Bertram van Munster, Elise Doganieri, and Mark Dziak are perhaps best known as Executive Producers of CBS’s massive hit reality / competition show, The Amazing Race. On May 11th they’ll be part of an impressive team that also includes David Collins, Michael Williams, Rob Eric, Jane Fleming and Mark Ordesky, an Executive Producer for a cultural behemoth that you may have heard of known as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This supergroup brings their Oscar and Emmy award-winning brands of entertainment to Disney+ as part of an exciting new series, The Quest.
Disney+ has never released a scripted / unscripted hybrid like this before. Really, nobody has with the exception of ABC. That’s because in 2014, The Quest aired for one summer season on Disney’s network channel. What makes The Quest so special that Disney revived it for another go?
What Exactly Is The Quest?
It’s a fantasy-infused competition series with scripted elements. It takes place in the fictional world of Everealm and features teens solving puzzles in a castle while faced with unexpected surprises from the characters that help make this fantasy world real. According to Variety’s initial announcement, “The players will use their knowledge from fantasy books, games and movies to compete in a world created via a mix of computer-generated effects, creature design and practical effects.” The primary difference between the original and this revival is that the competitors are younger and the technology will be better.
We truly hope you will watch. It looks brilliant and creative. Just check out the trailer below. We’re concerned Disney+ hasn’t put the right amount of promotion behind the series. First, they’ve kept it out of their unused Coming Soon row. Second, they aren’t bringing the original series in before it releases. Third, well, that’s it. It would be a lot easier to know what to expect if Disney had utilized their library and released the original series in the build up.
Where Is The Original The Quest?
The good news is that the original series is not lost for those in the USA. It’s available for free on ABC.com, the same place it’s been for 3 years. Yes, you read that correctly.
It’s quite possible when Disney licensed it to ABC.com they stuck it under a very long-term, iron-clad contract that they don’t deem necessary to rework. But isn’t it bizarre? They knew 3 years ago this show was coming. They had plenty of time to figure it out. Yet here we are. 3 weeks away from release of the reboot and the original is exclusively streamable via an antiquated form of distribution which should have seen a tremendous decrease in content the minute Disney+ launched. To this day, there are literally hundreds of titles on ABC.com, Freeform.com, DisneyNow.com, and NatGeoTV.com that aren’t available on Disney+ OR Hulu.
Disney Franchises Are Often Separated
Disney has a big habit of splitting franchises up. We angrily covered how Doogie Kameloha and Doogie Howser are on opposite sides of the Disney+ / Hulu divide last fall. Then there’s 10 Things I Hate About You. The more mature film is on Disney+ while the more childish series is on Hulu. Please make it make sense.
We’ve also got shorts series on DisneyNow that should be with their parent series including This Duckberg Life, Baymax And Mochi, Handy Manny: School for Tools, Lion Guard, and Owl Pellets. We could sadly go on and on…
Disney+ is once again squandering their catalog’s potential. Whenever they’re presented with an opportunity to dip into their archives sensibly, they let their subscribers down. For now, we ask you to consider heading to help.disneyplus.com, selecting “Give Feedback,” and then “Request a film or show.” Let them know you want to see THE QUEST (2014)! Ask them to add a “Coming Soon” page for the revival as well.
Then, since the original on ABC.com doesn’t require a cable login, head on over and watch it!
After you’ve done that, get ready to experience Everealm on May 11th – only on Disney+!
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.
