The Walt Disney Company is in the middle of a massive cost-saving plan that has already cost thousands of Cast Members their jobs. Yesterday Disney announced that a planned move of 2,000 Cast Members to Florida, including most of Walt Disney Imagineering, was now canceled, and that Disney World’s high-profile Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was closing. But Disney wasn’t done yet. Last week on a Disney Company earnings call it was revealed that Disney+ and Hulu would be removing content and now we have a list of what will be going away, and it’s a lot.
Deadline has a list of the content that is set to be removed from Disney+ and it is all original content made specifically for Disney+. While some of it is old, by Disney+ standards, including content that was there at launch, others, like the recent Willow series, have only been available for a few months. Here’s the current list which is believed to be leaving May 26.
- Big Shot
- Turner & Hooch
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
- Willow
- The Making Of Willow
- Diary of a Future President
- Just Beyond
- The World According to Jeff Goldblum
- Marvel’s Project Hero
- Marvel’s MPower
- Marvel’s Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever
- Cheaper by the Dozen (2022 remake)
- The One and Only Ivan
- Stargirl
- Artemis Fowl
- Encore!
- A Spark Story
- Black Beauty
- Clouds
- America the Beautiful
- Better Nate Than Ever
- Weird but True!
- Timmy Failure
- Be Our Chef
- Magic Camp
- Howard
- Earth to Ned
- Foodtastic
- Stuntman
- Disney Fairy Tale Weddings
- Wolfgang
- It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer
- The Real Right Stuff
- The Big Fib
- Rogue Trip
- More Than Robots
- Shop Class
- Pick the Litter
- Own the Room
- Among the Stars
- Harmonious Live!
- Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays
Needless to say, there are some pretty surprising items on this list. Shows like Willow or the second season The Mysterious Benedict Society, that only just arrived on the service are some really strange choices. Howard, a documentary film by Disney Legend Don Hahn about the life of Disney Legend Howard Ashman, will be leaving Disney+ on the same day that a live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid hits theaters. Ashman wrote the lyrics to the songs in the original animated film and the credits of the new movie include a dedication to his memory.
Harmonious Live is a presentation of a nighttime spectacular at Epcot, of a show that is no longer running. While Harmonious wasn’t the most popular show, there were people that loved it, and the fact that it was available to watch was nice. And yet, it’s also being removed.
The reason for the purge is in the name of money. Apparently, these are shows that, due to the need to pay residuals or simply the costs associated with storage, cost more than they are making for Disney+. It seems surprising that a fireworks show at a Disney theme park or a property like Willow, wholly owned by Lucasfilm, could be that expensive once they're completed, but that’s the argument.
The biggest problem is that, since these are all Disney+ original programs, they don’t exist in a physical media form. If you are frustrated that a favorite show will not be available streaming, the option to buy it does not exist. This content will be apparently gone forever.
It’s possible Disney could license these shows out to other streaming services, as HBO Max did when it made similar moves, but then that requires fans of Disney who want to watch it to have another streaming service, and the entire point of Disney+ was for it to be the home of all things Disney.
If you have a Disney+ subscription and have been meaning to watch any of these, time is running out.
