First impressions of Disney+ (review)

Three days ago I woke up. I slept great, and part of my waking-up routine is checking the news. I woke up to the very best news I could ever have imagined: Disney+ is available in my country only, for free! 80 hours later; time for a review!

The application

First impressions matter. The first impression when I logged in into Disney+ was very good. The design is very clean, which makes the overview very easy to understand.

Disney+ categorized all its movies in groups that make finding the perfect movie even easier. You can choose between a Disney decade, Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars/Nat Geo. Or maybe you just want to see the Disney Princesses: no problem. The categories right now are Disney Through the decades, Disney Channel Original Movie, DisneyNature, Princesses, Mickey Mouse & Friends, Disney Channel, Disney Fairies and The Muppets.

The collection

I was surprised to see so many movies on the new streaming service. You know, since it is new, I wouldn’t think they put most on already. A few titles are missing though. Avengers: Endgame hasn’t been uploaded, Sonny with a Chance isn’t there and the new Aladdin isn’t either. Endgame and Aladdin will probably be uploaded on the 12th of November since Disney has promised even the new titles would be available on the streaming service.

To take a look at all titles available at the moment, take a look at the comments below. I posted a list of all movies available at the moment.

The possibilities

While a few things like an app for Samsung smart-TVs are missing, the possibilities on Disney+ are great. It’s very easy to compare to Netflix and Disney+ sure has things that Netflix doesn’t have.

Some titles are available in 4K and HDR. These titles include Avengers: Infinity War, The Princess Diaries 1 & 2, Free Solo and Ralph Breaks the Internet (which I saw in premiere back in December!).

Also, subtitles. Since I’m not a native English speaker, subtitles can come in handy. While you can’t change anything about Netflix’ subtitles, you can change your subtitle preferences on Disney+. There are seven fonts in six different sizes in eight different colors and background colors.

The best thing ever: Disney+ offers Extras on some titles! Things like deleted scenes, gag reels, never released songs and mini-docs. I already watched everything from The Lion King, the gag reel of Avengers: Infinity War and I can’t wait to see the rest. Never released scenes and songs from Mary Poppins, deleted scenes from all the Avengers movies and many more!

The downsides

Even though I’m very pleasantly surprised, there are some downsides to Disney+. There is no app for my Windows PC and no app for my smart-TV. Both things have very easy solutions (just use a browser and an HDMI cable) but since Netflix has both of them, it is a downside.

Another thing that Netflix has but Disney+ doesn’t is the multitasking thing on its Android app. If you open another application, the video player stops. Once again, not a big problem.

I get it, Disney+ is still in its testing phase so there are bugs, but there is one I find pretty annoying. If I have a second screen enabled, the video gets a dark grey override unless I move my mouse over the screen. I have to do that every 5 seconds or so. This can be very irritating. Let’s hope they fix it before releasing the application worldwide.

The titles can be downloaded which is very much appreciated! But the thing is, I’m only capable of downloading titles on my phone. Because of the lack of a Windows app, titles can’t be downloaded on my laptop. No offline watching on my laptop it is, then…

Conclusion

To conclude: Disney+ is amazing. It has awesome features, a great collection and it’s very easy to find something you like. I was already planning on buying it when released, but right now I’m sure to extend my subscription. It’s very much worth the 7 euros each month.

Demo

I made a demo where I show everything Disney+ has to offer. Take a look at it below!