Disney+ has arrived. The new streaming service from (you guessed it!) Disney retails for $6.99 per month on its own, or in a bundle with Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99 per month — with the bundle’s programming going beyond the family-friendly confines of the Walt Disney brand.
Disney+ is launching with a number of original programs. Chief among them are The Mandalorian, a limited series set in the Star Wars universe; a live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp; and Noelle, a movie where Anna Kendrick plays Santa’s sister, because sure, why not. (We’ll have more to say about these programs soon.)
But the real draw of Disney+ is its expansive catalog, which will eventually contain nearly every single property the Walt Disney company owns. (And since it owns everything made by 20th Century Fox, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and more, that’s a lot of programming.) While the service won’t offer the famously controversial Song of the South, whose racist caricatures have long made it Disney’s secret shame, you’ll be able to see plenty of other deep cuts, as well as some controversial details, like the racist caricature crows in Dumbo. (Apparently the animation makes them okay?)
Our good friends over at Polygon have a complete list of everything that will be available on Disney+ on day one (including every frickin’ episode of The Simpsons). But if a list of hundreds upon hundreds of titles feels intimidating, allow us to guide you through the jungle just a little bit.
Because you probably know about Iron Man and Star Wars and The Simpsons. But have you considered checking out some of Disney’s more obscure titles? Here are a handful of picks from the Vox Culture staff, designed to help you wade through the onslaught and find something to watch.
Flailing in its attempts to reconnect with a family audience that had seemingly moved on to other pursuits, Disney spent the first half of the 1980s in an increasingly desperate panic, unsure of where to turn next. But then it hit on a seemingly foolproof idea: Make a pseudo-sequel to The Wizard of Oz (1939), one of the most cherished films of all time.
Never mind that that movie was an MGM production and, thus, Disney couldn’t use many of its most iconic elements and visuals. Instead, the studio would return to the source material by adapting a rough mash-up of L. Frank Baum’s first two Oz sequel novels: The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907). Acclaimed editor and Oscar-winning sound designer Walter Murch (who had worked on everything from The Godfather to George Lucas’s pre-Star Wars films) would make the big step up to the director’s chair.
The movie was a colossal flop. Its depiction of an Oz was full of men on wheels, a witch who could remove her head, and numerous favorite characters frozen into stone statues that were too much for many children, who were terrified. (It also might have been too much for their parents, honestly.) And that’s before you get to the part where Dorothy is sent to receive electroshock therapy right before being whisked back to Oz.
Murch’s derivations from what Disney thought he was making — another happy musical — were so serious that he was almost fired from the production before Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and other famous directors staked their considerable reputations in Hollywood on Murch getting to make the movie his way.
(Excerpt) Read more @ Vox
