Disney+ isn't just about Marvel, Baby Yoda and space sagas. If you're a millennial, you might be delighted to hear that the movies and Disney Channel Originals that raised anyone who grew up in the '90s and early 2000s are still right there, waiting just beyond the front page. If you want to feel 11 again on a Friday night, we've got some great picks that will stir up some serious nostalgia.
From hilarious comedies to heartfelt dramas, these selections represent the peak of our collective childhood viewing. You can watch a pre-fame Shia LaBeouf act circles around everyone in "Tru Confessions," or revisit "The Sandlot," a film that needs no setup for anyone who spent their childhood summers quoting it. If you are looking for pure comfort, "Mr. Deeds" offers peak early-2000s Adam Sandler, back when a small-town pizza guy inheriting $40 billion dollars was all the premise a comedy needed.
No matter which one you choose, these throwbacks are guaranteed to put a smile on your face in no time. Keep reading to learn more about our favorite feel-good Disney+ movie picks.
'Tru Confessions'
"Tru Confessions" is one of the places where Shia LaBeouf first showed he could really act, years before "Holes" or "Transformers." He plays Eddie, the developmentally disabled twin brother of Tru Walker (Clara Bryant), an aspiring filmmaker who enters a video contest and decides to make her documentary about him. Mare Winningham plays the worn-out mom holding the family together, and the last stretch hits harder than a kids' movie has any business hitting.
You think you know everything about Tru and her brother's dynamic, but nothing will prepare you for how close they get and how they end up overcoming adversity together in a world that just doesn't seem to understand happy-go-lucky Eddie.
Stream on Disney+
'Mr. Deeds'
"Mr. Deeds" catches Adam Sandler at his most likable in this '90s hit that doesn't get as much play as it should. He plays Longfellow Deeds, a small-town pizza owner and greeting-card poet who inherits $40 billion dollars and a media empire from an uncle he never met. He then goes to New York and refuses to stop being decent about it.
It's a soft remake of a Frank Capra movie, and it goes down easy, with a feel-good ending and guy-gets-the-girl story wrapped into a neat package that you'll remember years later. And if you're tired of replaying "Happy Gilmore," this is the one to watch so you don't run that one into the ground.
Stream on Disney+
'The Sandlot'
"The Sandlot" is the summer every kid thinks they remember having. In 1962, new-in-town kid Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry) talks his way onto a neighborhood baseball team led by the impossibly cool Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez, then takes his stepdad's Babe Ruth-signed ball and launches it over the fence into the yard of a dog the whole block calls the Beast.
Of course, getting the ball is easier said than done, and the entirety of the film is spent with smart jokes, acerbic wit and narration that feels like your best friend telling you how their summer went. A classic to end all nostalgia classics, Smalls is still killing people these days when they go to take it in once more.
Stream on Disney+
