Disney+ watchlist: January 2022

Disney+ in January 2021 had a surprisingly great start of the year with two good movies.

Movies:
Jungle Cruise [9/10]
Luca [8/10]

Who would have thought that Jungle Cruise, a Disney movie based on a theme park attraction, could be such a fun adventure romp? Of course anyone who has watched the documentary I covered in the Disney+ watchlist: July 2021 will know that Dwayne Johnson did a good publicity stunt with it. One also sees references to the ride itself with some of the earlier bad jokes, although the inclusion of a ghost story feels a bit stupid and too similar to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and its sequels.

However, no matter if one knows the theme park ride or not, the movie is pure entertainment and has more than enough action and comedy elements during its 2 hours runtime. Taking into consideration that the original ride was based on The African Queen, a 60ies “classic”, I actually liked Jungle Cruise much better, even though the portrayal of Germans are again a bit questionable. Still, if one knows the Indiana Jones movies Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, the strange accents and grammar as well as over-the-top acting kind of adds to the fun presentation.

After the disastrous Encanto in December 2021, my hopes weren’t high for Luca, but fortunately enough, it had everything the newest Disney movie/musical lacked: more time spent on character development and actually an emotional story. While it certainly borrowed ideas from The Little Mermaid, there was enough to set it apart from this animated classic.

Thankfully, there were no songs and the mediterranean atmosphere added to the more relaxed storytelling approach. It’s certainly not a classic and again plays it a bit safe with friendship, family, and growing up, but compared to the aforementioned disaster movie, it’s a glance into a better future of Disney.

Starting with the same words for the conclusion as last month, but with a different outcome… Here we have it: two very different movies on Disney+ that show the company can do some fun and emotional movies if time allows it.

However, as a side note: I had some serious audio problems while watching Jungle Cruise (like sound hiccups almost every 5 minutes), which unfortunately shows that Disney+ is again not up to the standards of quality it should be. So physical media wins, even though it’s more than a little bit disappointing that these movies haven’t received a 3D version even though they were presented in that way in cinemas.

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