Disney+ Monthly Library Breakdown: November 2021

Disney+ Library Adds Per Month

UPDATE November 13th: 4 additional library titles showed up in November – Enchanted, Dr. Pol Season 19 Part 2, Chicken Squad‘s missing episodes, and Fancy Nancy Season 3.These stats will be updated in the December analysis in roughly 1 week when the list is out!

“How is he going to spin 3 months of green in a row as bad?” Easily! 1 title is a literal music video. 8 titles are animated shorts that on Netflix were combined as 1 title (Walt Disney Animation Studios Shorts Collection). About half of what remains are 3-7 episode batches of in-season series. Very little actual catalog. It’s getting increasingly shallower every month with library adds becoming more disappointing, sans huge outliers in quality like Rolie Polie Olie and Pepper Ann which we are extremely grateful to see. Getting 1-2 great library titles every 2 months isn’t adequate with over 1000 in the vault.

Unfortunately these library numbers have all been inflated into the green since earlier this year when they adopted the new “episode batch” strategy that fellow analysts agree is a big upgrade, but too inconsistent and confusing for subscribers. It’s better than waiting until seasons have aired, but needs to be replaced with a superior release strategy. Specifically? It’s time for Disney+ to convert all Nat Geo and Disney Branded TV Series to NEXT DAY episodes.

If they can do that on NatGeoTV.com and DisneyNow, it’s overdue. People shouldn’t be SO confused every month by which series get batches, how many episodes per batch (differs for every series), and why some series don’t get batches and still wait until the full season has aired. In November we see Life Below Zero: Next Generation Season 3 drop in full despite both premiering and ending the same day as Life Below Zero Season 17. The latter isn’t even represented in November at all. One would have expected them to also arrive on Disney+ same time..

Monthly Library Averages

The monthly average in 2021 will be 26.4. It’s increased for 5 months in a row courtesy the inflation of library titles brought on by the “episode batches” strategy. Unfortunately the lack of a “content drop” on Disney+ Day all but seals the deal – Disney will not be able to tie the amount of titles added to the library in 2020. They appear to be falling short by 20-30 titles but one would have hoped they’d have exceeded that total considerably as they found their groove. Plus, our generous decision to count episode batches as library titles inflated the overall number another 20 titles or so.

Instead of finding their groove this year with library we saw them find a groove with Original series. Ironically, they’ve now fallen out of that groove as of this month. Where we were getting 3-5 weekly ongoing series each Wednesday for the past 7 months, we completely run out 2 days before Disney+ Day. Weird optics. Talk about ending YEAR TWO with a whimper.

Then a couple weeks later Hawkeye comes to at least give people something. The drought will likely continue for the next 6 months+ due to pandemic delays (and possibly other planning issues that are harder to publicly blame). It is concerning they didn’t have a back up plan. When the pandemic delays occurred you’d think they would have chosen to LOAD up Quarter 4 with library to compensate… or move some linear series over.

We wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t until YEAR FOUR that they have both Original series and films consistently going strong. Why? The absolute absence of any Original series currently filming not under the Marvel or Star Wars brand suggests next year will be shallow in the first half with regards to non-event series. The renewed series such as Big Shot, Mysterious Benedict Society, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Mighty Ducks are all set to start filming AFTER New Year’s Day ensuring none of them are ready before April or May. There remains no news on Diary of a Future President or Turner & Hooch.

As for Original films – they did great with that in YEAR ONE but completely stopped releasing them all spring and summer. They used Premier Access in that period.

Next year they should “find their groove” with Original films as they have ~4 times as many films as they released this year already in post-production or filming. They appear able to release an original film every 3 weeks next year if they want! One trick to get their series numbers up next year would be to import more international series – we think they will be. That begins this month with Entrelazados on Disney+ Day!

Now that we’ve gotten on an originals tangent, let’s refocus. This is a LIBRARY breakdown.

Past 3 Month’s Library Title Categories

Insane that Disney+ Day month sees no vintage content. Or is that to be expected? What’s also crazy? Out of nowhere National Geographic, the usual dominant brand, comes unprepared. Many series will “fall behind” with so few titles added. Follow our awesome National Geographic Library Progress page for more info.

Ongoing Streaks

No good streaks. Not even in an anniversary month. They do not draw from categories people are wishing to see.

Disney Channel And Disney XD Missing Scripted Series Progress

Disney ties their previous bad record. 7 straight months without Disney Channel or XD scripted library added. This year they have added a shockingly low 5 total! In the past 14 months Disney added Disney Channel or XD scripted library in only 2 months! That’s horrible – we continue to await major XD series such as Zeke & Luther (now streaming on Hulu and internationally – the only Disney Branded TV series on Hulu that they didn’t duplicate onto Disney+), I’m in the Band, Gamer’s Guide (Which streamed on DisneyNow from June 1 – October 1 before returning to the vault), and Aaron Stone (streaming via Disney+ Hotstar).

On the Disney Channel side we are still waiting for Cory In the House (promised to be “coming soon” by Disney+ Twitter 1 week after launch – 23 months ago…). It’s clear at this point they vaulted it forever because of Kyle Massey’s legal troubles which honestly sucks. We are also awaiting 80s and 90s Disney Channel series such as Honey I Shrink the Kids which streamed on Prime Video until January 1st, 2021 before going into the vault for the past 11 months. Weird. Here is a graphic listing the 5 major missing Disney Channel and XD scripted series from the past 20 years. Disney XD is down to 4, at least.

Missing Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC, And Jetix Cartoon Progress

Nothing for the 2nd month in a row. Just when we thought Rolie Polie Olie and Pepper Ann signaled a changing of the tides. For a company known for its animation Disney does a terrible job here. Paramount+ has already added over 90 percent of Nickelodeon’s cartoons while Disney is missing about 50 percent of theirs.

Moving on..

Past 3 Month’s Library Titles Grouped By Colors

Final November Thoughts:

This month’s “main features” from the library are Shang-Chi, Muppets: Letters to Santa, Jungle Cruise, Ernest Saves Christmas, and X-Men First Class. Okay, so a lot of highlights but for an anniversary month with the hype they drummed up we expected 60 titles and library series and cartoons as opposed to just in-season batches of current shows.

This month’s “main feature” original is Hawkeye!!

Winter Is Coming

Christmas is here. Ernest Saves Christmas is a shocking addition since Ernest Scared Stupid did not come for Halloween. Hopefully Ernest Goes to Camp and Ernest Goes to Jail are coming soon! We’ll even accept an oddly-timed addition of Ernest Scared Stupid.

And HOME ALONE 4 and 5? Why did they get vaulted after leaving HBO in September? They should be added along with the new Home Sweet Home Alone film on Disney+ Day. They are going to other countries November 5th. Maybe they will show up anyway.

Tons of Missing Titles

Surprisingly, there are zero returning titles scheduled after a solid streak of those. Ice Age did NOT return after its stay on Starz and then subsequent stay on Hulu!

Mindboggling, despite the immediate transfer of Fox’s 2019 The Kid Who Would Be King, all other Fox films from 2019 have been vaulted after exiting HBO Pay One this year. That means Alita Battle Angel, Breakthrough, Ad Astra, Art of Racing in the Rain, Tolkien, Jojo Rabbit, and Ford v Ferrari are missing. Dark Phoenix was the other exception that came to Disney+. Have they made a toxic decision that the other films are “too mature”? It becomes unbelievable that people would pay for a service which directs most Fox and almost all PG-13 titles to Hulu, but we fear that is the plan.

HBO also lost Jungle Book (1994) and Dick Tracy and Bridge to Terabithia early this year – they have been vaulted since.

Mickey Who?

Oh, and what the heck is up with not celebrating Mickey’s birthday with any content this month?! And where are the Freeform Christmas movies? We assume going to Hulu… Last year they premiered Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse on this day.

Paging Nat Geo?

The usually dominant brand was basically MIA. Tons of recently completed seasons will remain batch-less in November. It’s odd to fall behind when September they did so well at catching up! UPDATE: On November 1 they surprise added the last 5 episodes of Dr. Pol Season 19!

Random Bits

And why did the skip Chicken Squad episodes 12-15 last month and then not schedule them for this month to fill the gap? Weird! They surprise added them Monday, November 1st!

Oh gosh and another thing – why was Spin not announced? We scooped it’s coming on Disney+ Day. We stand by that.

Final Words

Overall, the month does a poor job of looking like a celebration and further amplifies the belief Disney does not value their library enough to make proper use of it and celebrate it and give hardcore fans who haven’t signed up a reason to do so. Someone recently joked they have more Disney DVDs than Disney+ has films available.

November is more of the same. That won’t be bad to plenty of people. We look forward to Disney+ Day titles all the same.

December Predictions:

The first 2 weeks will probably include a few more Christmas specials. We’ll get the annual Disney Channel and Wonderful World of Disney specials that they pull in January… Hopefully some recent Fox films and Freeform Christmas movies. We’d love to see Eloise at Christmastime, A Mom for Christmas, Holiday in Handcuffs, Snow 2, the return of Snow, and like 10 more.

We expect Life Below Zero Season 17, Vets on the Beach Season 1, and the rest of Sydney to the Max and Gabby Duran to arrive.

Make your own predictions using our Missing Nat Geo (by date aired) and Missing Disney Channel / Junior pages.

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What’s Coming To Disney+ November 2021

View via our Disney FYI Calendar.

November 3rd, 2021

• Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Episode 9
• Amphibia (Season 3, 5 Episodes)
• Dino Ranch (Season 1, 7 Episodes)
• Photo Ark (Season 2) (Season 1 is not owned by Disney so will never arrive)
• Storm Rising (Season 1)

November 5th, 2021

• Santa Buddies: The Legend of Santa Paws
• The Search For Santa Paws
• Space Buddies
• Snow Buddies
• Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
• Jingle All The Way
• Jingle All The Way 2
• Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa (2010) (Short)
• X-Men: First Class

November 10th, 2021

• Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Episode 10 (Season Finale)
• Mickey Mouse Funhouse (Season 1, 7 Episodes)

November 12th, 2021 (Disney+ Day)

• Shang-Chi and the Legend the Ten Rings
• Jungle Cruise (Available to all subscribers)
• Home Sweet Home Alone
• Entrelazados
• Olaf Presents (5 Episodes)
• The Ballad of Nessie (2011) (Short)
• Feast (2014) (Short)
• Frozen Fever (2015) (Short) 
• Get a Horse! (2013) (Short)
• The Little Matchbook Girl (2006) (Short)
• Paperman (2012) (Short)
• Tangled Ever After (2012) (Short)
• Tick Tock Tale (2010) (Short)
• Ciao Alberto (Short) 
• Untitled The Simpsons (Short)
• The World According to Jeff Goldblum (Season 2, Episodes 1-5)
• Under The Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett 
• Marvel Featurette

November 17th, 2021

• Disney’s Magic Bake-Off (Season 1, 3 Episodes)
• Life Below Zero: Next Generation (Season 3)
• Minnie’s Bow-Toons: Party Palace Pals (Season 1, 4 Episodes) 

November 19th, 2021

• Adventure Thru The Walt Disney Archives
• The Pixar Story
• A Muppets Christmas: Letter To Santa
• Puppy For Hanukkah

November 24th, 2021

• Hawkeye Episode 1 and 2
• Becoming Cousteau
• PJ Masks (Season 5, 3 Episodes)
• Port Protection Alaska (Season 4)
• Puppy Dog Pals (Season 4, 2 Episodes)
• Secrets of the Zoo: Tampa (Season 2)

November 25th, 2021

• The Beatles: Get Back Episode 1

November 26th, 2021

• The Beatles: Get Back Episode 2
• Duck The Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Specials
• Ernest Saves Christmas
• Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas

November 27th, 2021

• The Beatles: Get Back Episode 3