Well, there’s a tiny bit more content than they had initially scheduled for April. Unfortunately, there are still major holes including:
- no content for Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month
- no missing Star Wars library for May the 4th
- no Fox films for the first month since launch
- a dramatic reduction in their new go-to, ESPN films
- no vintage content or content older than 2000 (as usual)
- Still missing multiple films that they removed from Netflix in February (The BFG, Tini, Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell)
- Inexplicably not adding the original The Quest which is free on ABC.com in time for the revival / reboot. Unbelievable.
and 2 empty days. Yep, you through the inaugural “empty day” in April was bad? Now we get 2!
We’re quite excited for the originals slate: The Quest (sadly a binge drop), Rescue Rangers, Sneakerella, add Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The only library highlight is the long-awaited arrival of Shook. This Sofia Wylie vehicle had an interesting path to get here. Originally announced as a Disney+ Original, Disney Channel snatched the show back and decided to make it a YouTube web series. After it aired, they combined the 6 episodes into a film and posted it on DisneyNow. Last May the film expired on DisneyNow, but instead of moving it to Disney+ they renewed it for one additional year. That time is up April 30th and thankfully, they’ve decided to do the right thing and bring it to Disney+.
Other high / lowlights include: 3 of the titles are relisting from March and April no-shows… so it’s a mixed bag. Barely any titles and 3 were previously promoted? Bad. Missing titles finally arrive? Good.
For the 4th month in a row, we are forgoing our separate Monthly Library Breakdown article. Until Disney provides a consistent, reliable, and varied product, there is nothing for us to breakdown. We instead added some of our classic statistics below:
The Mini-Library Breakdown
NAT GEO – 6
DISNEY JUNIOR – 3
ESPN – 2
DISNEY CHANNEL / XD – 2
20TH CENTURY – 0 (First time ever)
DISNEY – 0
ABC / FREEFORM / FOX TV – 0 (as usual)
RECENT SHORTS – 0
VINTAGE TV / SHORTS – 0 (as always)
TOTAL LIBRARY – 13. For the fourth month in a row Disney has set a top 5 lowest of all-time amount. Scraping the bottom.
ORIGINALS – 9.
Arriving On Disney+ May 2022
Wednesday, May 4
- Disney Gallery: The Book of Boba Fett [ORIGINAL] The extent of this year’s May the 4th celebration…
- Life Below Zero (Season 18) [NAT GEO] – Rescheduled from April no-show
- Moon Knight (Series finale) [ORIGINAL]
Friday, May 6
- Much like Friday, April 15th, Disney+ has unprofessionally opted to forgo providing content in USA on this day. We strongly urge you to file complaints. Go to help.disneyplus.com. Kindly complain to their help staff (remember they are not at fault) via phone, chat, or the “give feedback” options they provide. We suggest using live chat and asking them escalate the complaint. Remember to mention you are a paying for consistent service, not days off, and that thousands of titles are missing.
Wednesday, May 11
- Just Like Me (Seasons 1-2) [DISNEY CHANNEL NETHERLANDS] – Rescheduled from December 2019 and April 2022 no-shows
- Marvel Studios: Assembled – The Making of Moon Knight [ORIGINAL]
- Mira, Royal Detective (Season 2, final 10 episodes) [DISNEY JUNIOR]
- The Quest (Season 1) [ORIGINAL]
- Something Bit Me (Season 1) [NAT GEO]
- The Chicken Squad (Season 1, final 5 episodes) [DISNEY JUNIOR]
- The Wizard of Paws (Season 2) [NAT GEO]
Friday, May 13
- Sneakerella [ORIGINAL]
Wednesday, May 18
- Alice’s Wonderland Bakery (Season 1, 5 eps) [DISNEY JUNIOR]
- Knights of Castelcorvo (Season 1) [ITALIAN ORIGINAL]
- Secrets of the Zoo (Season 5) [NAT GEO]
Friday, May 20
- Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers [ORIGINAL]
- Shook [DISNEY CHANNEL]
Wednesday, May 25
- Much like Friday, April 15th and Friday, May 6th, Disney+ has unprofessionally opted to forgo providing content in USA on this day. We strongly urge you to file complaints. Go to help.disneyplus.com. Kindly complain to their help staff (remember they are not at fault) via phone, chat, or the “give feedback” options they provide. We suggest using live chat and asking them escalate the complaint. Remember to mention you are a paying for consistent service, not days off, and that thousands of titles are missing.
Friday, May 27
- Bad Boys [ESPN]
- D. Wade: Life Unexpected [ESPN]
- Hubble’s Cosmic Journey [NAT GEO]
- Mission Pluto [NAT GEO]
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (2 episode premiere) [ORIGINAL]
- We Feed People [ORIGINAL]
Leaving May 1
While we don’t currently know of any films leaving for certain, we have a few you should watch carefully…
The Big Year is going to Hulu May 1st. In the past year Hulu has stolen Ramona and Beezus, Gulliver’s Travels, Rio, Jungle All The Way, and most recently, Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Like always, prepare to say goodbye to one of the few Fox films on Disney+!
X-Men Days of Future Past, Fault in Our Stars, and The Book Of Life are nearing time to leave for HBO Pay Two. All 3 will leave before the fall.
Ongoing Bad Streaks
Additional Statistics / Wrap
Returning titles: 1 (Herbie Fully Loaded)
Re-listed titles: 0
Worst variety in history. Only 3 genres of library – ESPN, Disney, and Fox. ESPN is now for the 4th month in a row dropping a few ESPN docs as if Disney is admitting they no longer care to work to license other content.
As we said last month, we encourage cancellations and pirating of their originals (and when you cancel, explain the reason is you expected library each month along with the originals).
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.
