Locals join Disney Plus craze this week

Published 8:03 pm Tuesday, November 12, 2019

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With the highly anticipated arrival of Disney Plus, several Covington County residents downloaded the streaming service and are reaping the benefits of being able to watch old and new Disney specials.

Disney Plus is designed as the exclusive home to stream theatrical blockbusters from Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Disney’s own studios. Disney also is ramping up a slate of original shows and movies based on those brands and others. Most anticipated among them is big-budget Star Wars spinoff The Mandalorian. (With Disney Plus’ library reaching nearly 500 films and 7,500 episodes of television, CNET has an article highlighting Disney Plus titles included in the streaming service.)

In the US, the Disney Plus service costs $7 a month, or $70 a year.

Its price undercuts the $13 monthly fee for Netflix’s most popular plan in the US, which lets you stream to two different devices simultaneously in high definition. Disney Plus, however, allows all subscribers to stream to four devices and access 4K content at no extra cost, features Netflix includes in its $16 premium tier.

Andalusia local Skip Enzor downloaded the service when it dropped on Tuesday for the ease of access to all the content that he loves.

“Disney has a proven reputation for quality in all things they do,” Enzor said. “So, I expect nothing but great T.V., and movies to come. We love Netflix, as well but it can be a little hit and miss at times, and we struggle to pick something to watch. Today I’ve been home with my 15 month old and I’ve already introduced him to Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Toy Story, all while playing with his favorite toys.”

Several residents took their frustrations to Facebook about the buffering of the service, but Enzor said his set up started working almost immediately.

“It took a few tries to get it downloaded to my phone but it is working now and it started working immediately on the Fire T.V. Stick,” Enzor said. “I’m looking forward to more wholesome animation for Mixon, uplifting documentaries and stories to watch with the wife, also loads of Marvel and Star Wars for myself.”

Andalusia local Robynn Cowan is beyond excited to start her streaming service with Disney Plus.

“We downloaded and signed up last night [Tuesday] for a seven-day free trial, then its $6.99 a month or $69.99 for the year,” Cowan said. “They have special offers with Verizon and Hulu available. We downloaded the app this morning, but haven’t had the chance to sit down and watch anything yet but we have browsed and we are beyond excited with all the old and new stuff they have. Not to mention all the originals they have. Blaine and I are die-hard Disney people. We are members with the Disney movie club. I know they have been having some issues today with so many people streaming it’s been going in and out from what I’ve been told and seen in the many Disney groups on Facebook that I’m a part of.”

Andalusia local and Magical Vacation Planner with Disney Becca Cory is excited to see Disney Plus become a reality so the next generation of children will grow up with the same thing she grew up with.

“I live Disney, everything is Disney in my life,” Cory said. “I just think it is neat that you don’t have to pull out your old VHS tapes anymore. If you don’t have the tapes, then you have to order it on Amazon and still wait two days for it to get to your house. With this service, you can pull up any old or new movie and stream it. I think it is going to merge this group of little kids that are growing up without seeing any of the originals. I honestly think it is going to save this generation because they are getting all of the live action movies and not even seeing the originals.”

Disney Plus is designed to be the only place people can stream all of Disney’s theatrically released movies, starting with Captain Marvel at launch and the rest of its 2019 slate later on. Frozen 2, for example, will be streamable on the service next summer after its theatrical release in November. Disney Plus will also house the entire film libraries of Pixar, Star Wars and its Signature Series and Disney Vault lines of classic hand-drawn animated movies.