With the current global situation regarding the coronavirus, there will be a greater need for home entertainment. Disney launched its much anticipated Disney+ steaming service on 24th March in the UK. With big power house franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, National Geographic and Disney Originals, the service has huge potential to please people of all ages. Hopefully by the end of this review you’ll have an idea whether this may be a good thing for you get whilst in lock-down.
Usability
Layout
The whole platform is just really easy to navigate, except for one small thing, which I’ll come to later. As soon as the home page comes up you have access to all five big brands. All you have to do is click on one and you have access to that particular franchise. Scrolling down the home page you have clear categories of movies and shows, from ‘Hit Movies’ to ‘Nostalgic Movies’ and much more.
Profiles
Creating a profile is straight forward and can be fun, especially if you are choosing an icon for someone else!
Watchlists
Adding something to your watchlist is simple. Press ‘+’ to the right of the play button to add this title. However, accessing the watchlist isn’t as simple as it could be. For example, on a smart TV you have to move over to the left menu and click on watchlist. On a tablet, click on your profile, bottom right, then onto ‘watchlist’. The watchlist could be re-located to the home page where it will be quick and easy to access.
Content
Library of Content
If you or your family are fans of Disney (like I am) and its franchises (like I am) then this is for you. Disney+ has a huge library of films and TV, past and present. There hasn’t been anything that I can’t find, so far that is. In fact I’ve found movies and shows that I had forgotten about. It really does give you a sense of nostalgia.
Disney+ Originals
In terms of new Disney+ content, there are a few new shows, however not a huge amount. With the exception of ‘The Mandalorian’ there isn’t much original content at the moment that would persuade someone to subscribe, not in my opinion anyway. Disney has new titles that should be landing on the streaming service in the future. As it currently stands, Marvel have five new shows that will hopefully be arriving between now and the end of 2021. Star Wars also have new shows lined up, with the second series of ‘The Mandalorian’ and an ‘Obi-Wan’ centred series. That being said, with delays in production of these shows, due to the current global pandemic, we may not see them for some time.
4K
Providing your TV is able to produce 4K imagery, Disney+ offers great films and shows in 4K. There’s no extra cost to accessing this feature, it comes as standard. There’s a surprising amount of 4K content on the service. Older titles have been upscaled to this format, meaning that you see more detail in your favourites. The only film I’m surprised isn’t streamed in 4K, considering its popularity and exceptional visuals, is Avatar.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, Disney+ is a fantastic streaming service and at a good price. Easy to use. 4K streaming. Great quality content. If you have family and/or love Disney, this really is for you. Disney has some of the most popular and iconic franchises going and all are available here. With Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, we will be seeing new and different content arriving over the coming years. It’ll remain to be seen if Disney can regularly produce new content to keep subscribers happy. For now though, it’s a great start for Disney’s new service and in my opinion, it’s well worth subscribing to.