Disney Plus review

From the moment it was announced, Disney Plus was always going to be popular, and it always had a chance of being one of the best streaming services. That said, anyone who canceled recently couldn't be blamed, as a price hike after price hike has made Disney Plus increasingly expensive. Even fans of "Star Wars," Pixar and the MCU will be questioning if the price is worth it.

That said, Disney Plus does, in fact, give you access to nearly the entire catalog of shows and movies from "Star Wars," Pixar and Marvel, with very few exceptions now that Marvel has the rights back to most of its content. So if you are a fan, it's going to be nearly impossible to pass on Disney Plus no matter what the price.

Plus, the Disney Plus app is quite strong with features such as remote Group Watch viewing and support for Apple’s SharePlay. It’s also easy to use and has an intuitive user interface — for instance, it lists out the Marvel movies in order by MCU phase for maximum convenience. And unlike some streaming services, 4K HDR streaming is included in your subscription.

So whether you're a fan of one of the many franchises owned by the House of Mouse or are just looking for the service with the best Disney Plus movies, keep reading our Disney Plus review to see if it's right for you.

Disney Plus review: Pricing and availability

Disney Plus costs $18.99 for its current ad-free iteration, which is called Disney Plus Premium. Disney Plus (with ads) is significantly more affordable at $11.99 per month, though it's becoming less so with every price hike. Regardless, for a dollar more, you can add Hulu (with ads) to Disney (with ads) as the Disney Plus, Hulu bundle, which is what we recommend at a minimum if you're planning to get Disney Plus. Adding Hulu for a dollar is just a good value. Check out the table below for pricing for all tiers:

The good news is that, unlike Netflix with ads and HBO Max Basic with Ads, Disney Plus with ads, there are relatively few caveats. You still get 4K streaming, the full Disney Plus catalog and multiple simultaneous streams. Netflix and Max both charge more than $20 a month if you want 4K streaming, though Apple TV notably charges less.

If you want to try the service out, be warned: Disney Plus free trials are rare. Have beef with Disney over its pricing? Take it up with Disney Plus customer service. Just keep in mind that the Disney Plus terms of service are so convoluted they can even potentially protect the company from wrongful death lawsuits.

Disney Plus launched in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands on Nov. 12, 2019, and our friends in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain gained it on March 24, 2020. For a full list of countries, you'll have to ask Disney customer service about that, too. All its official site says is that "Disney Plus is available in various countries/regions throughout: North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe."

Disney Plus is available on all of the best streaming devices, and the good news is that this aspect of Disney Plus will likely never change.

Disney Plus review: Design

The Disney Plus home page looks and feels a lot like one of our favorite interfaces: Apple TV's tvOS home screen. But it's not quite as great.

Let's start with the delightful: For the main content sections of the app, logos animate when your cursor selects them. That means fireworks fly at the Magic Kingdom behind the Disney logo, stars speed behind Star Wars, the Marvel logo turns into the little page-turning graphic at the start of a MCU movie and clouds of Toy Story's wallpaper float behind the Pixar logo.

Disney Plus' home screen is built on the system that most streaming apps run on, with rows of curated content. Those start with Originals (which include The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Noelle and Forky Asks a Question), Recommended for You (why this includes the live-action Dumbo remake is beyond me), Hit Movies (some people want to rewatch Avatar, and I won't ask why), Trending (Simpsons, at the time of my reviewing, to see how badly the formatting cuts work) and Out of the Vault (classics that Disney wasn't streaming on other platforms or selling either).

That all sits below a giant slideshow reel promoting the big content of the moment — such as The Mandalorian, Encore! and Captain Marvel — and I wish this were more under your control or built around what you've watched or set as your preferences. How do I know it's not? There has been zero reason for the cards for the live-action Lady and the Tramp remake or High School Musical: The Musical: The Series to show up there, but there they are anyway. At $9.99 per month for the ad-free version of the service, though, this is a quibble.

To sort through Disney Plus differently, navigate to the menu on the left, which is where you'll find the option to search, open your Watchlist — tap the plus (+) in a show or movie page to add it — and sections marked Movies, Series (Disney for TV shows), Originals and Settings. It's all fairly self-explanatory, and I like how the Movies and Series sections have subsections, so you can drill down to animated TV shows or Ultra HD movies, for example.

At launch, I found that Disney hadn't nailed the basics when it came to continuing a program you paused or didn't finish. While a Continue Watching row appeared on the home screen early on, it disappeared hours later. Thankfully, Disney got it fixed in the two weeks following launch.

After its launch, I noticed a "resume" button appear on movie pages, such as on Avengers: Endgame. Later, the home screen finally felt complete, as the Continue Watching row came arrived on the home screen.

Later on, Disney Plus added the other feature I wanted: a Restart button next to the Resume button, in case you'd rather start over. For those of us who can't remember where we left off (late night binge-watching can lead to sleepy eyes) it is a helpful addition.

If you have Hulu as part of your Disney Plus subscription, you'll also get access to a Hulu tab on the main screen with a user interface that's the same as the Disney Plus user interface rather than mirroring the Hulu UI.

Just bear in mind that your watch history will not sync between the two apps. So if you're already watching something on Hulu, you should stick to watching it on Hulu rather than moving over to Disney Plus. This is expected to eventually change, but for now it's a minor inconvenience.

Disney Plus review: Supported devices and simultaneous streams

Disney shot for the moon, aiming for Netflix's level of ubiquity for Disney Plus. The only big issue at the moment, as noted above is no Roku support for Disney Plus Basic, the ad-supported tier.

Overall, though, Disney Plus is available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation consoles, Xbox consoles, iPhones, iPads, Android, Fire tablets, Windows 10 and 11 and Smart TVs running Android TV, Samsung Tizen and LG WebOS, as well as those from Hisense and Panasonic.

You can stream Disney Plus content on up to four devices at the same time, which I tested by opening Star Wars Episodes I, II, III and IV (I'm not a masochist, just a lazy counter) at the same time. When I tried to open Empire Strikes Back on another device, I got the error screen saying that I'd reached the service's more-than-adequate limit.

Disney Plus review: Content library

Rome wasn't built in a day, but it's kind of amazing how many movies and shows Disney Plus had on Day 1. By our count, the service started with 652 movies, TV shows, shorts and other pieces of content. At present, it has over 1,300 movies and over 500 shows, according to JustWatch.

One thing to keep in mind is that Disney is selective in adding content. Our guide to the new movies on Disney Plus, for example, shows much fewer arrivals than the guides for new movies on Hulu and new movies on Amazon Prime Video. But this largely comes down to the fact that Disney Plus is reserved for Disney content rather than adding licensed shows and movies. The good news is that now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox's intellectual property, there's a lot more to choose from.

Since it launched, Disney Plus saw a slow series of event-level arrivals, and not Netflix's steady flurry of content. While "The Mandalorian" and "Hamilton" have been hits, "WandaVision" and "Falcon and The Winter Soldier" poured in after that, the best shows seem kind of few and far between — but we loved "Andor."

To help you make the most of your money, check out our lists for the best Disney Plus movies and the best Disney Plus shows.

Disney Plus review: Original programming

Disney Plus has been a house of spinoffs for too long, but things are getting better. As we said in our "The Mandalorian" review, there was potential for Disney Plus shows to be great. But then "The Book of Boba Fett" arrived, one of the first big duds. "Secret Invasion" didn't exactly impress, either.

There were flashes of brilliance in 2022, though, as "She-Hulk" and "Andor" were the two best Disney Plus shows. And the more we can get like the daring and different "Werewolf by Night," the more Disney Plus has a chance at being a great streaming service. Michael Giacchino's special event was a perfect dose of campy monster madness, and the more risks like that the better.

Disney Plus review: 'Star Wars' movies and shows

The Force is certainly strong with Disney Plus. One of the first big surprises I found when cracking open the Disney Plus service was a new 4K with Dolby Vision HDR remaster of the original "Star Wars" films.

In the time since, "Star Wars" has produced show after show, while the film franchise is on ice after a disastrous sequel trilogy. "The Mandalorian" is beloved, "The Book of Boba Fett" isn't and then you have the animated stuff such as "The Bad Batch."

But going back to the films, As I watched Luke Skywalker ride a tauntaun around Hoth at the start of "The Empire Strikes Back," I noticed that the snowflakes sticking to his gear seemed especially detailed. I saw similar fine resolution in the hairs and pores on Han's and Leia's heads and faces, as they awkwardly failed to properly flirt in the Rebel base.

In addition to the original trilogy (Chapters 4, 5 and 6), Disney Plus includes the prequels, the sequel trilogy, "Solo" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." And that might be enough "Star Wars" content for casual fans like me, but scrolling down that page, you will find "The Clone Wars Saga" show, "Star Wars Rebels," "Star Wars Resistance" and multiple "Lego Star Wars" shows, including "Droid Tales" and "All-Stars."

There's even a 2-hour documentary (from 2004), "Empire of Dreams: The Story of The Star Wars Trilogy." That's probably old hat to some, but it was a welcome discovery for me.

Disney Plus review: Marvel Cinematic Universe

You can watch nearly all of the Marvel movies in order on Disney Plus. The only movies that are often missing are the "Spider-Man" movies produced by Sony. Sony sometimes plays nice with Disney but it can license the streaming rights of its movies to any company it chooses.

The good news is that means Disney Plus packs the Captain America trilogy. So that means you get all the Cap you could ask for, including the giant airport clash of "Civil War," the inarguable excellence of "The Winter Soldier" and the uplifting origin story of "The First Avenger."

Disney Plus review: Parental controls

Originally, Disney Plus had laughable parental controls. But then when it added "Logan" and the "Deadpool" movies, it was pushed to add serious parental controls.

Now, we've got a whole walkthrough for Disney Plus parental controls, which you'll need to keep Junior away from Mr. Pool's raunchy jokes and Wolverine's violent ends.

Disney Plus review: Bottom line

Is Disney Plus worth it? Despite this long, in-depth review, the answer is pretty simple.

Do you want to watch Marvel shows and movies? The "Star Wars" original trilogy? Pixar hits including "Toy Story" and "Frozen?" What about streaming the entire catalog of "The Simpsons" or a whole host of shows and movies from 20th Century Studios?

If you answered yes to any of these, then Disney Plus is probably worth it. Disney's primary streaming service may offer less than some other services since its library is mostly comprised of its own shows and movies rather than licensed content. But its also largely the exclusive home of its own shows and movies, so if you want to watch a Disney-owned property, you'll need Disney Plus.