Disney+ has finally launched with an embarrassment of riches for you to peruse. While much has been written about what is and what is not included on the service, we haven’t yet devoted much space to just how good the movies and shows are.
While we may touch upon a few well-known favorites here and there, we’d like to highlight movies beyond the obvious titles. And those include movies from Twentieth Century Fox, which Disney famously acquired this year, largely to feed their new streaming service. Here are seven features that are worth a look in alphabetical order
‘Free Solo’
We’ll start right off the bat with a movie that people don’t think of when they think of Disney. However, Disney owns National Geographic, which made this astonishing documentary that won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar earlier this year.
The central figure is Alex Honnold, a famed climber who decide to scale the sheer cliff face El Capitan in Yosemite National Park using nothing but his bare hands. Those who fear heights may want to tread lightly with this one, but for everyone else it’s an incredible journey.
‘Iron Man’
[embedded content]
Having saved and conquered the world with Avengers: Endgame, it’s actually kind of refreshing to go back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s very first feature in 2008.
While there’s no shortage of visual excitement, the movie now looks kind of quaint and charmingly small compared to today’s action extravaganzas. Remember, this was a time when casting the troubled Robert Downey Jr. was a gamble. Paid off, didn’t it?
‘Miracle on 34th Street’ (1947)
[embedded content]
This is one of the Fox films Disney acquired, and with the holidays just around the corner, we couldn’t not include it. Natalie Wood, then age 9, plays a girl who is not inclined to believe in Santa Claus — until she meets one who seems particularly convincing and very devoted to his job.
He was concerned about Christmas being too commercial long before Charlie Brown. Since this movie begins with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and closes with Christmas, it nicely bookends the holidays, and you’ll never find a movie Santa more wonderful than Edmund Gwenn, who won an Oscar for this.
‘The Muppet Movie’
[embedded content]
The first and still the best Muppet movie, solely on the strength of the classic “Rainbow Connection” alone. More recent attempts to revive the Muppets have been hit or miss, so watch this movie to catch them at their full power.
Look for a ton of star cameos from the likes of Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Orson Welles and Richard Pryor. Lovers and dreamers unite!
‘The Sandlot’
[embedded content]
Many a movie can claim to be a baseball classic, but a lot of people will vouch for this one, which has the unique distinction of being kid-centric.
If we hit a home run for every time someone on the Internet quoted “You’re killing me, Smalls,” we would surpass the sultan of swat himself.
‘The Three Caballeros’
If modern audiences know this 1944 animated feature with Donald Duck and his Latin American friends, they probably know if from the Gran Fiesta Tour attraction in the Mexican pavilion at Epcot.
But the movie isn’t just a Spanish tale that predates “It’s a Small World,” by 20 years. It’s one of the studio’s zaniest features, with dazzlingly weird sequences that make the pink elephants section of Dumbo seem mild by comparison.
‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’
[embedded content]
Most of the Disney animated classics on Disney+ hardly need our help in being discovered, but believe it or not, there was a time when in the early 80s when animation wasn’t doing very well for the company at all.
Things are bad when a Disney movie gets beat at the box office by a Care Bears movie. This documentary tells the story of how the studio recovered from that low point to create a string of classics for a new generation, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)