Disney+ watchlist: April 2020

The second month of using the Disney+ streaming service provided more theme park background stories and animation shorts.

TV shows:
Forky Asks a Question (Art, Money, Friend) [6/10]
The Imagineering Story (Season 1, Episodes 3+4) [8/10]

Forky Asks a Question is difficult to rate, as it’s nothing more than what one would expect from bonus features of a BD/DVD: a very short animated scene in which the Toy Story 4 character tries to understand certain concepts, in this case art, money, and friendship. Part educational and part nonsense, it only works in this format. Without leaving much of an impression, the awkward humor hits as much as it misses, making this only watchable in short bursts.

The third and fourth episodes of The Imagineering Story offered the same high quality of Angela Bassett narration and insightful glimpses into the history of Disneyland theme parks, which meant that finances and creativity were a constant clash. Of course the show is used for promoting each individual park and many attractions. But the way how the story is told means that even those parts in which the company struggled are presented with honesty and true emotions, making this another must-see show for anyone who’s been there or is planning a trip. With a runtime of 1 hour for each episode, it’s impossible to cover everything, but one still gets a good impression behind the scenes of Disneyland theme parks around the world.

I’m still not convinced that Disney+ warrants a monthly or even yearly subscription, but this might have to do with only few exclusives being available at the beginning. What is more problematic is the way how the channel doesn’t communicate its release model very well. At the time of writing, I discovered that there are 10 Forky Asks a Question episodes and I only knew about the full 6-episodes list of The Imagineering Story, because I checked on IMDb. Hopefully, Disney+ will be more transparent about its schedule, just like Amazon Prime Video or Netflix have done for years.

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