Disney+ Monthly Library Breakdown: July 2021

Welcome to my first monthly installment of the Disney Plus Library Breakdown. Before launching this news website I was regularly creating charts and tables that demonstrated just how little Disney was adding each month. Now, I bring that to all of you. My most popular tool is ye olde monthly color chart. Check it out below.

Since this is the first month it’s important I explain how I arrive at these numbers. Over the past year and a half I’ve been counting the library titles added each month from their press release that goes out 2 weeks before the 1st of each month, and their video on the 1st of each month, adjusting for any discrepancies, no-shows or surprise additions as the month goes on.

How I Define “Library Titles”

Disney, other companies, and other people will all have somewhat differing definitions as to when a title becomes a “library” title. For the sake of my counts ANY title added to Disney Plus that is NOT a Disney+ Original is a library title. This include titles added same-day or same week to their television appearance. In 2020 defining originals got a bit tricky as well – Disney moved Artemis Fowl (2020), Magic Camp (2020), The One and Only Ivan (2020), Hamilton (2020), and Soul (2020) to Disney+. Despite all 5 being created for theatres, Disney only labeled 2 Originals (Magic Camp and Soul). On their official website they also list Hamilton despite it not showing as such on Disney+. They used to list Ivan as an original there too.

I counted them as Originals because it’s nonsense to suggest something that premiered for the first time on Disney+ isn’t an original. That’s how every other service handles originals and how Prime Video and Netflix labeled the films that they premiered which had been intended for theatrical release. Disney’s marketing team is their own worst enemy sometimes. Premier Access also posed an issue. I do not count it as a “library title” until the day it is properly added to the library for all. I did originally, then I went back and redid the numberings.

With series, Disney sometimes releases episodes of non-originals weekly, such as Secrets of Sulphur Springs (2020) or Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (2019). Each episode does not count as a library title. Only one instance per month would be counted. To do otherwise would be to suggest a 20-episode season added to the service would be 20 library titles! Which brings us to the final point – recently completed seasons do count as a library title. If Sydney to the Max (2019) entire Season 2 (or a batch of episodes such as on July 30th) were dropped, that would still count as 1 title. Only counting the first time the title arrived would be silly.

What Do The Colors Mean?

In short – green = great quantity, yellow = okay attempt, and red = awful. A few months back I adjusted my scale to benefit Disney by lowering the goal to 40 and I simplified the color thresholds. I felt bad that they were not performing well and the change resulted in 4 months moving up a level. The “goal” per month is actually based on an interpretation of Disney’s goal set at Disney’s Investor Day 2019.

They said they planned 400 “library titles” in Year One and 100 “recent titles.” They counted originals separately. Instead of trying to understand where Disney drew the line between “recent” and “library” I simply merged the two goals into 500 library titles. Next, I divided 500 by 12 to see how many titles they’d need per month to hit the goal which resulted in 41.6. From there I looked at the numbers they’d been hitting and came up with a color code of red, yellow, and green to depict how close they were getting to their goal. The current scale is 1-20 is Red. 21- 30 is Yellow. 31 and up is Green. As you can see Disney has not been hitting their goal which is why at 2020’s Investor Day they touted all the subscriber goals they smashed and revisited those charts, but were conspicuously silent on the library and these goals.

UPDATE: Roger at What’s on Disney Plus suggested their chart above meant between YEAR 1 and YEAR 5 only 100 library titles and 20 recent titles would be added. We believe this to be true as well, but it’s a terrible goal for a service missing approximately 3000 titles, and so we based our numbers on them continuing the same pace in Years 2 – 5 that they set for Year 1. Based on our definition and scale, they made 325 / 500. So if they only intended 120 over 4 years then they smashed their goal which makes it seem unreasonably small. Again, we’re using their goal for YEAR ONE as a baseline, but have also chosen to define “library” titles as any title not an original and create our own expectations. Since they didn’t revisits their goals at Investor Day 2020 when they revisited their subscriber goals we will stand by our scale until Disney produces a revised goal to work with.

Okay, blah blah blah. Show me more charts and visuals and colors!

Aaaas youuuuu wiiiiish. *falling down a hill*

Average Monthly Adds

Well, at least the 2021 average went up.

Past 5 Month’s Library Title Breakdowns By Category

As you can see, National Geographic and Fox films tend to dominate. This month marks the record for Nat Geo in one month. Many journalists and subscribes alike have pointed to this each month confused why Disney+ seems to focus on the + (Nat Geo / Fox) more than the actual Disney library people signed up expecting. Additional insult is that Fox films tend to leave quickly. In the past year 13 of 20 removed titles were Fox films. It’s even worse when you consider 4 of Disney’s 7 removed titles are musical or holiday specials which they don’t stream long-term. Farewell, Disney Family Singalong Vol 1 and 2 (2020) as well as Disney Channel’s Holiday Holiday House Party (2020) and Wonderful World of Disney’s Magical Holiday Celebration (2020).

A few more takeaways are that the Vintage Specials / Series category is never used, missing animated shorts are never added in good number, and ABC / Freeform / Fox television series are never added thanks to a horrible strategy with Hulu. This brings to my next section.

While Originals are not our focus, we must commend Disney on their record of 17 originals this month. That’s 3x as many originals which are usually represented each month!

Ongoing Streaks

Sadly, with July’s list ending the recent habit of adding a vintage Disney Pictures film, there are no good streaks remaining active. Only bad and very bad streaks.

For accessibility, here is a text version of this graphic:

Ongoing Bad Streaks

Last Walt-era serial added: November 2019 (Launch) (20 months)

Last Disneyland episode added: July 2020 (12 months)

(Mouseketeers at Disney World and The Pre-Opening Report)

Last non-Disney Channel / XD cartoon added: July 2020 (12 months)

(Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!)

Last vintage (1920-1970) animated short added: September 2020 (10 months)

(Trick or Treat)

Last Disney Channel / XD library live action series added: April 2021 (3 months)

(Liv & Maddie, Adventures in Wonderland)

Last Disney Channel / XD library cartoon added: May 2021 (2 months)

(Wander Over Yonder, Special Agent Oso)

Last Playhouse Disney / Disney Junior library series added: May 2021 (2 months)

(Special Agent Oso)

Last pre-1990 Disney title added: June 2021 (1 month)

(The Happiest Millionaire (1967)

Ongoing Good Streaks

None ☹

Now let’s check out how they’re doing with adding missing Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior library titles

Disney Channel Missing Library Progress Charts

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After a ridiculous 8-month streak from July 2020 – January 2021 without any Disney Channel or XD Live Action library, February came back with a vengeance, adding 3 live. March took a break and then April brought 2 more. Now we’re in a 3-month void again. Not cool, Content Team. So many remain missing. There should never bee a month off. Hopefully this doesn’t become another 8-month streak… Is it so wrong to want Aaron Stone (2009), I’m In the Band (2009), Gamer’s Guide (2015), Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997), Win, Lose or Draw (2014) or PrankStars (2011) which was added at launch a couple weeks ago in Thailand! Somehow Thailand and Malaysia’s recent launches got PrankStars – a title available nowhere else.

Here’s a pretty visual showing the last 5-months of library titles side by side with colorized categories. So weird that April and July tied at 37 and May and June tied at 20. March was just pathetic… It was the worst month for the library since launch with only 11 titles.

Final thoughts:

SharkFest titles everywhere. It’s good to see titles coming quickly after airing like the current year’s SharkFest titles and the batches of in-season episodes for shows like Sydney and Owl House (2020). It’s not good at all that Disney’s recent efforts to add vintage Disney films seem to have ended after only a few months. This month sees the return of Flicka (2006), Sandlot (1993), Sandlot 2 (2005), and Garfield (2004). 4 returning titles! Good to have them back but Disney just keeps circulating the same small library instead of expanding it!

Where are Fox’s 2019 films that left HBO recently such as Breakthrough or Alita: Battle Angel? Where is Jungle Book (1994) or Dick Tracy (1990) or Bridge to Terabithia (2007) which also left HBO earlier this year? Glorp forbid they ever even THINK of adding a PG or PG-13 Hollywood or Touchstone film for variety… I believe since launch we’ve seen 4 of them total!?

This month has no “main feature” library title that gets all the hype (think Muppet Show (1979) or Enchanted (2007) if it ever came). Just a bunch of old SharkFest titles and new SharkFest titles…

We will need to update this list / July numbers as the SharkFest titles promoted between the video, the list, and even other sources differ. It’s very possible some will not appear and that others that were not promoted will. The number may fluctuate. Example – UK has 2 SharkFest titles listed that we don’t, but they were recently added to on-demand which makes me think they’ll show up anyway…

UPDATE July 15th: Minnie’s Bo-Toons no-showed. So Random (2011) appeared. But it does not count towards the library since it was already streaming as “Sonny With a Chance Season 3.” I will update the numbers if Minnie’s doesn’t show up before August 1st.

August Predictions:

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011), Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 (2012), Aquamarine (2006), and Eragon (2006), and Underdog (2007) are confirmed by “coming soon” pages.

Fancy Nancy (2018) Season 2 and Gigantosaurus (2019) Season 2 are expected as they both expire between July 31st and August 6th from “On-Demand” services. It’s likely that Gabby Duran (2019) Season 2 episodes 1-8 and Chicken Squad (2021) Season 1 episodes 1-10ish will arrive.

A few more films will likely be added with the 5 I mentioned a bit ago that recently left HBO being the most likely suspects. Another dark horse is 500 Days of Summer (2009) which leaves Hulu and was planned for Disney+ prior to launch back when they were willing to add more adult-friendly content.

Some original highlights: Diary of a Future President (2019) season 2 premiere is confirmed via the same leak which spoiled that What If (2021) was premiering in August. There will also be the season finale of the incredible series – Mysterious Benedict Society (2021).

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What’s Coming to Disney+ July 2021

July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 – Gordon Ramsay Uncharted (Season 3)
July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (Season 2, Episodes 8 – 12)
July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 – The Mysterious Benedict Society (Episodes 3 – 7)
July 2 – Raven’s Home (Season 4)
July 2 – The Sandlot
July 2 – The Sandlot 2
July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 – Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Episodes 10 – 14)
July 7 – Breaking Bobby Bones (Episodes 1-8)
July 7 – Marvel Studios: Legends (Episode 9)
July 7, 14 – Marvel Studios Loki (Episodes 5, 6)
July 7 – Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (Season 1)
July 7, 14, 21, 28- Monsters at Work (Season 1, Episodes 1 – 5)
July 9 – Black Widow
July 9 – The Croc That Ate Jaws
July 9 – Flicka
July 9 – Miraculous World – Shanghai, The Legend of Ladydragon
July 9 – Orca vs. Great White
July 9 – Rogue Shark
July 9 – Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth
July 9 – Shark Gangs
July 9, 16 – When Sharks Attack (Season 7)
July 14 – Minnie’s Bow-Toons: Party Palace Pals (Episodes 1 – 8)
July 16 – Most Wanted Sharks
July 16 – Secrets of the Bull Shark
July 16, 23 – Shark Attack Files (Season 1)
July 16 – Shark Attack Investigation: The Paige Winter Story
July 16 – Sharkcano
July 16 – Shark Gangs
July 16 – We Bought a Zoo
July 16 – World’s Biggest Bull Shark
July 16 – World’s Deadliest Sharks
July 21 – Behind the Attraction (Season 1)
July 21 – Marvel Studios Assembled (Episode 5)
July 21 – Meet Spidey and His Amazing Friends (Season 1)
July 21 – Owl House (Season 2, Episodes 1 – 5)
July 21, 28 – Turner & Hooch (Episodes 1, 2)
July 23 – Ice Age: The Meltdown
July 23 – Playing With Sharks
July 23 – Shark vs Surfer
July 23 – Shark vs Whale
July 23 – What the Shark?
July 23 – Stuntman
July 23 – Walking with Dinosaurs
July 28 – Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life (Episode 1)
July 28 – Critter Fixers: Country Vets (Season 2)
July 28 – Mickey Mouse Funhouse (Episode 1)
July 28 – Sydney to the Max (Season 3, Episodes 9 – 13)
July 28 – T.O.T.S.(Season 2)
July 28 – Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts (Season 1, Episodes 1 – 4)
July 28 – The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse (Episodes 12, 13)
July 30 – Built for Mars: The Perseverance Rover
July 30 – Garfield: The Movie
July 30 – Jungle Cruise