Disney+’s New Year resolution must have been not to break legacy deals. One of the first things they did in 2020 was remove movies that had licensing conflicts.
The big questions are:
- Which movies did they remove?
- Why didn’t they notify subscribers?
CHECK OUT: The best Disney+ movies for adults streaming this month
What did Disney+ remove?
The movies removed from the Disney+ service include:
- Home Alone
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
- Dr. Dolittle
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- The Sandlot
- Flicka
- Strange Magic
- Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration
- White Wilderness
- The Three Musketeers
- Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
- The Shaggy Dog
Both Home Alone movies, Dr. Dolittle, and The Sandlot were included in our original best ’90s movies on Disney+ rankings. They will be big misses from the streaming service.
The good news is classics like Guardians of the Galaxy are still available on Disney+. It is a wonderful movie for kids of all ages, yet Guardians of the Galaxy is an amazing soundtrack as a vinyl record.
CHECK OUT: The best ’90s movies to stream on Disney+ this month
Why didn’t Disney+ notify subscribers?
Despite announcing the movies and shows the service was adding in January, none of the above were included as leaving. So, it came with a massive surprise to eagle-eyed subscribers when content was being removed.
After a number of Twitter subscribers and websites targeted Disney, they did respond.
A spokesperson for Disney+ confirmed to Gizmodo that a small number of titles had left the platform over issues relating to legacy deals. However, all of those titles that have left will return to the service as soon as those licenses expire.
Gizmodo
If these movies had legacy deals, how did they end up on Disney+ for Christmas in the first place? It seems strange that they would make a temporary arrangement on these specific movies, except for Home Alone 1 & 2 of course.
Additionally, and more importantly, according to Gizmodo, this information had been made known to subscribers previously.
We’ve known that this would be the case for some time now. Back in October, a Disney+ spokesperson told Gizmodo that a “very, very small” number of titles would periodically leave the service if they had pre-existing legacy agreements for licensing in place prior to the service’s launch. However, the spokesperson did add that most Disney content would remain on the platform, and it’s probably safe to assume any originals are staying put.
Gizmodo
Are Disney+ saying anything could vanish at any point, and that they don’t have to say anything because they’ve told us once before? Hopefully not.
Disney+ should do what all other streaming services do and include what’s leaving in their monthly list of what’s arriving. This could be awkward, considering they’ve already told us movies and shows would not be cycled.
CHECK OUT: The best movies coming to Disney+ in 2020