FW Presents – Disney Plus and Minuses

FW PRESENTS - DISNEY PLUS AND MINUSES

Rob and mega Disney fan Shawn Myers discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of the new streaming service Disney+!

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19 responses to “FW Presents – Disney Plus and Minuses

  1. When I worked at Disney for the online parks dept, they said we worked for kids and fans like Shawn. They keep the lights on.

  2. “Dr. Syn…Alias The Scarecrow” is all kinds of awesome! Patrick McGoohan is always brilliant in everything he does. While it’s not a horror movie there are some genuinely spooky scenes that are guaranteed to thrill you a little and chill you a little.

    And don’t miss the Hammer Studios version of the Dr. Syn story called “Night Creatures” starring my favorite actor of all-time, the Gentleman of Horror, Peter Cushing. Hammer changed the name of the character from Dr. Syn to Captain Clegg but the plot is the same. “Night Creatures” also features a young Oliver Reed. Both versions of “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” are highly entertaining and worth checking out.

    “Groovy” Mike Decker

      1. You guys are speaking my language. Love Dr. Syn, and was so happy it finally made it back out on Blu-Ray recently through the Disney Movie Club. I snapped it up QUICK. I hesitated on the DVD for like a week 10 years ago, and it was GONE.

        As much as I love Hammer and Peter Cushing (see our House of Franklin-Stein series for proof), Disney’s version is the better one, I believe.

        Chris

  3. Disney+ needs to add:

    The Star Wars Holiday Special
    Ewoks: Caravan of Courage
    Ewoks: Battle for Endor
    Droids animated series
    Ewoks animated series

      1. It looks like it was all shot on video. Whomever has the master tape could have it copied to digital and remastered. It wouldn’t be great.

  4. I absolutely loved Dr. Sinn as a kid. This was the first thing I looked for on Disney +. I was heartbroken not to find it, I will continue to look at for this show. Also looking forward to seeing The World Greatest Athlete on Disney plus.

  5. I had a few (hundred) recommendations prepared that I didn’t get to on the show, but I’ve pared my list down to these titles –

    SHORTS:
    The Old Mill
    Lonesome Ghosts
    Day & Night

    DOCUMENTARIES:
    Frank & Ollie
    Waking Sleeping Beauty
    Empire Of Dreams

    MOVIES:
    Those Calloways
    Babes In Toyland (not a great film per se – but an amazing spectacle)

    TV SHOWS:
    Gargoyles
    Agent Carter

    I also forgot to mention the two Disney+ original movies, Noelle and Lady And The Tramp.
    I’m not a big fan of the live action remakes that Disney have done in the past (I’m not against the idea – I just don’t think they have have been done very well) but I DO think that the new Lady And The Tramp is the best one they have done so far and I actually like it a lot.
    Noelle is a great little holiday jem and Anna Kendrick puts a great spin on the ‘Buddy The Elf optimism’ of people who love Christmas. Very slight spoiler alert: I love the spin on the Santa legend this movie takes by have it be a family dynasty, passed on from generation to generation.

    Here is a link to the list of live action Disney films that I told Rob I printed out and used as a guide to add films to my watchlist:

    https://www.dvdizzy.com/classicliveactiondisney.html

    1. As a Star Wars fan, I’ve already rewatched Star Wars: Rebels. Naturally, I watch The Mandalorian every week. I will probably watch Empire of Dreams over the holidays. Because of your notes and this episode, I bookmarked One Day at Disney (full & shorts), Frank & Ollie, Waking Sleeping Beauty, and Jeff Goldblum.

      I also love revisiting the old Marvel cartoons that i grew up with including Spider-Woman (for better or worse). I just wish that ALL episodes for these shows were included. For whatever reason, Disney didn’t add “Quest of the Red Skull” in the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends programming.

      Anything in their library that is offensive because of the material and/or the difference in social sensibilities should just have a disclaimer attached to the beginning of the program.

  6. Fun show guys! I’m loving Disney + overall. Since it was shortly after Halloween, my daughter and I started watching the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes. We got up to somewhere in the mid 2000s before we kind of petered out with it for now.

    Rob, when you get around to watching Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (or the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh as it was called on Wonderful World of Color), we should cover it on SOMETHING on the network. I just got the Blu-Ray as I said above, and I’ve been thinking about covering it anyway. I remembered it from the Disney Channel back in the mid-80s, and I loved it then, and I’m happy to say, I love it even more now. It holds up WONDERFULLY in my opinion. I get a lot more of the nuance, and the on-location filming in the actual setting in England really puts it over. And of course Patrick McGoohan is awesome.

    I have the Disney Zorro series on DVD, but I’d love to see it streaming here.

    Of course the missing film everyone was curious about when Disney promised “Everything” was Song of the South. Why they can’t just put a disclaimer at the front of it and put it on Disney +, I’ll never understand.

    Chris

  7. Well done, gentlemen! I enjoyed your insights on some of the content available on Disney+. I signed up as quickly as I could just for the Star Wars content but have been enjoying some of the great (well, I thought they were great when I saw them as a kid) older films like the Black Hole and Tron. I find it even more impressive that our Canadian Disney+ has almost exactly the same content as the American version, which is quite a rarity in streaming services these days.

    Wow, Shawn, you watched the Legend of the Three Caballeros?! Well, thanks to you for that as I worked on that show! We kind of saw the writing on the wall when, during production, they announced the new DuckTales. We figured it would just get buried and never seen again but I am happy to see it find a new home and enjoyed by people.

    Rob, I agree with you about DuckTales. It’s a great show that I can watch with my kids and we all enjoy it. I miss how all-ages shows used to mean “all-ages” and not just “kid friendly” which, to me, is a subtle distinction. If you like DuckTales, try Gravity Falls. It was recommended to me by a lot of people at work and, having only watched a few episodes, it doesn’t disappoint.

    Lastly, Disney+ will be worth it when they have Condorman! Back when you didn’t have superhero movies coming out every weekend, this is what you got and were happy with it, gosh-darn-it!

      1. Oh man, that poster sure takes me back. Well done on the article. I totally agree with your assessment of the movie being “harmless fluff”. As a kid, it felt more intense than it actually is. I guess they were going for James Bond for kids? I mostly just remember the Eiffel Tower scene at the beginning, that awesome logo on the poster, and the CondorMobile. For a movie that wasn’t that great, it sure stuck with me.

    1. Mike –
      Thank you SO MUCH for your work on Legend Of The Three Caballeros. I loved every episode and I’m sure I’ll rewatch it at some point in the future (once I get through Tron: Uprising, Clone Wars, Rebels, and X-Men!)

  8. Fun episode, especially for hosts that were enthusiastic for Disney. We are in the platinum era for television right now, who knows how long this new streaming model will sustain itself. It is amazing that shows that never would even get pitched, let alone produced, are being released.

    Mandolorian is amazing. It’s like the modern equivalent of the Lone Ranger. I like that it doesn’t have this gigantic long arc and the pacing is terrific.

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