Disney Announces Shows And Movies Releasing To Their Streaming Service For Disney+ Day
Source: D23
Disney+ Day is less than 17 days away, or as they themselves put it in a tweet: 16 days, 18 hours, and 59 minutes. In that tweet, they revealed the fullest list of releases for the occasion. While last year it was introduced to celebrate the service’s second anniversary, Disney+ Day is happening September 8 as a sort of Day 0 for the D23 Expo that weekend. It is the first D23 Expo held since the COVID-19 pandemic began just a few months after Disney+ launched in November 2019.
Cars on the Road’s Disney+ Day premiere was announced on August 6, and is a spinoff of Pixar’s Cars film trilogy. Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy return as Lightning McQueen and Mater as the two go on a cross-country road trip. All nine episodes will release on the day, rather than weekly. Of this list, it seems Cars on the Road is the only domestic series premiere for the occasion. The other series premiere, Tierra Incógnita, is an eight-episode Argentinian mystery-horror series, where a boy investigates the disappearance of his parents from an amusement park eight years prior. The only other announced series update is that, as scheduled, episode 4 of She-Hulk will premiere that day. It is unknown if having its regular premiere day moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays was facilitated in part to have an episode premiere on Disney+ Day without having viewers wait an extra day on that specific week or shorten its run by having two episodes release that week.
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As far as movies go, the live action remake of Pinocchio had its Disney+ Day release announced back in May, making it the first project to have it publicly known. It is directed by Robert Zemeckis, with him and Chris Weitz writing the screenplay, and stars Tom Hanks as Gepetto. This makes sense, as the live action remake of Lady and the Tramp was a launch day original for the service. Thor: Love & Thunder will arrive on Disney+ on this day, just as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings arrived on the service on last year’s Disney+ Day. For both of these to happen, both were held off past the 45 day theatrical windows, which has become the norm; while Shang-Chi was added on day 71, Thor will be added on day 63. The similarities continue, as Thor: Love and Thunder’s arrival will be accompanied by the release of its Marvel Studios: Assembled episode, as Shang-Chi’s did. Incidentally, the Assembled on Shang-Chi is the last of the series grouped with other episodes, as those released after it have their own individual listings on Disney+. Weird standalone listing decisions gained a new genre in March with a sing-along version of Encanto, listed separately instead of as a “version” of the film. Several other films have followed suit, including Tangled and both versions of Beauty and the Beast just this past Friday, and this trend will continue on Disney+ Day, with sing-alongs for Frozen and Frozen II. Making-of documentaries also continue to live outside the Extras section, as this year’s Obi-Wan Kenobi mini-series gets one in Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return.
Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Earlier this month, Disney+ announced a ten-episode docuseries releasing on Disney+ Day as well, called Growing Up, which “explores the challenges, triumphs, and complexities of adolescence”. With Brie Larson as executive producer, it will have cinematic re-enactments of each subject’s key points. Larson also stars in the augmented reality-compatible short film Remembering, which releases on this day as well. The last revealed long-form ongoing content is the series Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory, an original series from National Geographic. It essentially checks the same boxes that the second season of The World According to Jeff Goldblum did last year. We’re also getting another The Simpsons short, “Welcome to the Club”, the fifth made for the service, including last year’s Disney+ Day offering, “Plusaversary”. In “Welcome to the Club”, Lisa’s sudden quest to become a princess leads her to find that villainy might just be her style instead. Dancing with the Stars prepares for its September 19 move to the service (and season 31 premiere) by bringing forth a clip show called “The Pros’ Most Memorable Dances”.
That’s everything announced so far. The graphics promise more titles for release, but those are being kept under wraps for now. How new series and film announcements are handled is a curious thing, since the D23 Expo is immediately ahead of it, and who would want that to be undercut? Anything bearing semblance to last year’s Marvel and Pixar Disney+ Day specials should be released after their respective panels during the weekend. More library series additions would be enjoyable, and what about more migrations from Hulu? It’s possible, but one can only hope the day will be as big as they hype it to be. It’s nice to have a service that can celebrate without major baggage.
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