Disney+ Adding Embarrassingly Low Amount of Titles in April

By Daniel S. Levine

The Disney+ April 2022 lineup is here, and it's embarrassingly small. Although there are still hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of Disney content still unavailable on the streaming platform, there are only two older Disney films joining during the entire month. Most of the content joining Disney+ in April is original content, including Marvel's Moon Knight and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.

The two non-original Disney+ additions in April are only Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) on April 1 and Chasing Mavericks (2012) on April 6. Chasing Mavericks is not even a Disney movie, as it was produced by 20th Century Fox long before Disney bought the studio. There are no other Disney catalog shows coming to the platform yet, unless Disney plans to hold back any additions to make a splashy announcement.

Even when original Disney+ content is included, there is a shocking dearth of new content for the platformer. While Netflix and others usually add a large swath of new stuff on the first day of every month, the only thing new coming to Disney+ on April 1 is the musical Better Nate Than Never. It is the only Disney+ original movie being released all month.

So what does Disney+ have for April? Moon Knight episodes two through five are released on Wednesdays, following the show's debut on March 30. The last three episodes of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder will be released between April 6 and 20. Ice Age: Scrat Tales Season 1 will be released on April 13, and the documentary series Sketchbook drops on April 27. Four National Geographic films will be released on April 22.

One of the most consistent criticisms of Disney+ has been its lack of library content. While you can find most of the films from Disney's animation studio there, Disney still has many, many live-action classics sitting in a vault somewhere that could be put on the platform. There are hundreds of animated shorts starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and others that still haven't been put up there. Hundreds of hours of shows from Disney's early television shows are missing too. It's odd that even though a new Zorro series is in development, the complete beloved Disney 1950s series is unavailable on Disney+.

While Disney die-hards might be complaining about this, it isn't really affecting Disney's bottom line. At the end of the fiscal year 2021, Disney+ had 118.1 million subscribers, a jump from 73.3 million at the end of 2020, according to company statistics. It's still sad none of those subscribers can watch Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom. 

0comments
Start the Conversation

of