Disney’s streaming service, called Disney Plus, will be launching later this year. Shortly after it does, CEO Bob Iger says, it will contain “the entire Disney motion picture library.” That means the iconic “Disney Vault” is effectively dead.
Disney’s catalog of films dates back to the 1920s, and includes cultural touchstones such as Dumbo and Snow White alongside modern classics like Frozen and Zootopia. But traditionally, Disney has only made individual titles available on home video for limited periods of time. Once a run of The Little Mermaid on Disney DVD and Blu-ray has sold through, for instance, it’s back into the Vault until it’s released again.
Once Disney Plus goes online, however, Iger says that marketing trick will simply fade away. From today’s investor meeting, held in St. Louis:
The service, which I mentioned earlier is going to launch later in the year, is going to combine what we call library product, movies, and television, with a lot of original product as well, movies and television. And at some point fairly soon after launch it will house the entire Disney motion picture library, so the movies that you speak of that traditionally have been kept in a “vault” and brought out basically every few years will be on the service. And then, of course, we’re producing a number of original movies and original television shows as well that will be Disney-branded.
Shows confirmed as coming to Disney Plus include a live-action Star Wars series called The Mandalorian, which will be directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2), who gave voice to Rio Durant in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Iger also stressed that newer films will find a home on Disney Plus within a year of their theatrical release.
“It’s going to combine both the old and the new,” Iger continued. “All of the films that we’re releasing this year, [starting] with Captain Marvel, will also be on the service.”
No release date for Disney Plus has been announced, but it is scheduled to launch sometime this year.
Comments
"the entire Disney motion picture library."
So…"Song of the South"?
By Channing on 03.07.19 12:36pm
first thing i wondered about, too
By Jigabachi on 03.07.19 12:46pm
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!
By Alain-Christian on 03.07.19 1:01pm
Song of the South isn’t in the vault, it’s in the Disney equivalent of SuperMax prison
By gregorsmith on 03.07.19 1:27pm
That was my first question. I’m so curious about that movie. It’s obviously got that reputation, but I have to know why. I think I saw it when I was really young. All I really remember is a bunch of Bre’er Rabbit tales, which I guess are probably enough on their own, even if their origin is sourced to African-American folk tales. The crazy thing is that Splash Mountain is still based on the movie but they try not to call attention to it.
By Foggen on 03.07.19 2:08pm
The problem isn’t so much the Br’er Rabbit stories as it is the frame story, in which poor Black people are presented as happily subservient.
By MadameHardy on 03.07.19 2:28pm
Yeah, from what I can gather it appears like they set it in an ambiguously Antebellum plantation where the the social strata of slavery is still there but everybody gets along and everything’s fine and there’s no apparent violence or great injustice. But the white folks still live in the big house and the black folks do all the work and everybody’s fine with the arrangement because apparently that’s the natural order of things. It seems like Disney was trying to make something positive and harmonious for the children, but wound up accidentally making some pretty gnarly implications about how people ought to act and how things ought to be.
By Foggen on 03.08.19 12:22pm
There are… ways to watch it online.
By Kenneth Nida on 03.07.19 3:03pm
By Tren Frost on 03.07.19 5:26pm
By graf1k on 03.07.19 6:33pm
One of the few times we all should be able to agree that it’s 100% okay to pirate.
By Lil Kut-Ku on 03.08.19 9:04am
The only way we’ll see that again is if they get Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee to present it in some sort of way. Considering the political and cultural climate of today, I seriously wouldn’t expect it until well after 2020.
By SpaceAdventureColin on 03.07.19 2:10pm
I could see them doing a limited disc based run on it, have some people commentating on the importance of the film in the beginning…how understanding of each other changes over time and how what was "acceptable then" is not longer tolerated now. Then maybe donate ALL the proceeds to a African American History Museum, or organization.
By HelloUPStore on 03.08.19 10:03am
Maybe a Song of the South/Bamboozled double feature.
By Foggen on 03.08.19 12:16pm
Throw in the Topsy scenes from Fantasia while you’re at it.
By nerdrage on 03.09.19 2:33pm
I hope so! I haven’t seen it since I was little, but every time I go to Disneyland and ride Splash Mountain, I feel a craving to see it again. I want the music and stories.
By Kimberly Burgess on 03.07.19 5:21pm
I don’t know St. Louis, Missouri very well but is "yer" a thing over there?
By Fandabidozi on 03.07.19 12:45pm
yer know it
By Felix Omni on 03.07.19 12:58pm
It’s a thing in NY.
By Alain-Christian on 03.07.19 1:01pm
Later in the yer when it warms up, we’ll swim in the crick and put the tar swing up in the tree.
By Hauz2083 on 03.07.19 4:49pm
Considering how much Disney charges for their animated features, this streaming service is a no-brainer, especially if you have kids. Personally I’m excited at the thought of having access to older titles like Robin Hood and The Black Cauldron, along with older Disney movies like Bed-knobs and Broomsticks.
By SweetTerror on 03.07.19 12:59pm
Absolutely this. We will be subscribing on day 1, without question.
By MrMichaelJames on 03.07.19 1:17pm
I would love to see The Black Cauldron again. I still have the soundtrack on vinyl.
By Shadowfire on 03.07.19 1:27pm
My first reaction was that this is going to be much more expensive than everybody previously said. I’d heard rumors that Disney was expected to position this significantly cheaper than Netflix or Hulu, but I can’t imagine them giving access to their full back catalog for under $10/mo.
By Thworted on 03.08.19 5:58am
It’s gotta start at least $12. I wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t $15 or $17.
By RunTMCz on 03.08.19 9:49am