Apple Vision Pro launched on February 2nd, with Disney being one of the device’s biggest supporters at launch. It offered Disney+ subscribers the ability to sit in four themed environments to watch movies and TV shows and also included access to 41 films in 3D. I covered all of this when Apple Vision Pro first hit the market, but while traveling for D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Disney decided to surprise-drop a few updates. Now that I’m home and getting caught up, I decided to power up my Apple Vision Pro and check them out.
Joining Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars-themed environments is a brand-new one to represent the fifth Disney+ tile, National Geographic. Given Nat Geo’s spirit of exploration and ability to bring far-flung remote places to the comfort of your home, the immersive environment to represent the brand is Iceland.
Specifically, this is the rocky terrain of Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. Turning the device’s dial to envelope you in 360 degrees allows you to feel like you’re really there. The environment was reportedly created by Nat Geo in collaboration with Disney Studio Technology, taking photos and a 3D map of the actual area to create this realistic digital simulation.
It’s a beautiful space and one that lends itself perfectly to watching Nat Geo’s signature nature documentaries on Disney+. Apple Vision Pro also comes with similar nature-themed environments. For National Geographic, it feels like there was an endless number of possibilities to choose from when it came to settling on an environment, but I do wonder if there wasn’t another option that was more specific to the brand, one that could’ve lent itself to the fun Easter Eggs that are peppered throughout the Disney+ Theater, Avengers Tower, Scare Floor, and Tattooine environments.
Like the other Disney+ environments, playing content within National Geographic’s Iceland causes the world to darken, which allows viewers to look up at the sky and experience the aurora borealis. I had to enhance the exposure in the screenshot above because it otherwise turned out too dark to see, but the effect is subtle enough as to not distract from what you’re watching, while still placing you in one of the most serene locations on Earth.
Alongside this new digital environment, Disney+ has finally added a handful of 3D titles to their collection, bringing the total number of 3D films available on Disney+ to 48 (three films had been quietly added since launch – Soul, Wish, and The Marvels). All four new films come from Marvel Studios, alphabetically starting with Ant-Man and its sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, which round out the Ant-Man trilogy in 3D (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was available in 3D at launch).
Marvel Studios also completed the Avengers quadrilogy (for now) in 3D with the arrival of The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
I watched The Avengers in 3D and it looks great. While I can’t say I’ve found a lot of use for my Apple Vision Pro, watching films in 3D, or simulating the moviegoing experience at home, is what I’ve used it for most. I’ve been waiting for Disney to roll out more 3D titles, as there are quite a few odd anomalies with the library offered (So many sequels without the first film in 3D, plus the odd case of Finding Nemo in 3D but not Finding Dory). This is likely due to the fact that 3D films on Apple Vision Pro have to be converted to Multiview High Efficiency Video Encoding (MV-HEVC), so it’s not as simple as importing digital 3D film files (Disney previously sold streaming 3D copies of films through select digital providers, including Vudu). Disney seemed to prioritize their most-recent titles in 3D without much rhyme or reason to the choices made.
As a result of Apple Vision Pro’s MV-HEVC 3D method, the device is the first to offer films in 4K 3D, often in Dolby Vision. Such is the experience with The Avengers in 3D on Disney+. The Apple Vision Pro version of The Avengers in 3D is far superior to the 3D Blu-Ray release, which I also own. And like the other titles available in 3D on Disney+, these films are available in 3D through the AppleTV app (the film must be purchased through Apple in order to access it in 3D there without a Disney+ account).
The arrival of four additional Marvel Studios films in 3D on Apple Vision Pro is most welcome. Despite Disney’s commitment to the platform, including Marvel’s exclusive What If…? – An Immersive Story, I’ve been a little underwhelmed by the lack of continuous additional 3D titles from them. Other studios have continued to roll out legacy titles in 3D via the Apple TV store, including midcentury classics like Creature From the Black Lagoon (Universal) and Dial M for Murder (Warner Bros.) and 3D conversions like The Wizard of Oz (Warner Bros.). Universal actually leads the way in putting animated content out in 3D on Apple Vision Pro, with the majority of Dreamworks and Illumination titles made or converted for the format available. Meanwhile, Disney is sitting on a big library of 3D titles that have not yet arrived on Apple Vision Pro.
(Disney)
What more could Disney release in 3D on Apple Vision Pro? A lot. Disney converted several hand-drawn animated classics to 3D (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King), plus a handful of Pixar films that were re-rendered in the format (Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monster’s Inc., Cars, Ratatouille). There are many Pixar films that were released in 3D in their original run that aren’t on the platform (Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Brave, Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, Cars 3, Onward, Turning Red), and the same goes for Walt Disney Animation Studios films (Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia). Then there are the outliers like stop-motion films (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie), motion-capture films (A Christmas Carol, Mars Needs Moms), and other animated titles (Gnomeo and Juliet, Planes, Planes: Fire & Rescue, Secret of the Wings, The Pirate Fairy, Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast). Then there are Disney’s live-action 3D titles (G-Force, Alice in Wonderland, Tron: Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, John Carter, Oz the Great and Powerful, Maleficent, The Finest Hours, The BFG, Pete's Dragon, A Wrinkle in Time, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Dumbo, Mulan, Jungle Cruise), 3D concert films (Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience), and documentaries (Aliens of the Deep). And this doesn’t even get into films gains through the Fox acquisition (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, X-Men Days of Future Past, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Rio, Prometheus, Life of Pi, Epic, The Martian, Alita: Battle Angel, just to name a few).
But until more titles are (hopefully) added, I’m excited to watch these four newly-added Marvel Studios films in 3D in a picturesque Iclandic setting courtesy of National Geographic.