Slow load times and periods of unavailability might not be the biggest launch day blunder for Disney+. As early subscribers begin digging into the content, they will find that Disney+ employs a frustrating placeholder system for films that will be on the platform in the future, but aren’t currently available. It’s something that none of the other streaming services do and there’s a good reason for it. In other words, there are films on Disney+ that aren’t actually on Disney+!
A few examples contradict statements Disney made about the service. For example, Tarzan won’t be streaming on Disney+ until June 23rd, 2020, which goes against a claim that every animated feature would be on the service at launch. At the same time, one of the package features (Make Mine Music) is absent from the service without a placeholder. There are many more classic films missing from the library, which we will get into shortly.
If the list of placeholder films was limited to just recent films like Mary Poppins Returns that are locked into an exclusive cable deal that blocks their ability to debut on Disney+ until 2021, that would be a little less confusing. But there are 76 titles in total that appear in search results on Disney+ that won’t be available for quite a while, in some cases even several years, and the range of time spans three decades. Below is a list of films that are on Disney+… but not actually on Disney+, grouped by the date they will debut on the service.
November 29th, 2019
Coco (2017)
December 1st, 2019
Glory Road (2006)
December 5th, 2019
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
December 11th, 2019
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
December 20th, 2019
George of the Jungle 2 (2003)
December 26th, 2019
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
January 1st, 2020
Holes (2003)
Cool Runnings (1993)
February 1st, 2020
Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
Big Business (1988)
February 9th, 2020
Old Dogs (2009)
March 4th, 2020
Black Panther (2018)
March 5th, 2020
Bedtime Stories (2008)
March 15th, 2020
G-Force (2009)
March 22nd, 2020
The Boys (2009)
March 25th, 2020
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
April 1st, 2020
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
Frankenweenie (2012)
Mars Needs Moms (2011)
Prom (2011)
The Last Song (2010)
April 30th, 2020
National Treasure (2004)
May 1st, 2020
George of the Jungle (1997)
Homeward Bound II (1996)
Homeward Bound (1993)
May 2nd, 2020
John Carter (2012)
June 9th, 2020
Walt and el Grupo (2009)
June 15th, 2020
The Pirate Fairy (2014)
June 23rd, 2020
Tarzan II (2005)
Tarzan (1999)
June 25th, 2020
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
July 1st, 2020
Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
The Big Green (1995)
The Mighty Ducks (1992)
July 9th, 2020
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
July 29th, 2020
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
July 30th, 2020
Incredibles 2 (2018)
August 5th, 2020
Prince of Persia (2010)
September 1st, 2020
Cinderella (2015)
September 5th, 2020
Christopher Robin (2018)
September 19th, 2020
Oceans (2010)
October 1st, 2020
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Maleficent (2014)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008)
Mr. Holland’s Opus (1996)
October 30th, 2020
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010)
November 1st, 2020
Mr. Magoo (1997)
November 4th, 2020
Planes: Fire and Rescue (2014)
Planes (2013)
November 5th, 2020
Alexander and the… Bad Day (2014)
November 6th, 2020
A Christmas Carol (2009)
November 28th, 2020
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Into the Woods (2014)
December 1st, 2020
Sky High (2005)
Max Keeble’s Big Move (2001)
December 2nd, 2020
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
December 11th, 2020
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
January 1st, 2021
D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996)
D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994)
January 9th, 2021
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
February 1st, 2021
You Again (2010)
April 1st, 2021
Treasure Buddies (2012)
April 30th, 2021
The Lone Ranger (2013)
May 17th, 2021
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast (2014)
May 30th, 2021
The Jungle Book (2016)
June 1st, 2021
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
August 1st, 2021
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 (2012)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011)
Underdog (2007)
September 1st, 2021
Tomorrowland (2015)
Spooky Buddies (2011)
October 1st, 2021
The Search for Santa Paws (2010)
October 22nd, 2021
McFarland, USA (2015)
November 1st, 2021
Santa Buddies (2009)
Space Buddies (2009)
November 18th, 2021
The Pixar Story (2007)
All that aside, I have to say that Disney+ is still an incredible value for the amount of content you gain access to, including some television series that haven’t been available in years. There’s a lot of great Walt-era content as well, including more classic animated shorts than I expected. But the placeholders for the above mentioned films cause concern for films that are absent without a placeholder like So Dear to My Heart, Toby Tyler, In Search of the Castaways, Summer a Magic, The Happiest Millionaire, and Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.
I guess the real question is, if there isn’t a placeholder, will it not be part of Disney+ in the future? Time will tell. In the meantime, I wish Disney would either remove the titles that aren’t really available or move them to a “Coming Soon” section where they won’t sort in a list of content that’s truly ready to watch. But complaints aside, I’m still really excited to have the power of Disney+ at my fingertips whenever I need a healthy dose of Disney magic.
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