If you’re looking for an in-depth explanation of how these numbers are reached, the scale I use, the color-codes, and everything in between, check out the first edition – July 2021.
Disney+ Library Adds Per Month
We’re back in the green! Let’s keep that up!
Monthly Averages
Really nice to see the monthly average ticking up again. Two months in a row of gains brought on by the new strategy of releasing batches of currently airing series episodes. Still shocking to me they haven’t just converted to “next day” episodes like Hulu so that they’re always up to date. If they ever do, we will no longer count in-season shows in our numbers and adjust our goals to be a bit lower.
Past 6 Month’s Library Titles Categories
It’s so demoralizing repeating this process each month because it always show the same thing – National Geographic as the primary soure for Disney’s DISNEY+ library. One departure this month is that Fox films are not the 2nd or 3rd most heavy category. The September list of Fox titles is so sparse (only 2 titles!) it makes me wonder if Disney is intentionally holding Fox titles back for a “Fox title” content drop later this year. That seems likely when looking at the September snubs list. Meanwhile, Disney Junior has stepped up into 2nd place. Again, no surprise. The service is basically Nat Geo, Disney Junior, and Fox titles that stream a few months then disappear. The content management continues to be extremely poor.
Ongoing Streaks
The return of good streaks courtesy Pepper Ann and Rolie Polie Olie! If only they added non-Disney Channel and XD cartoons regularly there wouldn’t so many missing. A lot of classics aired on NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC. Let’s get them streaming.
I don’t need to tell you how repulsive it is to hit the 1 year mark since the last vintage animated short and 14 months since the last Disneyland episode.
Disney Channel Missing Library Progress
Disney seems to have forgotten Disney XD exists again. Disney is now 3 months away from tying their 8-month streak without any live action Disney Channel / XD series. Not cool. What is cool? Pepper Ann. Or maybe I should say WHO is cool? But it’s positively ICE COLD that Pepper Ann is coming to Disney+ in a few weeks. Shocking, I say! The problem with them missing 40+ cartoons is when they do good things like that people find it too easy to turn around and say “okay, but do more.” These big additions are less powerful when the realization sinks in that they’re still adding at a snail’s pace and it could be half a year before another library cartoon arrives.
Past 5 Month’s Library Titles Grouped by Color
Final September Thoughts:
This month’s “main feature” from the library is Pepper Ann or X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
This month’s “main feature” original is Doogie Kamealoha premiere!
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides returns which means all 5 Pirates films will be together in USA for first time! The Fault in Our Stars returns as well, almost 1 year to the day of it first addition. Don’t get cozy, it will leave again for HBO Pay Two next year. I speculate it may even leave the same day it left last year – December 31. It’s weirdly possibly Disney removed it one year early on accident. They’ve previously “forgotten” to remove Red Tails for 3/4 of the time it was on HBO and added Eragon a few months early so there is precedent.
More proof their team doesn’t know what they are doing: Ready for Preschool (Shorts) are duplicated over from DisneyNow, but season 2 comes 1 week before season 1. It’s completely asinine to add them separately and in reverse order instead of waiting 1 week to add them at same time. Make it make sense.
Rolie Polie Olie appearing is a good surprise. Too many Playhouse Disney titles remain missing. Hopefully they go with PB & J Otter or Bear in the Big Blue House next.
Descendants: Royal Wedding (2021) and Disney’s Magic Bake-Off arrive mid September, but Spin, the other title that premiered the same day as those 2, is being held back until November.
Broadway Hits At London’s Royal Albert Hall will be nice – let’s get more Broadway on film!
Confessions of a Shopaholic is noteworthy simply for being a very rare Touchstone film addition. This marks 3 months in a row with a Touchstone film. Don’t expect that to continue.
Originals highlights include Star Wars: Visions and the premiere of Doogie Kamealoha as well as Dug Days shorts which continue the story of Pixar’s Up.
October Predictions:
Disney is running the “Hallowstream” campaign so we hope for library content that is missing but expect none. More likely they will consider the Muppets Haunted Mansion special, premiere of Just Beyond, and Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales to be “enough.”
If we get lucky Under Wraps (2021) and the original will both get added. We can also keep dreaming about Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween and Tower of Terror.
There’s not much to predict with Disney Channel and Disney Junior as the batches of episodes are pretty much caught up to air now. Pretty cool.
Olaf Retellings may finally get announced. It’s strange how it leaked courtesy Disney Italy as an August release but we still haven’t heard any updates since. Maybe they’re holding it back until there is snow on the ground in November.
McFarland USA and The Search for Santa Paws have had “coming soon” pages since launch so we can count on those. Kinda weird to add the Christmas film in October…
What’s Coming To Disney+ September 2021
Courtesy our Disney FYI Calendar
September 3rd, 2021
- Tomorrowland
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix
- Billie Eilish Concert Experience “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles
- Smoky Mountain Park Rangers
September 8th, 2021
- Turner & Hooch Episode 8
- Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life Episode 7
- Marvel’s What If Episode 5
- Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Episode 1
- Mira, Royal Detective (Season 2, 15 Episodes)
- Pepper Ann (Seasons 1-3)
- The Incredible Dr. Pol (Season 19, Episodes 1-5)
- The Wizard of Paws (Season 1)
September 10th, 2021
- Twenty Something (Spark Short)
- Far Away From Raven’s Home
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
September 15th, 2021
- Turner & Hooch Episode 9
- Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life Episode 8
- Marvel’s What If Episode 6
- Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Episode 2
- Ready for Preschool (Season 2)
- Life Below Zero (Season 16)
- Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (Season 4, 13 Episodes)
- Unknown Waters with Jeremy Wade (Season 1, 3 Episodes)
September 17th, 2021
- Nona (Spark Short)
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- Descendants: The Royal Wedding
- Broadway Hits At London’s Royal Albert Hall
- Flooded Tombs of the Nile
- Jade Eyed Leopard
September 22nd, 2021
- Turner & Hooch Episode 10
- Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life Episode 9
- Marvel’s What If Episode 7
- Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Episode 3
- Star Wars: Visions
- Dog: Impossible (Season 2)
- Spidey and his Amazing Friends (Season 1, Episodes 1-7)
September 24th, 2021
- Spooky Buddies
- A Spark Short Story
- The Fault in Our Stars
September 29th, 2021
- Turner & Hooch Episode 11
- Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life Episode 10
- Marvel’s What If Episode 8
- Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Episode 4
- Disney’s Magic Bake-Off (Season 1, Episodes 1-7)
- Muppet Babies (Season 3, Episodes 1-8)
- Vampirina (Season 3)
- Great Barrier Reef (Season 1)
- The Hatcher Family Dairy (Season 1)
- Rolie Polie Olie (Seasons 1-5)
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
