Disney+ Impressions

I tested DIsney+ solely on the PS4 app. Other interfaces may have different features and different performance. This disclaimer means, of course, I’m immediately going to complain. The video was occasionally choppy or just outright froze while the audio soldiered on, only for the stream to suddenly rewind to the beginning of the choppiness, after two or three minutes.

There’s plenty of old material to cover here, so let’s start with the new.

We’ve been waiting a long time for a live-action Star Wars TV show despite Lucasfilm’s many previous threats to create one. The Mandelorian does its utmost to be a western (down to the music, even). And the Star Wars universe lends itself well to the genre.

I like all the little things the show is drawing from the Holiday Special, though to be fair it seemed like the Bobba Fett cartoon drew heavy inspiration from Wizards. Of course, continuity porn cuts both ways, as the show took great pains to show us every original trilogy alien race and precious few, if any, others.

The show is shot cinematically, even going for a wider than HD aspect ratio. There’s also evidence of plenty of practical effects and costuming. A lot of care clearly went into the production. It’s just sad that they managed to make the main character the least interesting one. That all said, the end of the first episode does lay a foundation for more interesting things to come. I’m genuinely interested in learning how and why the situation in question came up.

I didn’t have time to dig deeper into the new stuff, but another sho did catch my eye, and I’ll do a brief later if it warrants it. Leading the charge for *checks notes* National Geographic, which I didn’t even know Disney owned (but now al the random Disney branded nature movies in IMAX theaters make a bit more sense), is The World According to Jeff Godblum. Judging from the description, it looks like it’s going to play like one of The History Channel’s quirky shows covering an anthology of topics.

Back catalog

Digging through the film collection, you will find direct-to-video sequels you never even heard of. You’ll marvel at the Brave Little Toaster’s three adventures, then laugh at the title of Doug’s 1st Movie which somehow was never followed up.

Both the movies and television series lists have an aggravating habit of including the words “Disney’s” or “Marvel’s” in the titles, meaning half the service’s collection is contained within two letters.

The Disney Renaissance-era cartoons are well represented. You even get to see Mighty Ducks, Bonkers and Gargoyles, which I believe are the only two remaining shows from the 90s that aren’t yet scheduled to be assimilated by the new Ducktales.

That all being said, there’s very little content from ABC and FOX. ABC seems represented only by the series that later appeared on the Disney Channel (e.g., Boy Meets World in service to Girl Meets World, but NOT Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The Series which took the opposite route of Disney to ABC). And FOX’s only presence is the Simpsons, which is only here to drive subscriptions as it has no more place in this lineup than does a Miramax movie.

You probably already heard about the complaints of The Simpsons using the FX marathon widescreen crop instead of the original, full frame. But as mentioned is that Disney+ conducted the additional laziness of using the syndication cut of the episodes rather than the longer, first-run versions.

The rumors about Groening killing the episode that guest-starred Michael Jackson are true. On Disney+, the third season (including its numbering) starts on Episode 2. Personally, I thought this was something of a showy overreaction considering that 1.) the decision was made well after Michal Jackson was in any danger of collecting more money from it what with him being dead and all; and 2.) several hundred other people worked very hard on that episode, and this decision effectively reduces their contributions to nothing by stating that every other person’s work combined pales in importance to MJ. Looks like anybody who wants to see “Stark Raving Dad” is going to need to pick up a used DVD set.

In start raving contrast to both the choppy edits and the canceled episode is how Disney’s handled its own past as seen in this disclaimer attached to its description for Dumbo tucked in after a content advisory for tobacco use:

This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.

(Also, it turns out that Dumbo was only 64 minutes long. That hardly seems possible for a feature film.)

Disney’s history is not overly well represented. You’ll find every movie that got a theatrical release (well, except for you-know-what), but historic shorts that weren’t part of a feature-length collection are, well, not in large supply. They also lack a dedicated section in the UI, so finding a particular short you don’t know the name of is a real snipe hunt. None of the suggested categories is anywhere near comprehensive.

The search feature is of limited help. I know of at least two Humphrey the Bear shorts after seeing them on a featured list, but searching for the character name Humphrey yielded the following results: Planes Fire and Rescue, The Reluctant Dragon, Planes, Captain America: The First Avenger and Ducktales (2017).

But there’s a LOT of material that could have been ready for Disney+ that just isn’t there. Disney Channel fare from when it was a premium channel rather than a regular cable network is absent without leave. As are most of the material featured in the various runs of The Wonderful World of Disney, which my family always kept a blank VHS tape in reserve just in case they were showing something good.

I mean, good is a matter of perspective. My sister and I really enjoyed Night Court, so when a direct-to-TV remake of The Absent-Minded Professor starring Harry Anderson came along, we considered it high art. Needless to say, you’ve forgotten more things Disney produced than you can ever hope to remember.

Disney+’s clean look and feel belies the bit of a mess the service launch has been. Once the quality-of-service issues with the connection get sorted out it will at least be serviceable. But Disney kind of set themselves for disappointment with the older crowd; I can envision so many people wanting to just want to impulse watch that one thing they very fondly remember from 20-30 years ago and finding that (in my case) The Muppet Show just ain’t there.