By Emily Vescio
Disney+ has been out for a week now, and I’m yet to watch any of the new shows. From what I found out through the very extensive research I’ve done (literally just asking a couple of my friends), neither has anyone else. Hitting play on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series instead of the original High School Musical feels like a sin. Now, I’m very aware of how dramatic that is so let’s back up a little.
When Disney+ was announced, we were all anticipating the list that would drop soon after outlining every title that would be on the streaming service. When this dropped my first instinct was to hit CMND + F and search for shows that I used to love and made me nostalgic. Jonas, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Lizzie Mcguire – I could keep going, but I won’t bore you. Only later did I see the lacklustre announcements of the originals Disney+ would be providing.
Most of the originals people care about – e.g. Loki, WandaVision, Falcon and The Winter Soldier – are yet to be released, so there’s no way to judge how they’ll go over, but the ones on the site right now are a bit tragic. I’ve seen some hype for tiny baby Yoda from The Mandalorian, but not really much about the actual show. In the last couple of days, I’ve seen endless posts and tweets about people being so excited to watch all their favourite Disney Channel shows that haven’t ever been on a streaming service. I’m no different.
The first thing I did when I logged into my fresh Disney+ account was watch the Lizzie Mcguire Movie – you know the one, she goes to Rome for her 8th Grade graduation and impersonates a pop star and Ethan Craft resolidifies himself as the king of my heart (more on that later though). I still own the DVD of this movie, and even though it’s worn and scratched to the point you can’t get past the menu to even play the movie, it’ll always have a spot on my bookshelf of treasures.
You get my point though, Disney+ is honestly just about nostalgia for most of us. I can see High School Musical: The Musical: The Series being a hit with people younger than me who didn’t grow up with the original trilogy, and I’ll also inevitably binge the whole thing in one night at some point soon, but it’s not something I couldn’t live without.
I think the effort and budget being put into Disney+ Originals is impressive and commendable. There are so many fresh new ideas and being put into series, movies and short films, but I don’t know if Disney will ever be able to top their own work. The classic line-up of Disney movies – all the way from the princesses to Wall-E – and the endless amounts of Disney Channel shows and movies that are already out and widely loved by the world is a hard thing to beat.
Disney+ is a streaming service that nobody asked for, but we’re all glad we have. Although I’m now paying upwards of $40 a month for movies and shows, I’m no longer filling my computer with viruses from desperately trying to watch That’s So Raven.
