu | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $8 with ads, $14 for ad-free | $10 for basic with ads, $16 for ad-free | $7 with ads, $15.50 or $23 ad-free | $9 (or included with $140/year Prime membership) | Basic $8 with ads, ad-free Premium for $18, Live TV for $77 |
| Ads | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Top titles | Andor, Loki, X-Men '97, Bluey | House of the Dragon, South Park, Euphoria, DC Comics series, Sesame Street | Stranger Things, Squid Game, Bridgerton, Wednesday | Invincible, Reacher, The Boys, Fallout | Handmaid's Tale, Shōgun, The Bachelor, The Bear |
| Mobile downloads | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 4K HDR available | Yes | No | Yes (on Premium plan) | Yes | Yes |
| Number of streams | 4 | 3 | 1 (2 for Standard, 4 on Premium) | 2 | 2 (Unlimited with Live TV $10 add-on) |
Should you get it?
For Disney's legions of Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar fans who want to enjoy those movies and their extra features, the service is easily worth the monthly fee. The same goes for parents who want their kids to enjoy Disney's myriad family movies and TV shows. And ditto for anybody who wants to follow the latest adventures of Baby Yoda or Cassian Andor.
Are people going to quit other services in order to afford this one? Possibly -- especially with the addition of Hulu content for some subscribers. If it's a choice between this or Apple TV Plus, then get this. If it's a choice between Disney Plus and standalone Hulu and you have kids? Get this. If we were to rank the services by order of importance ours would be: 1. Netflix, 2. Disney Plus, 3. Max. Your priorities may be different.
Original programs like The Mandalorian, Loki and Baymax! are fun, but it's the programming spanning almost 100 years that will likely encourage users to renew their subscriptions each month. Disney Plus is fun, easy to use and relatively affordable.