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Disney+ streaming service goes live early… in the Netherlands
The Magic Kingdom is going Dutch. Disney+, the Mouse House's highly anticipated streaming service that will compete with the likes of streaming behemoths Netflix and Amazon, has launched several months early! The catch? It's only live in the Netherlands.
That's right. Per The Verge, Disney has released a pilot that's available for free for those lucky enough to be living in the Dutch nation through November 12, the date it arrives in the U.S. After that, Mickey & Co. will charge €6.99 a month, or $6.99 a month if you're a Stateside subscriber.
The Netherlands version of Disney+ looks to provide a solid preview of what Disney fans can expect when it officially arrives.
For starters, that includes a smorgasboard of classic Disney content ranging from Mickey Mouse shorts and Disney Princesses and animated features like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and The Lion King to modern-day live-action faves like Pirates of the Caribbean, Mary Poppins Returns, Christopher Robin and A Wrinkle in Time.
Paired alongside those are cinematic juggernauts from the studios the company's gobbled up over the last two decades: from Lucasfilm's various Star Wars trilogies and popular Pixar 'toons like Moana, Cars and Inside Out to Marvel blockbusters like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity Wars as well as TV series like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways.
But that's not all! Disney+ features a bevy of National Geographic titles like last year's Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo and series like Brain Games and Great Migrations. Along with other properties like Lego shorts, musicals and from the vault TV and movie fare, it's clear Disney's just getting started.
Navigating the new service is fairly straightforward as programs are divided up by categories - Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic - that appear as boxes at the top of the home page.
While the offerings are clearly nowhere near as vast as rivals Netflix and Amazon, it's pretty much everything diehards could want from Uncle Walt. Following last year's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, by the way, Disney has grossed an astonishing $8 billion at the box office so far in 2019, commanding an unprecedented 35 percent of the movie market. And that's not even counting the final entry in the final Star Wars trilogy with December's release of The Rise of Skywalker along with Frozen 2.
No doubt the company will add to its fortunes by joining the streaming wars with Disney+, which aims to sign up 12 million subscribers by the end of next year.
It should be noted that the Dutch pilot counts 18 Marvel flicks in its library, but missing in action are the studio's more recent blockbusters Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel, though we're pretty sure that'll be remedied by the time Disney+ goes wide (though Endgame could still be wrapped up under the studio's Netflix deal)
Also not yet available but coming soon are the heavily hyped new series Disney has been teasing, most recently at D23: from Jon Favreau's Star Wars western, The Madalorian (set for release at launch), to MCU titles like Hawkeye, The Falcon and Winter Soldier, Ms. Marvel, and WandaVision along with a Short Circuit experimental film and a slate of animated originals. As for other famed properties in the Disney family, such as Jim Henson's beloved Muppets, a pilot for which was recently canceled along the previously announced villain-centric series Book of Enchantment, we'll just have to wait a little longer.
