Disney+ is offering a fantastic deal for streaming fans, with households able to get four months for £1.99 a month
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Disney+ is still offering a subscription for £1.99 but it ends really soon(Image: Chesnot/Getty Images)
Disney+ is presenting a cracking deal for streaming enthusiasts in the UK, offering four months of access for £1.99 a month instead. However, time is running out to grab it with the offer set to expire on June 30.
For less than the cost of a Starbucks brew or a meal deal, Disney+ streamers can indulge in Marvel Cinematic Universe shows, including WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel for much less than the usual price – and the rate will last until the end of October.
The platform also boasts a variety of Star Wars series, such as Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Clone Wars, ensuring there’s a wealth of content to keep viewers hooked for months. Classic Walt Disney animated films like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Lion King are also ready for your viewing enjoyment.
There’s also new content including the new season 4 of FX’s The Bear (that premiered on June 26) and the riveting new sci-fi drama, Alien: Earth, which is set for release later this summer (August 13). These join the newly-released Snow White and Ironheart.
The Stolen Girl is another smash hit that has garnered critical praise. The Disney+ £1.99 offer lasts for four months, providing streamers plenty of time to explore the extensive library of content on offer.
Disney+ has brought back its popular deal that lets new and returning customers join its Standard with Ads plan for £1.99 per month for four months.
This means members can stream hit shows like Andor, The Bear and Alien: Earth, plus countless titles from Star Wars and Marvel, for a fraction of the usual price.
However, it’s crucial to remember that the £1.99 offer pertains only to the Standard with Ads version, so subscribers will have to tolerate commercials while watching their beloved shows, which may cause irritation.
Disney+ has been met with praise on Trustpilot, where one happy user commented: “Very good selection, friendly support and easy to cancel if you need to. Very easy to navigate their site, and the openness and transparency they show should be a model for others.”
Nevertheless, one disgruntled customer criticised the ad frequency, remarking: “Way too many adverts. Luckily I got it free for three months, but would not pay to extend it.”
For families seeking additional streaming services, numerous offers are available. Sky has its own streaming deals, such as the £15 per month Sky Stream package.
Furthermore, DAZN is giving sports enthusiasts an opportunity to sample its service through a limited-time trial offer. The Disney+ £1.99 deal can be snagged by households here.
FX and Disney+’s The Bear is back for a fourth season and foodies will be treated to more delightful looking dishes as well as hard-hitting stories in the psychological comedy-drama
22:00, 25 Jun 2025Updated 22:09, 25 Jun 2025
Food fans get ready as the psychological comedy-drama The Bear series four hits our screens today. After breaking global streaming records, the hit Disney+ offering will get straight into it with the fallout from the Chicago Tribune’s review of eatery.
And while the show starring Jeremy Allen White is certainly about more than just culinary delights, the chance for this always-hungry reporter to try some of the viral sensations from the hit series was something my belly couldn’t say no to.
In the FX and Disney+ show, viewers watch White portray the role of a young chef called Carmy come from the fine dining world and return home to Chicago following a death to run his family sandwich shop. And it was one of those dishes that allowed me to tickle my taste buds.
The Bear is back for a fourth season(Image: Copyright 2025, FX. All rights reserved.)
Carmy may be a world away from what he is used to by running his business in the drama, but let’s just say cooking isn’t my forte either. And while an award-winning chef I am most certainly not, I was left craving a trip to Chicago to try the real deal after the three dishes I whipped up.
For this extremely basic cook, a Chicago-Style Steak Sandwich and Fries was the clear winner. As part of Gousto’s The Bare limited edition package, which helps recreate the show’s most viral dishes, I knew I was onto a winner when I first saw it.
Mirror reporter Jamie Roberts tried recipes inspired by the show(Image: Jamie Roberts/ Daily Mirror)
“Can’t handle the heat? Go easy!” was the warning on the handy step-by-step guide. Challenge accepted! In it all went to hopefully pack a punch. While there was definitely a kick, it was just right – without sounding like one of the three bears.
TikTok feeds have been overflowing with takes on this iconic Chicago Beef Sandwich and it’s clear to see why. Recreating the Italian beef sandwich by moodily frying tender steak with green peppers and smothering in a savoury jus reduction left little to be desired.
Loading it handsomely into a soft baguette and serve with home-cooked fries and dip. Let’s just say it’s a big fat yes from me.
Gousto has released three limited edition meals(Image: Gousto)
The other dishes up for grabs were THAT Crispy Omelette that got viewers drooling. It might have divided viewers in episode nine, but it got an impressive thumbs up from yours truly.
Stuffed full of garlic and herb soft cheese and topped with crisps for crunch, it’s safe to see why viewers became obsessed.
To finish on a hat-trick of culinary delights (not all in one sitting!) was a family spaghetti with cheesy garlic bread. While I might not have had the presentation of a well-run Chicago restaurant, I was able to capture the spirit and soul of Chicago cooking right here in my North East home.
And let’s face it, it all went down the gullet in prompt fashion anyway!
It’s safe to that while a career change is definitely not on the horizon, these dishes were a huge success and left me wondering what delicacies might come from season four.
Exclusively available until 15th July, ‘The Bare’ range includes three limited-edition recipes and also helps Trussell support families who’d otherwise go without the bare essentials this summer.
Disney+ has added the ‘best limited series ever’ that features one of the stars from Department Q.
Originally airing on BBC back in 2018, The Cry has a new streaming home on the platform that is also home to Marvel and The Simpsons. The series is based on the novel of the same name, written by Helen Fitzgerald.
According to the synopsis, the four-part drama follows young parents Joanna and Alistair who travel from Scotland to a town in Australia to visit family and fight for custody of Alistair’s daughter, Chloe, against his Australian ex-wife, Alexandra.
However, on the drive from Melbourne to the coastal town of Wilde Bay, their baby son Noah goes missing. In the aftermath of this tragedy, under public scrutiny, their relationship collapses and her psychological state disintegrates.
Jenna Coleman leads the series as Joanna. Coleman is known for her roles in Doctor Who, period drama Victoria and The Sandman. Also starring are Nine Perfect Strangers star Asher Keddie along with Kate Dickie who recently appeared in Netflix series Department Q.
Get Disney+ for £1.99 for four months
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Disney+ has brought back its popular deal that lets new and returning customers join its Standard with Ads plan for £1.99 per month for four months.
This means members can stream hit shows like Andor, The Bear and Alien: Earth, plus countless titles from Star Wars and Marvel, for a fraction of the usual price.
Many fans have praised the series online ever since its initial debut. One person advised other Disney Plus subscribers: “The Cry is in a class of its own. The acting is sublime. Set aside a day and binge-watch it.”
Another claimed: “One of the best TV dramas I’ve ever seen! Totally hooks you in and you never know what’s gonna happen next! Jenna Coleman is incredible!”
Someone else commented: “Honestly one of the best limited series I have seen in a long time. I binge watched it in one hit which at four episodes long is not hard to do!”
Many viewers binge watched the series in just a day(Image: Synchronicity Films Ltd/Lachlan Moore)
They continued: “Sure, it isn’t perfect, but who cares when the acting is this good, and the story so gripping, intriguing and surprising from the beginning right until the very end.
“It’s truly every parent’s worst nightmare losing a child, but how this situation plays out is so different to other stories like this that I have seen.”
One viewer shared: “I can’t stop thinking about this series and I want to watch it all over again. Jenna Coleman, brilliant and so believable; and Ewen Leslie is so convincingly unlikable and silently frightening.
“I love the way time is shifted and your brain is forced to work a little harder. Continuity rules are broken, as are comfort levels.”
Aliens may have embraced Elio, but earthbound audiences did not, marking the lowest opening weekend ever for a Pixar film and highlighting the challenges for original animated movies.
“Elio” hauled in $21 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada through Sunday, according to studio estimates, falling short of Walt Disney Co.-owned Pixar’s previous lowest domestic opening, 2023’s “Elemental,” which made $29.6 million in its debut. (1995’s “Toy Story” had a domestic opening weekend total of $29.1 million, not adjusted for inflation, though it was released ahead of Thanksgiving weekend and reached $39 million over that five-day period.)
The family-friendly film, which centers on an alien-loving boy who longs for a community that understands him, came in third at the box office behind Universal Pictures’ live-action remake “How to Train Your Dragon,” which maintained its grip on theaters, and Sony Pictures’ Danny Boyle-directed horror franchise revival “28 Years Later.”
“Elio” had strong reviews (84% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), but its soft opening underscores the postpandemic difficulty that original animated films have faced in attracting audiences, analysts said. The movie’s performance could also have been hurt by its timing — the film was up against “How to Train Your Dragon” and the long tail of Disney live-action remake “Lilo & Stitch.”
“It feels to me that it’s a good movie that got lost in the shuffle,” said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital. For families, he said, “there’s only so many summer weekends a year, and you have to pick and choose which movies you do. ‘Elio’ just got squeezed out.”
Marketing may also have played a factor, with analysts noting that audiences may have been unfamiliar with the title, a critical issue especially for an original film with new characters. People grew up with Sonic the Hedgehog long before he got his own movie. A fresh story is a tougher sell with so many entertainment options out there.
Disney said in a statement that it was encouraged by the movie’s audience and critics’ review scores and hopeful “Elio” would be discovered by families and moviegoers throughout the summer, similar to what happened with “Elemental.” Despite a disappointing opening-weekend haul, “Elemental” went on to gross $496 million worldwide, propelled by word-of-mouth reviews.
The company also said it would continue to take swings on original animated intellectual property so it wasn’t reliant only on sequels and existing franchises. Pixar plans to release another original animated film next year called “Hoppers,” about technology that helps humans and animals communicate, followed by a 2027 original film called “Gatto.” It also plans to release “Toy Story 5” next year.
While originals have had a harder time at the box office, animated sequels or films based on existing intellectual property have proved consistent hits. Films like Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Disney’s “Moana 2” and Universal’s “Super Mario Bros. Movie” each grossed more than a billion dollars in worldwide box office revenue, with Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” hauling in $969 million.
By contrast, Universal’s 2023 original animated film “Migration” brought in $300 million worldwide. Even the critically acclaimed DreamWorks Animation title “The Wild Robot,” which is based on a 2016 children’s book, grossed $333 million.
But industry insiders and analysts have said that focusing solely on sequels and reboots risks making the animation business stale and that fresh stories are necessary for the health of the industry.
“We should celebrate when studios and production companies like Pixar and Disney take their best shot, create a really great movie — an original film — and with everyone decrying the lack of originality out there, at least they went for it,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “It will certainly be a big winner on Disney+. But there’s no sugarcoating the fact that this was an incredibly low opening weekend for a Pixar movie.”
Pixar’s track record with original animated films was nearly flawless for decades, with the occasional miss such as 2015’s “The Good Dinosaur.”
But the box office reception for its latest original films have been muted, largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pixar sent three of its original films — 2020’s “Soul,” 2021’s “Luca” and 2022”s “Turning Red” — straight to Disney+ to give families something to watch during the stay-at-home orders. But as the pandemic waned, families were some of the last to return to theaters as they got used to the ease of watching animated movies at home and were concerned about the health implications of enclosed spaces.
The reported budget for “Elio” was between $150 million and $200 million, which compounds the opening-weekend problems for Pixar. That number doesn’t include the tens of millions of dollars that go into a global marketing campaign. Studios split box office revenue with theaters.
Disney has said animation budgets are higher for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios films because the work is done in the U.S., as opposed to outsourcing overseas where the work is cheaper.
The low opening weekend may not be the end for “Elio,” even if “Elemental”-esque box office longevity is not in its future. The fact that “Elio” had a theatrical release bodes well for its eventual debut on the Disney+ streaming platform since it will benefit from the additional marketing, Dergarabedian said. And “Elio” could be incorporated into Disney merchandise and theme park events, which could boost its visibility.
“Disney’s big enough and broad enough,” he said. “‘Elio’ will be a well-received film that’s absorbed into the Disney ecosystem.”
It was only a matter of time before the major Hollywood studios started taking the fight to the artificial intelligence industry over its alleged abuse of intellectual property.
Last week, Walt Disney Co. and Universal Pictures sued AI firm Midjourney in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, accusing the popular image generator of blatantly copying and profiting from copyrighted images of characters from franchises such as “Star Wars,” “Minions,” “Cars,” Marvel, “The Simpsons” and “Shrek.”
The complaint cited numerous examples, illustrated with dozens of striking photos, of San Francisco-based Midjourney’s technology being used to generate virtually indistinguishable copies of Darth Vader, Iron Man, Bart, Woody and Elsa, sometimes in frames quite similar to scenes from the actual movies and TV shows.
The lawsuit says Midjourney employed such images to promote its subscription service and encourage the use of its image generator. The companies are seeking unspecified monetary compensation, as well as a court order to stop Midjourney from further infringement, including by using studio-owned material to train its upcoming video tool.
“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” Disney and Universal’s lawyers wrote in the 110-page complaint. “Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing.”
The stakes of this battle are high, according to the studios. The AI company’s misuse of Disney and Universal’s intellectual property “threatens to upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law that drive American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts,” the court document said.
Midjourney has not responded to requests for comment.
AI companies have typically argued that they are protected by “fair use” doctrine, which allows for the limited reproduction of material without permission from the copyright holder.
Midjourney founder David Holz in 2022 told Forbes that the company did not seek permission from copyright holders, saying “there isn’t really a way to get a hundred million images and know where they’re coming from.”
This battle is a long time coming.
Artists — including screenwriters, animators, illustrators and other entertainment industry workers — have been raising the alarm for years about the threat of AI, not just to their actual jobs but to the work they create. AI models are trained on anything and everything that’s publicly available on the internet, which includes copyrighted material owned by studios or the artists themselves, they argue.
The Writers Guild of America last year called on the big entertainment companies to take legal action against tech giants and startups in order to put a stop to such “theft.” But this is the first time any of the major film studios have gone after an AI company for copyright infringement. They may not be the last.
The studios are following the lead of the New York Times and other publishers, who sued OpenAI and its backer Microsoft over alleged plagiarism. The major music labels have also taken AI firms to court over the use of copyrighted music. Studios are in an awkward position because they’re weighing the possibility of licensing their content to AI firms or using the technology for their own purposes.
Reid Southen, a Michigan-based film concept artist whose research on AI was cited at length in the lawsuit, said he hopes Disney and Universal’s complaint encourages others to take a similar stance.
“Hopefully, I think other studios are looking at what’s going on with Disney and Universal now, and considering, ‘Hey, what about our properties?’” said Southen, who has worked on studio films including “The Matrix Resurrections,” “The Hunger Games” and “Blue Beetle.” “If Universal and Disney think they have a strong enough case to pursue this, I would hope other studios would take note of that and maybe pursue it as well.”
Southen became part of the story in December 2023, after the release of Midjourney v6 started making waves online. He saw someone use the tech to generate an image of Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, and he started messing around with it himself to see what kinds of copyrighted material he could prompt it to rip off. He posted the results on social media, which led AI researcher Gary Marcus to reach out.
Marcus and Southen published an in-depth article for IEEE Spectrum in January 2024, making the case that Midjourney and other well-funded AI firms were training their models on copyrighted work without their permission or compensation and spitting out images nearly identical to the studios’ own material.
That article illustrated how simple prompts could produce nearly exact replicas of famous film and TV characters.
The prompts didn’t necessarily need to ask for a particular character by name.
The researchers were able to coax uncanny images from AI with prompts as basic as “animated toys” (resulting in pictures of “Toy Story” characters) and “videogame plumber” (which turned up versions of Mario from “Super Mario”). According to Marcus and Southen, all it took was the phrase “popular movie screencap” to evoke a picture similar to an actual frame from “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” or “The Dark Knight.”
“It shows that they are very clearly trained on hundreds, if not thousands, of movies and YouTube videos and screen caps and all this stuff, because I was able to find matching screen caps and images, not just from trailers, but from deep in movies themselves,” Southen said.
The Midjourney examples were the most egregious, Southen said, but the company was not the only offender. For instance, OpenAI’s image generation technology DALL-E was also capable of producing “plagiaristic” images of copyrighted characters without prompting them specifically by name, Southen said, echoing the findings of his and Marcus’ IEEE Spectrum article.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment. The Disney and Universal lawsuit did not name OpenAI, which is also responsible for the video generator Sora that is trying to take the film business by storm.
Many chatbots and text-to-image tools have guardrails around intellectual property, but they clearly have limitations. Ask ChatGPT to create an image of Kermit the Frog, and it will flatly reject the request. However, for example, I was recently able to request a picture of a Muppet-like female pig character, and the result was not unlike Miss Piggy, though I wouldn’t quite say it was a one-for-one copy.
Southen argues that this is a sign of a serious flaw in large language model training — the fact that they’ve already been fed on so much publicly available data. “Sometimes it’s not giving you something that’s spot-on, but it’s giving you enough that you know that it knows what it’s doing,” he said. “Like, you know where it’s pulling from.”
In public comments, studio executives have made it clear that they’re not against AI as a whole. “We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal and compliance officer, in a statement on the lawsuit.
As media industry expert Peter Csathy put it in a recent newsletter, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do AI.
But even doing it the right way will be disruptive. Use of AI for storyboarding and pre-visualization could save millions of dollars, which translates to more job losses in the entertainment industry. Lionsgate and AMC Networks have announced deals to use AI to streamline operations and processes.
For artists like Southen, that’s a troubling reality. He said he has seen his annual income shrink in half since generative AI technology came on the scene.
“You can point at things like the strikes and other stuff going on, but the story is the same for most of the people that I know — that their income since all this stuff came has been dramatically impacted,” he said. “Work that was otherwise very steady for me for a long time is just nowhere to be found anymore.”
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Number of the week
Streaming just notched a significant milestone.
The technology’s share of total television usage overtook the combined viewership of broadcast and cable for the first time, according to Nielsen.
Streaming represented 44.8% of TV viewership in May 2025, the data firm said, marking a record, while broadcast clocked in at 20.1% and cable garnered 24.1% for a combined 44.2% going to linear viewing.
Nielsen cautioned that rankings may fluctuate because broadcast networks still command a tremendous share of eyeballs, particularly when NFL football airs.
Finally …
I caught some stellar acts at the Hollywood’s Bowl’s Blue Note Jazz Festival on Saturday. Shout-out to saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and bassist Derrick Hodge. Here’s Benjamin’s Tiny Desk Concert performance for NPR.
Universal Pictures’ “How To Train Your Dragon” soared over the competition this weekend, as family-friendly films continued their dominance at the box office.
The live-action adaptation of the animated franchise from DreamWorks Animation grossed $83.7 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates.
It beat out fellow live-action remake “Lilo & Stitch” from Walt Disney Co., which hauled in $15 million over the weekend for a cumulative total of $366 million so far after 24 days. A24’s “Materialists,” Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” and Lionsgate’s “Ballerina” rounded out the top five.
Expectations were high for the Universal film, which revives a profitable franchise for the studio.
The original animated movie was released in 2010 and grossed nearly $495 million in global box office revenue. A sequel soon followed in 2014 and brought in more than $621 million worldwide. The most recent film in the trilogy, “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” came out in 2019 and made almost $540 million globally.
“How to Train Your Dragon” comes at an opportune time for family films. After a lackluster first quarter at the box office, theater attendance has been turbocharged, at least in part by the success of kid-friendly movies such as Warner Bros. Pictures “A Minecraft Movie” and Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch.”
Though family audiences were initially slow to return after the pandemic, movies that appeal to those theatergoers have turned out to be box office juggernauts.
Last summer, Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” drove theater revenues at a time when the industry was collectively wringing its hands after a slow Memorial Day weekend.
This summer, “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Lilo & Stitch” are demonstrating the power of the hybrid film, which combines live actors with computer-animated creatures — a strategy that has proved valuable, said David A. Gross, who writes movie industry newsletter FranchiseRe.
The trend began back in 1988 with Robert Zemeckis’ “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” but has seen recent success with films like Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise and StudioCanal’s “Paddington” movies.
“It’s just a logical step in computer filmmaking,” Gross said. “It’s a very powerful storytelling tool.”
Disney+ is back with a mega-cheap £1.99 streaming offer – these are the series our team is loving
16:00, 13 Jun 2025Updated 16:21, 13 Jun 2025
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Series we’re loving on Disney+
The weekend is here and for those keen to relax on the sofa with a bingeable series, there’s lots on offer. Disney+ is making headlines for the return of one of its most affordable deals, as prices drop to £1.99.
Shoppers will have to sign up for the subscription to get the £1.99 price, but there is no required contract and users can leave after each 30-day window. The deal is available to snap up by June 30, and it lasts for four months before rising to the previous £4.99 rate.
With a packed TV guide for the summer, including the live-action Snow White and Marvel’s Ironheart, there’s plenty to watch. As a team filled with series lovers, we’ve got a handful of recommendations from the new Welcome to Wrexham season, reality dramas The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, or decade classics like Grey’s Anatomy.
Disney+ has brought back its popular deal that lets new and returning customers join its Standard with Ads plan for £1.99 per month for four months.
This means members can stream hit shows like Andor, The Bear and Alien: Earth, plus countless titles from Star Wars and Marvel, for a fraction of the usual price.
Narin’s favourites – Daredevil: Born Again and Welcome to Wrexham
Daredevil: Born Again might be the best TV series I’ve watched this year so far. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprise their roles as Daredevil and Kingpin as the two old adversaries clash once more, with both men trying to juggle their public personas and secret lives inextricably linked with New York’s crime-ridden underbelly.
The result is a show that takes the best of the already-brilliant Netflix run (including some fan favourite returns) and surprisingly makes it even darker and more brutal – what would Walt say?
As a proud comic book geek I freely confess that Marvel fatigue has been a thing for a while now, with much of their output proving a miss rather than a hit for me. Daredevil: Born Again (and actually also Thunderbolts which will be coming to the streaming giant in due course) are a pleasing and much-needed return to quality and definitely a must-see.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney from Welcome to Wrexham(Image: Alberto E. Rodriguez)
Welcome to Wrexham season four is streaming now on Disney+ and this £1.99 deal allows you to watch the thrilling climax of the celeb-led club’s season week by week. In the four short years since A-listers Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham AFC for £2 million the club’s fortunes have transformed, taking it into a £150m+ force in football.
This show offers a great behind-the-scenes look at that ascendance, led by both men alongside a cast of supporting characters, including the team’s sweary yet brilliant manager Phil Parkinson and Executive Director Humphrey Ker.
Don’t let the football distract you, though – at its core, this is as much a show about the community and people who live around Wrexham as the on-pitch shenanigans and all the better for it. If you like your reality TV heartwarming rather than angsty then this is your next perfect binge watch.
Harriet’s favourite – The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
If drama, gossip, affairs and the craze of social media is your thing then I’d highlighy recommend The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Season 2 of the reality series has recently hit Disney+ after a gripping first season – and I’ve never been more hooked on a series.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 2 is out on Disney+(Image: Disney)
Yes, you have to enjoy shows like Keeping Up with Kardashians and The Real Housewives to love this. The series follows a group of MomTok influencers and their Mormon community as they navigate growing social presence and scandals.
Jake’s favourite – Andor Season 2
I’ve been a huge Star Wars fan since I was a little kid, but had almost given up on the franchise after some of its recent output left me with Jedi fatigue. That was until the new season of Andor pulled me well and truly back in.
After admittedly not being blown away by the first season, I was completely gripped by the eponymous rebel spy’s latest mission, so much so that I binged the whole thing in one weekend. It may not feature any lightsabers or Jedi, but what it does offer cements its position as one of the greatest Star Wars titles there is and without doubt, the best episodic instalment yet.
There simply aren’t enough superlatives to describe the series; it’s beautifully shot, each performance is Emmy-worthy and the high-stakes of Andor’s mission result in incredibly intense viewing – especially in the latter half of the series. Going back to watch Rogue One – which is set immediately after the Andor finale – completely changes the viewer’s perspective on the story, making a great film even better.
Jada’s favourite – Abbotts Elementary
Quinta Brunson has been on my radar since she first went viral for her ‘he got money’ videos when I was a teenager, with her enthusiastically telling anyone who would listen that her cinema date was rich since he bought a large popcorn. I’ve watched her through the Buzzfeed years and when I heard that her award-winning show was going to be available to stream on Disney+ I knew it was time to get a subscription.
Abbott Elementary is about a public school in Philadelphia where the odds aren’t really in anyone’s favour. It’s so consistently funny that I’d love to be a fly on the wall of their writer’s room. Quinta plays Janine Teagues, a perky second-grade teacher with so much enthusiasm to make a positive difference. The cast are all hilarious in their own right, Ava the principal (played by Janelle James), who bribed her way into a job has to be one of the standout characters and over the seasons she seems a little more vulnerable even if she remains obnoxiously tone deaf.
There’s romantic tension with Janine and Gregory, played by Everybody Hates Chris star Tyler James Williams, that had me routing for them the whole way through as they awkwardly navigate their feelings.
It’s easily the best mockumentary sitcom I’ve ever seen, my only gripe is the episodes are released later in the UK than the US – so I made sure to catch up to the season finale when I visited the states earlier this year.
Eve’s favourite is something Disney+ doesn’t offer
1883 is, without a doubt, one of the best TV series I have watched to date. I’m a bit of an all-rounder when it comes to the shows I watch.
I’m a sucker for Gilmore Girls and Ginny & Georgia (both on Netflix) as well as the hit, edge-of-your-seat, relatively brutal mob-family extravaganza Mobland (Amazon Prime), Ted Lesso (Apple TV), The Last of Us (NOW) and New Girl (Disney+). All of which bring very different things to the table. But when I was recommended 1883, aside from knowing the bare bones of its description, I had no idea what to expect.
Ginny and Georgia season 3 – Get Netflix free with Sky
Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Ginny and Georgia.
A prequel to the highly regarded Yellowstone (a show still on my watch-list), 1883 is an American Western drama miniseries which follows the origin story of the Dutton family to the Yellowstone ranch. The show sees the five Dutton family members in post-Civil War America flee poverty in Texas and embark on a long, arduous journey through the Great Plains in the hope of a better future in Montana.
A description of the show on IMDB reads: “The post-Civil War generation of the Dutton family travels to Texas, and joins a wagon train undertaking the arduous journey west to Oregon, before settling in Montana to establish what would eventually become the Yellowstone Ranch.”
Exploring the use and roles ranchhands/cowboys as well as the history, challenges and conflicts faced by the Indiginous Americans during this period, it’s an action-packed, heart-wrenching story that had me hooked.
The 10-part series features some pretty big names in the world of film as country music such as Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliott and even has cameos from Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Hanks. Its sequel, 1923, stars Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford – also an incredible watch on Paramount+
Phoebe’s favourite – Grey’s Anatomy
Grey’s Anatomy is my mum’s favourite TV show of all time. She has been a loyal viewer since the first series aired in the mid-2000s, so when it was announced that the American medical drama would be available on Disney+, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
I signed up and began binge-watching the gripping show right away. I can happily say Grey’s Anatomy has earned a place in my top TV shows of all-time. It’s full of heart and passion, and a bunch of characters I adore. The show’s creator Shonda Rhimes has me laughing out loud one minute and ugly crying the next. With there being 21 series and over 400 episodes waiting to be watched, it’s sure to keep households entertained for months.
Disney Plus has brought back a mega monthly deal that shaves 60% off its usual price and makes it the cheapest streamer compared to Netflix, Prime Video and Apple TV+
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Brits can get Disney+ for £1.99 per month
Disney+ is offering a subscription for £1.99 with the return of a hugely popular streaming deal. The streamer from the House of Mouse has just kicked off a ‘limited-time promotion’ that saves 60% compared to the usual price.
It allows both new and returning customers to subscribe to Disney+ Standard with Ads for £1.99 per month for four months. This would usually cost a total of £19.96 but is now up for grabs for £7.96 – a £12 discount.
However, the deal won’t be around for long and is due to expire on June 30. After the four-month promotional period, Disney+ Standard with Ads will automatically renew at the then-current monthly retail price until cancelled.
The deal makes Disney+ the most affordable major streamer compared to the cheapest subscription tiers of Netflix (£5.99), Amazon’s Prime Video (£5.99) and Apple TV+ (£8.99). It comes ahead of a packed summer slate of new and returning films and series, led by Disney blockbuster Snow White, streaming now.
Also on the way this summer are Marvel’s Ironheart (June 25), season four of The Bear (June 26) and new prequel series Alien: Earth (August 13). They’re set to join an ever-growing library featuring recent hits and critically acclaimed series, Andor, Welcome to Wrexham, Rivals, Only Murders in the Building and Shōgun.
Disney+ has brought back its popular deal that lets new and returning customers join its Standard with Ads plan for £1.99 per month for four months.
This means members can stream hit shows like Andor, The Bear and Alien: Earth, plus countless titles from Star Wars and Marvel, for a fraction of the usual price.
The £1.99 deal also provides access to the Stolen Girl, Good American Family and season two of the beloved reality series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. For those put off by the prospect of adverts interrupting their viewing, the Disney+ plan plays on average less than four minutes of ads per hour of TV, which is less than on terrestrial TV.
What’s more, adverts will only play before a film starts and not during. Aside from the deal, Disney+ also offers the equivalent of two months free to those paying for a year upfront on the Standard or Premium plan.
Opting for an annual plan provides 12 months access for the price of 10 and saves up to £25.98, as well as higher video quality up to 4K UHD and HDR and the ability to stream on four devices simultaneously. Of the many positive reviews left by Disney+ members on Trustpilot, one says: “Offering a fantastic and constantly updated collection.”
Rachel Zegler’s Snow White is streaming now on Disney+
Another says: “I love Disney+. I’m a Star Wars and Marvel fan but since the addition of Starz it boosted my love, there’s even more content for adults now that’s worth it all round.
However, the same user added: “Only reason it didn’t get five stars is Disney are not using their other brands in the subscription. If they did this could easily be the best subscription service ever but there is much more content locked behind their own service.”
However, another five-star review says: “Good servers, good services, this nostalgia when watching old cartoons from TV. The subscription is really cheap compared to other streaming services.”
The last time it ran a similar deal was back in September, and that was only for 3 months of streaming.
However, this promotion comes directly from Disney itself, making it a brilliant chance to save money on one of the most popular streaming services around.
With this plan, you can stream in Full HD on two devices at the same time, and content is broken up by adverts.
Yep, it’s the no-frills version of Disney+ – but it’s still an absolute bargain at that reduced monthly cost.
For just £1.99 a month, you’ll get access to the entire Disney+ catalogue.
Parents, I imagine, will particularly appreciate this deal, with the school summer holidays fast approaching.
Naturally, the entire catalogue of Disney’s classic animated films is available to stream.
The latest addition to the platform is the live-action remake of Snow White – perfect if you missed it in cinemas (and are ready to face those CGI dwarves).
For Star Wars fans, the critically acclaimed Andor Series 2 is now available to stream in full.
Marvel lovers also have plenty to get excited about, with the latest series, Ironheart, set to premiere on 25th June.
But for my money, the biggest show on the horizon is Series 4 of The Bear.
This intense, heart-stirring and ever-so-slightly-stressful cooking drama is one of the best shows on TV, and the new season drops on 26th June.
I’ve been working up an appetite for this since thatSeason 3 finale last year.
Honestly, it’s worth the £1.99-per-month sign-up all by itself, in my opinion.
Kitchen dramas, superheroes, guilty-pleasure Mormon wife reality TV – it’s all there on Disney+.
Just make sure you sign up this month, before it returns to standard price.
Meredith Hayden, a New York-based social media influencer and cookbook author, didn’t start out wanting to create comforting content.
But that’s exactly what resonated with audiences.
She went viral a few years ago by posting about her “day in the life” as a private chef in the Hamptons. Now she has a large following on YouTube for her Wishbone Kitchen brand and her “Dinner With Friends” video series, where she shows herself setting up relaxing dinner parties, making French-style hot chocolate and re-creating a cozy coffee shop at home.
You might see her online wearing pajamas or in bed with her dog while talking to the camera. She doesn’t edit out the parts where she messes up the recipe, saying her fans appreciate the flubs. Hayden, who recently completed a tour for “The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook,” said she isn’t necessarily going for a vibe, at least not intentionally, despite the clear Ina Garten influence.
“This is really just how I live my life,” Hayden, 29, said by phone. “I am glad it comes across as comforting, because I’m definitely someone who gravitates more towards ‘comfort content’ myself.”
“I’m not planning on watching ‘Severance,’” she added, saying she gravitates toward more wholesome, grounded content, such as home makeover shows of the non-competitive variety.
That personal preference aligns with a broader trend among young adult viewers, according to recent data from United Talent Agency, the Beverly Hills representation firm. The company’s data and insights group, UTA IQ, compiled stats suggesting that many younger consumers are leaning toward material that soothes the nerves and acts as a warm blanket, rather than ratcheting up the anxiety.
“Comfort content” is like popping a Lorazepam (though not in the excessive dose Parker Posey’s character takes in “The White Lotus”) or CBD gummy at the end of the day. The trend is playing out across TV, streaming, literature and social media, said UTA IQ executive Abby Bailey.
She sees it in the rise of #CleanTok videos (totaling 49 billion views last year), in which people do mundane household chores, as well as robust streaming viewership of nostalgic low-intensity sitcoms including “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and the successful February debut of a new CBS soap opera, “Beyond the Gates.”
“Somber themes, intellectual depth, cultural satires — those have always defined prestige entertainment, and it’s left many to discount the value and the viewership of this more lighthearted, comforting programming,” Bailey told The Times. “But as audiences are prioritizing their well-being and taking brain-breaks from the weight of the world, the definition of what’s capital ‘I’ important in entertainment is shifting.”
The changing attitudes are particularly noticeable in the young adult entertainment space, which several years ago was dominated by postapocalyptic teen dramas such as “The Hunger Games” and the “Divergent” series.
More than half (58%) of U.S. adults ages 18 to 30 say TV shows and movies depicting young adults have become too dark and heavy, according to UTA IQ’s April poll of more than 1,000 people. More than 70% said they want to see lighter and more joyful TV shows with young people.
That’s not to say that the upcoming season of the dark and sexually explicit “Euphoria” won’t be successful or that the next “Hunger Games” film won’t work at the box office. That type of content still has its place, even as tastes evolve. But studios and streamers appear to be noticing the audience’s shifting habits.
Examples are popping up in the young adult space on streaming services, including Tubi’s 2024 sports romance movie “Sidelined: The QB & Me,” which is getting a sequel. The Netflix teen drama “My Life With the Walter Boys” was recently renewed for a third season, ahead of its Season 2 premiere.
There are plenty of other opportunities now for young people to take mental breaks on the couch, from the rise of “cozy gaming” to the crossover appeal of “healing fiction,” a genre of whimsical books from Japan and Korea that have taken off elsewhere. Olympic diver Tom Daley, who went viral when he was photographed knitting between his events in Tokyo, created a competition show called “Game of Wool” that will debut on Channel 4 in the U.K.
Some millennial parents have turned to gentler, less overstimulating TV shows from decades ago — think “Arthur” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog” — to co-view with their young children.
Comfort content is certainly nothing new. The term brings to mind the idyllic autumnal walkways of Stars Hollow, the fictional small town from “Gilmore Girls,” as well as just about anything on the Hallmark Channel, which has enough of a following to justify its own $8-a-month subscription streaming service.
But there may be a reason the category is finding renewed purchase in trying times. Bailey hears that theme from consumers who just aren’t in the mood for any more nail-biters. “Time and time again, I get people saying, ‘I just can’t bring myself to watch anything serious,’” Bailey said. “‘Like, all I want to do is watch Bravo.’”
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Stuff we wrote
Studio splitsville
As expected, Warner Bros. Discovery will split into two companies, separating its streaming and studios businesses from the struggling television networks business, the New York-based media giant said Monday.
The Streaming & Studios company will consist of the film and TV studios as well as HBO and HBO Max. The Global Networks company (which is taking on much of the debt) will have CNN, Discovery and other channels.
The divorce is aimed to be completed by mid-2026. Afterward, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav will be CEO of the streaming and studios group, while Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels will run the networks.
The firm previously foreshadowed this move by restructuring its operations along similar lines.
Warner Bros. Discovery thus joins Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which is sweeping basic cable networks, including MSNBC and USA, into a new separate entity called Versant. It’s widely speculated that Paramount Global — if and when the Skydance deal happens — will also eventually unload declining legacy networks.
The breakups reflect an ongoing reality — linear television is in big trouble. The struggles of the cable bundle have continued to weigh on studio finances, with customers moving rapidly to on-demand services.
Indeed, if anyone thought the entertainment business’ bloodletting was over after last year’s series of layoffs, Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery disabused them of that notion in recent days.
Disney slashed several hundred employees on June 2. An actual number was not disclosed, but the cuts are significant, coming after Bob Iger embarked on a plan to reduce staff by 8,000 two years ago following his return as chief executive.
The latest layoffs hit film and television marketing teams, television publicity, casting and development as well as corporate financial operations. The cuts happen to land as the company is celebrating huge box office results from “Lilo & Stitch.”
The new downsizing comes amid Disney’s efforts to pare down its production pipeline after binge-spending during the streaming wars. The reduction corresponds to Disney’s efforts to focus on quality over quantity while also cutting costs.
A couple days after Disney’s layoffs, Warner Bros. Discovery cut staff from its cable television channels business. Those Warner Bros. Discovery reductions were smaller in scale (eliminating fewer than 100 roles), but the message to the industry couldn’t be clearer. Comcast’s NBCUniversal has also undergone layoffs.
The question is: What comes next? Many expect the cast-off Warner and NBCUniversal networks to merge at some point, with Paramount channels perhaps joining them one day.
Finally …
Listen: Turnstile’s new album “Never Enough” is out. Also, The Beths have a new tune. Sabrina Carpenter’s latest has already been declared the “song of the summer.”
A former cast member at a Disney theme park has said there’s one thing she wishes guests would stop doing while visiting, and it can ruin someone’s day if you break the unwritten rule
You should follow these rules when visiting a Disney park (stock photo)(Image: Getty Images)
When you go to a Disney theme park like Disney World or Disneyland, there are some golden rules you should follow. For example, most people know that adults are banned from dressing up as Disney characters because they might confuse children into thinking they’re the real cast members, and there’s also a ban on bringing folding chairs and drones into the parks because of the disruption they might cause.
But did you know there are also rules about how to interact with cast members? Many of these are unspoken, but there are some things you should never do when you meet the actors and actresses who are dressed up as your favourite Disney characters.
Kayla Nicole, a former Disney cast member, shared a video on TikTok in which she highlighted the number one thing she wished people would stop doing when they line up to meet Disney princesses.
During her eight years as a cast member, the woman played a number of roles at the park, including Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Merida from Brave, and Cinderella. She said that if you’re ever meeting two characters at once, you should never ignore one in favour of the other.
She explained: “If you’re in a meet-and-greet location like the hall, where you have one princess on this carpet and a different princess on the other carpet, do not skip one to go to the other.
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“Operationally, that tiny little area between princesses is getting clogged up. But beyond the operational aspect, there’s a humanity aspect. How would you feel getting consistently skipped over? With side eyes and smirks and backs turned, not even acknowledging you.
“Per our rules, we’re supposed to average around 70 seconds for each interaction to make it fair for every family. So if you’re skipping a princess, you are saving one minute of your time and potentially causing a world of hurt to that performer.”
Kayla said that despite the cast members doing everything in their power to embody the character they’re playing, they are still real people underneath the costume, and they have real feelings. She also said this can be even more difficult for people of colour playing princesses like Tiana from The Princess and the Frog or Elena from Elena of Avalor.
She added: “Imagine you’re a person of colour playing Elena or Tiana, the two characters that meet in the hall. In real life, you feel looked over, given fewer opportunities, etc, and then you come to your job and people are still looking over you.
“We’ve had to stop loading the rooms so many times throughout my Disney career because my Elena was crying at how she was being treated. I promise you, you’re still going to make that Space Mountain fast pass.
“If you’re a guest, just walk up, smile, and say hey. The performer should, in theory, take the reins and guide the entire interaction from there on. Just ‘yes and’ everything they say and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Several commenters on the video shared their own experiences with seeing Disney princesses skipped over, especially when it comes to lesser-known characters.
One person said: “Elena was my daughter’s favourite princess when we went. People kept skipping her over, and she spent extra time with my little, and we never knew of that princess before.”
Another added: “I never watched Elena’s show, but we had such a great interaction when I met her! I’m glad she took the reins because honestly, I was so nervous about what to say to her. Total sweetheart!”
The PG rating has made a major comeback in Hollywood.
It’s strange to remember now, but during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — when studios were sending many of their family-friendly movies straight to streaming services — there were serious conversations in the movie business about whether youngsters and their parents would ever return to theaters in full force.
Streaming was just too convenient and affordable, compared with a Saturday outing of two parents and 2 1/2 kids, the logic went.
But in recent years, the family audience has proved to be a bulwark for the theatrical movie business.
Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” topped the domestic box office again over the weekend with $63 million in ticket sales, for a total of $280 million so far. It beat the latest “Mission: Impossible” and the new “Karate Kid: Legends,” both rated PG-13. As of Sunday, “Lilo & Stitch” had crossed $610 million globally.
Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “A Minecraft Movie,” also rated PG, has amassed $423 million in the U.S. and Canada, the best of the year so far. Adding international grosses, its global tally is $947 million.
Nine PG-rated movies have been released in more than 2,000 locations this year, up from six during the same period in 2024, according to industry estimates. Those movies have accounted for 41% of ticketing revenue in the U.S. and Canada this year, compared with 21% a year ago. (The Pixar megahit “Inside Out 2” was released in mid-June of 2024.)
Family films are a boon to studios and theaters at a time when other categories — such as comic book films and one-off dramas and comedies — have been less reliable than they were in the past.
And there’s more to come, including Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon” remake, Pixar’s “Elio” and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Bad Guys 2.”
Importantly, many of these movies are coming one after the other, which is essential if the industry hopes to re-create the moviegoing habit for current and future generations, especially as social media, YouTube and video games claim more of young people’s attention.
“One of the things that I think the industry has struggled with over the last number of years is just having a regular cadence of movies in the theater,” said Michael O’Leary, head of the trade group Cinema United (formerly the National Assn. of Theatre Owners). “If you’re a young person, and there’s a six-month gap between movies, there’s a lot of things going on, and your attention wanes.”
The focus on PG-rated content stands in contrast with a few years ago, when the PG-13 rating was widely seen as the way to include a broad, “four-quadrant” audience: men, women, old and young. A PG rating tagged a new release as more of a kids movie. PG-13, the label for Marvel and DC movies, had more of a cool factor for teens and young adults.
O’Leary has a theory for why things have shifted, and it has to do with the media consumption habits of today’s very young, known as Generation Alpha, or those who came after Gen Z.
Kids now are more than just digitally native.
They’re aware of new movies and TV shows coming out, in part because of exposure to social media at an earlier age compared with past generations of children. Parents will naturally be more comfortable taking their 7- and 8-year-olds to something like “Minecraft,” because they’re less likely to be presented with objectionable content.
The Motion Picture Assn.’s rating system, though sometimes fraught and misunderstood, is meant as a guide for parents.
“Younger people are inundated with more and more content at an earlier age, and they’ve become, in some ways, more discriminating connoisseurs of what they want to see,” O’Leary said.
Surely there are some parents who take their kids to the movies less often now after the pandemic with the proliferation of at-home entertainment options. But overall, family movies are leading the industry. If the pandemic proved anything, it’s that if you’re a parent, you really can’t spend all your time in the house.
Gen Z — now anywhere from 13 to 28 years old — is clearly doing its part. According to a recent NRG survey, 37% of Gen Zers say they go to the movies more than six times a year, up from 29% who agreed with that statement in February 2023.
Adults, too, might be interested in seeing more PG content in theaters, particularly in the American heartland.
Angel Studios’ animated Jesus film “The King of Kings” performed well (though somewhat ironically, most of Angel’s live action movies are PG-13).
The post-pandemic recovery of the family audience hit a big milestone in 2023 with Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed more than $1.36 billion worldwide. That was followed by the success of 2024 sequels such as “Inside Out 2,” “Moana 2,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which all benefited from multigenerational appeal.
The blockbuster Broadway adaptation “Wicked” was also rated PG, which helped make it a family moviegoing event.
Now, the category is again on a hot streak. Industry analyst David A. Gross declared in a recent edition of his FranchiseRe newsletter, “the production pipeline is full and any loss of audience to streaming during the pandemic is over.”
What hasn’t come back as strongly? Most notably, superhero pictures — one of the pillars of moviegoing for the last couple decades. Before the pandemic, the industry averaged seven superhero movies a year, and those would drive billions of dollars in global revenue, Gross said. Lately, the genre has been significantly thinner and far less consistent.
R-rated horror movies are thriving (look at “Sinners” and “Final Destination Bloodlines”), but other adult-oriented movies are hit and miss.
Increasingly, when studios want to draw a mass audience, that means going younger.
Newsletter
You’re reading the Wide Shot
Ryan Faughnder delivers the latest news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Stuff we wrote
Number of the week
What’s the magic number that will allow Paramount’s $8-billion merger with Skydance to go through?
The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount was willing to part with $15 million to settle President Trump’s lawsuit against the company over edits to its pre-election “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris.
No surprise, that’s apparently not enough. Trump’s team wants more, the Journal reported. The president wants $25 million and an apology from CBS News, a source told the paper.
Trump’s critics, journalists and 1st Amendment experts say the lawsuit is basically a shakedown. Some anti-Trump lawmakers say a settlement by Paramount could amount to an illegal bribe.
Paramount is awaiting merger approval from the FCC, which is tasked with reviewing the transfer of broadcast licenses. Sources have told my colleague Meg James that the FCC approval process has been bogged down.
The company stresses that it sees the legal dispute and the FCC review as separate issues. No one believes Trump sees them that way.
On Monday, Paramount said it would add three new board members.
Finally …
There’s been an unreal amount of good TV on lately. I’ve been catching up on Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal,” and often can’t believe what I’m seeing.
Also, Marc Maron is ending his podcast after 16 years. I’ve linked to various episodes in this newsletter. Here’s one I’m looking forward to catching up with.
Joanna Miller was 10 — no, “10 and three-quarters,” she clarifies — when she lost her grandfather. Even then, in December 1966, she shared him with the world.
For Miller’s grandad was Walt Disney, a name that would emblazen one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in the world, and come to signify uniquely American storytelling, family-friendly optimism and the creation of the modern theme park. Front-page stories across the globe announced his death, hailing him as a “world enchanter,” “amusement king” and “wizard of fantasy.”
But to Miller, he was just “grampa.”
She peppers stories about Disney in her conversations, often going down tangents as she recalls heartwarming moments. Such as the Christmas season when Disney, despite having access to Hollywood’s most renown artists, put Miller’s drawings on a holiday card. “The bad art we were doing when we were 6 years old? He treated them like they were great works,” she says.
She pauses, a tear forming in her eye. “He was just the greatest guy. The best guy.”
Jennifer Goff, from left, Tammy Miller, Joanna Miller, Walter Miller and Chris Miller speak onstage during the Walt Disney Family Museum’s second annual gala at Disney’s Grand Californian in November 2016 in Anaheim. Joanna has become vocal that her grandfather, Walt Disney, never wanted to be immortalized as a robotic figurine.
(Joe Scarnici / Getty Images for the Walt Disney Family Museum)
Miller is, to put it mildly, protective of Disney. So is the Walt Disney Co., and as Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary in July approaches, both share a goal — to remind audiences of the man behind the corporate name. Last fall the company announced that an audio-animatronic of Disney would grace the opera house on Main Street, U.S.A., long home to “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.” The new show, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life,” will give parkgoers a sense of “what it would have been like to be in Walt’s presence,” Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro explained at the announcement.
The way Miller sees it, it’s an abomination.
“Dehumanizing,” she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral among Disney’s vast fandom. Calling the figure a “robotic grampa,” she wrote, “People are not replaceable. You could never get the casualness of his talking.” She also argued staunchly that Disney was against such mechanical immortalization.
Interior of the Illinois Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, May 15, 1964, where an animatronic of Abraham Lincoln was unveiled.
(Bob Goldberg / Associated Press)
She stands by the post — she’s one of the few, she says, to have seen the animatronic in the fake flesh — but also nervously laughs as she reflects on the attention it has brought her. Miller has long lived a private life, noting she considers herself shy — she declined to be photographed for this story — and says repeatedly it pains her to take a stand against the Walt Disney Co. She frets that the company will take away her access to the park, granted as part of an agreement when her father, the late Ron W. Miller, stepped down as CEO in 1984.
Roy Disney, left, and Ron Miller check over film strips in the editing room in 1967 at Disney’s film studio in Burbank. The family sold naming and portrait rights of Walt Disney in 1981 to the company.
(Associated Press)
But as Miller sees it, she has to speak up. “He’s ours,” Miller says of Disney. “We’re his family.”
Most robotic figures in Disney parks represent fictional characters or overly-saturated political personalities, such as those in Florida’s Hall of Presidents, which includes President Trump and living former presidents. Few speak and most are limited to statuesque movements. And unlike an attraction in which the company has full narrative control, such as a Pirates of the Caribbean, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” represents real life and a person who happens to have living, vocal descendants.
And real life is complicated.
“When you get older,” Miller says, sometimes when things go wrong in life, “you just start to get pissed off. And you get tired of being quiet. So I spoke up on Facebook. Like that was going to do anything? The fact that it got back to the company is pretty funny.”
Get back to the company it did, as Miller soon found herself having an audience with Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger.
These days, Miller is in the midst of remodeling Disney’s first L.A. home in Los Feliz, a craftsman bungalow owned in the 1920s by his uncle Robert and aunt Charlotte, who let Disney stay with them when he came from the Midwest. Miller envisions the house hosting events, perhaps workshops and artist talks for arts education nonprofit Ryman Arts.
Its feel is of a mini museum. In the garage sits a Mercedes Benz, the last vehicle Disney owned. Black-and-white images of Disney furnish the walls, decorative “Fantasia” dishware shares space with vintage toys in a glass-doored cabinet, and animation artwork, waiting to be framed, is laid out on one of the beds.
“I have been thinking a lot about this house and what it means,” Miller says. “I wouldn’t be here. Grampa wouldn’t have met granny. This all started because people were helping out grampa. Aunt Charlotte was making peanut brittle in this house that they sold at Disneyland. So this house, there would not be Disney company if it weren’t for this house.”
Miller’s relationship with the company has wavered over the decades. She’s more excited to share memories of Disney than recall the tumultuous corporate period when her father oversaw the behemoth company. On Saturdays, Disney would often bring her and her siblings to the studio. There, they had the run of the place, cruising around the backlot in their very own mini-cars designed for Disneyland’s Autopia ride. Those visits largely ended when Disney died, as her father dedicated his weekends to golf.
Championing Disney, and preserving his legacy, runs in her family. Her mother, Diane, who died in 2013, was the guiding force behind the foundation of San Francisco’s Walt Disney Family Museum. Miller, who long sat on the board, said the idea of creating an animatronic of Disney is not new, and was once considered for the museum.
“When we started the museum, someone said, ‘Hey, let’s do Walt as an animatronic,’” Miller recalls. “And my mom: ‘No. No. No. No.’ Grampa deserves new technology for this museum, but not to be a robot himself.” Her mother, says Miller, “wanted to show him as a real human.”
As American film producer and studio executive Walt Disney talks on the telephone, his wife, Lillian,, plays with three of their grandchildren, Joanna, Tamara and Jennifer in January 1962 in Anaheim. The couple are in their apartment above the Disneyland fire station.
(Tom Nebbia / Corbis via Getty Images)
Miller says she first heard of Disneyland’s animatronic last summer, a few weeks before D’Amaro announced the attraction at the fan convention D23. The show will follow a similar format to the Lincoln attraction, in which a film plays before the animatronic is revealed. Lincoln, for instance, stands and gives highlight’s of the president’s speeches, doing so with subtle, realistic movements. Disney, promises the company, will be even more lifelike, with dialogue taken from his own speeches. D’Amaro said “A Magical Life” had the support of the Disney family, singling out Disney’s grandnephew Roy P. Disney, who was in the audience.
Miller stresses that she does not speak for her five siblings or other descendants, but as she wrote in a letter to Iger, “I do speak for my grandfather and my mother.” Shortly after her Facebook post, Miller was invited to see the figure and meet with Iger and members of Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive creative team responsible for theme park experiences.
“He was very kind,” Miller says of Iger. “He let me do my spiel.”
But she wasn’t swayed. She says she asked him to create a set of guidelines on how the company would portray Disney, and Iger promised to protect his legacy. “But I don’t think he has. They’re different people. He’s a businessman, grampa was an artist.”
Imagineering and Disneyland discussed the project at a media event in April, but the animatronic was not shown, nor were pictures revealed. Imagineering did display an early sculpt used in modeling the robot to show the care taken in crafting Disney. The sculpt depicts Disney in 1963, when he was 62. One could detect age spots on Disney’s hands and weariness around his eyes.
Miller recalls her reaction when she saw the figure.
“I think I started crying,” Miller says. “It didn’t look like him, to me.”
There are at least two Walt Disneys. There’s the company founder, Mickey Mouse designer and Disneyland creator who, later in life, visited millions of Americans via their television sets on the weekly “Disneyland” show and became known as “Uncle Walt.” Then there’s the man Miller knew, a grandfather who exists to the rest of us only via stories.
Sometimes these public-private personalities overlapped, such as the moments Disney would be paraded down Disneyland’s Main Street with Miller and her siblings in tow. Miller pulls out a photo showing her face buried in her lap as she tried to hide from Disney’s adoring fans. Or the times fans caught Miller looking out from Disney’s Main Street apartment, a place where she spent many nights as a child and that still stands today.
She recalls Disney stopping to talk to people at the park. “It was the dearest thing,” she says. He would take photos with fans and sign autographs. “I never ever saw him not be less than tickled and honored that people loved him so much.”
Imagineers argue that the two Walt Disneys are being lost to history.
“Why are we doing this now?” said longtime Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald. He cited two reasons, the first being Disneyland’s 70th anniversary. “The other: I grew up watching Walt Disney on television. I guess I’m the old man. He came into our living room every week and chatted and it was very casual and you felt like you knew the man. But a lot of people today don’t know Walt Disney was an individual.” The company also says that animatronic technology has advanced to a point it can do Disney justice.
Miller is sympathetic to Imagineering’s arguments. It’s clear she holds tremendous respect for the division, believed to have been the aspect of the company Disney held dearest to his heart. She gushes about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the most recent major addition to Disney’s original park. “It’s amazing,” Miller says.
Yet she doesn’t buy into the theory that the company is simply out to preserve Disney’s legacy. If that were the case, she argues, then episodes of his weekly “Disneyland” show would be available on streaming service Disney+.
Worse, she worries an animatronic will turn Disney into a caricature. The robotic Lincoln works, says Miller, because we lack filmed footage of him. She wishes the company had abandoned the animatronic and created an immersive exhibit that could have depicted Disney in his park.
“I strongly feel the last two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa’s legacy,” Miller wrote in her letter to Iger. “They will remember the robot, and not the man.”
Portrait of American movie producer, artist and animator Walt Disney as he sits on a bench in the 1950s in his Disneyland in Anaheim.
(Gene Lester / Getty Images)
Miller has a number of letters and emails of support, some from former Imagineers, but has crossed out their names before handing them to a journalist. Most contacted for this story didn’t return calls or emails, or declined to speak on the record, noting their current business relationships with the Walt Disney Co. The legacy of Disney is “precious yet vulnerable,” said one such source, refusing to give a name because they still work with the company. “Isn’t it honorable when a granddaughter defends her grandfather? There’s nothing in it for her.”
Miller says she simply wants the company to respect Disney’s wishes — that he never be turned into a robot.
“In all our research, we never found any documentation of Walt saying that,” Imagineer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz said in April. “We know that it’s anecdotal and we can’t speak to what was told to people in private.”
And therein lies a major hurdle Miller faces. Those who Miller says knew of Disney’s preferences — her mother, her father and Imagineers he was closest to, including confidant and former Imagineering chief Marty Sklar — are all dead. That leaves, unless someone else comes forward, only her.
Miller, however, is realistic. Her family’s biggest mistake, she argues, was selling the rights to Disney’s name, likeness and portrait to the company in 1981 for $46.2 million in stock.
It leaves the family little to zero say in how Disney is preserved in the park, although Imagineering says it has worked closely with the Walt Disney Family Museum and those descendants who are currently on the museum board in constructing the animatronic show.
But there’s one thing the Walt Disney Co. can’t control, and that’s Miller’s voice — and her memories.
On their trips to Disneyland, Miller’s grandfather was happy to stop for autographs, but he also signed — in advance — the pages of an office pad. When the crowds became a bit much, he would hand a park-goer an inscribed piece of paper.
“After 10-15 minutes,” Miller recalls, “he would say, ‘Hey, I’m with the grandkids today, and we have things to do.’”
Walt Disney Co. launched another deep round of layoffs on Monday, notifying several hundred Disney employees in the U.S. and abroad that their jobs were being eliminated amid an increasingly difficult economic environment for traditional television.
People close to the Burbank entertainment giant confirmed the cuts, which are hitting film and television marketing teams, television publicity, casting and development as well as corporate financial operations.
The move comes just three months after the company cut 200 workers, including at ABC News in New York and Disney-owned entertainment networks. At the time, the division said it was cutting its staff by 6% amid shrinking TV ratings and revenue for traditional television.
Disney declined to specify how many workers were losing their jobs. The cutbacks come after Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger acknowledged to Wall Street that Disney had been pumping out too many shows and movies to compete against Netflix. The programming build-up accelerated as the company prepared to launch Disney+ in late 2019, and it bulked up its staff to handle the more robust pipeline.
But the company since has retrenched, recognizing the need to focus on creating high-quality originals that meet Disney’s once lofty standards.
ABC News shed about 40 employees last October. The company’s TV stations also lost staff members.
The ABC television network and Disney-owned entertainment channels have seen dramatic audience defections as consumers switch to streaming services, including Netflix, Paramount+ and Disney+.
Cruise lines have their own private islands for guests to enjoy – take a look at four seriously bucket list-worthy destinations you’ll want on your radar
06:00, 01 Jun 2025Updated 12:38, 01 Jun 2025
Some cruise lines have their own private islands (Image: David Roark, photographer)
The appeal of cruise holidays has traditionally focused on visiting a wide variety of places. But an increasing number of firms are choosing to drop anchor at exclusive destinations in idyllic locations.
Private island stops are becoming a highlight of itineraries, with big players investing heavily in castaway cays reserved for their guests. Holland America Line, part of the Carnival Group, recently revealed a revamp of their popular Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.
A new pier will allow more ships to dock at the destination – soon to be named RelaxAway island, hinting at the investment planned for more laid back leisure facilities.
Other lines have equally big ideas. Expanding beyond The Bahamas – where most island escapes have been based to date – Royal Caribbean is hoping to develop a new Perfect Day project in Mexico (due to open in 2027), while MSC has announced plans for an Abu Dhabi private island experience in the Middle East. And why not? – discovering a secret island is, after all, the stuff of childhood dreams.
Here are some of the fantasy islands where it’s already possible to set sail.
Great Stirrup Cay, The Bahamas
Great Stirrup Cay is a 268-acre oasis(Image: Alamy/PA)
In 1977, this was the first island to be bought by a company solely for their guests. Norwegian Cruise Line has built a resort with bars and restaurants over the years and there are still more developments to come in the 268-acre tropical oasis.
You can book guided snorkelling tours around a marine sanctuary, or rent equipment for parasailing, kayaking, paddleboarding and jet skiing. For families, there’s an aqua park with inflatable water obstacles.
Labadee, Haiti
Royal Caribbean has invested in a private patch of a peninsula on the northern coast of Cuba’s neighbour, Haiti. Set against plunging coastal cliffs, a choice of beaches ranges from the peaceful Columbus Cove to the livelier Adrenaline Beach.
For thrill-seekers, there’s a chance to jump on a roller coaster or try the world’s longest overwater zip line. Unlike many private locations, interactions with local communities are possible at an artisan market and a cultural programme highlighting Haitian history and traditions is in the works.
Despite its popularity, the edgy destination is marred by unrest. Recently, stops were temporarily suspended due to “an abundance of caution” although it’s hoped they will resume in the future.
Castaway Cay, The Bahamas
Disney’s Castaway Cay is a dream destination(Image: PR HANDOUT)
Around 30 miles north of NCL’s private paradise is Disney’s answer to a magical far-flung tropical kingdom. Although there are currently no Pirates of the Caribbean in this Atlantic cay, secluded coves were once used by the likes of Blackbeard in the 18th century.
During the US Prohibition, the island served as a smuggling base and in the 1970s its airstrips were used by drug runners. A £18.5million investment transformed it in the mid-1990s, including a channel allowing ships to dock. Expect themed environments and areas dedicated to different age groups, including the adults-only Serenity Bay.
Amber Cove, Dominican Republic
Carnival Corporation invested £63million to develop this site near Puerto Plata on the Dominican Republic’s northern coast. Princess Cruises and Holland America guests can visit, following in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus who landed here in 1492. Extending from a hillside, zip lines traverse the port complex and there’s a 25,000 square-foot pool area with a swim-up bar, water slides, and private cabanas. The island is part of the mainland, but the private area has a big advantage over island escapes when it comes to exploring and interacting with communities.
Film and TV icon Tia Carrere has opened up about her trans son Jude for the first time.
The beloved talent revealed the exciting news to PEOPLE after Jude attended the world premiere of the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch in her stead.
Carrere, who voiced Nani in the 2002 animated feature of the same name, stars in the 2025 adaptation as a new character named Mrs Kekoa.
When asked if Jude would follow in her acting footsteps, the Wayne’s World star told the publication: “He doesn’t love the spotlight. He’s more introverted, so he definitely won’t go into acting or singing like I did. But he’s a great artist.”
While the silver screen and musical stage may not be in the cards for her son, Carrere revealed that a career in the medical field or working with animals could be an option.
“He’s very matter-of-fact. He knows who he is, and he’s very happy,” the AJ and the Queen star continued.
“He’s such a sweetheart, he’s like the therapist to all the other kids. When his friends go out drinking or partying too hard, he’s always the designated driver, that kind of caring friend you can always lean on. I did a good job with that. But I don’t want to congratulate myself too much! He’s his own person!”
Carrere joins the growing number of Hollywood parents who have beautifully showcased support for their trans children.
“I loved and supported Aaron as my Aaron, and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter,” he told Variety. “I don’t know what the big deal is. I love all my children.”
In a world trying to erase LGBTQIA+ stories, we keep writing them. Join our mission as shareholders in Gay Times and help us fight for your rights. Find out more at investors.gaytimes.com.
When filmmakers say they’re experimenting with artificial intelligence, that news is typically received online as if they had just declared their allegiance to Skynet.
And so it was when Darren Aronofsky — director of button-pushing movies including “The Whale” and “Black Swan” — last week announced a partnership with Google AI arm DeepMind to use the tech giant’s capabilities in storytelling.
Aronofsky’s AI-focused studio Primordial Soup is producing three short movies from emerging filmmakers using Google tools, including the text-to-video model Veo. The first film, “Ancestra,” directed by Eliza McNitt, will premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 13, the Mountain View-based search giant said.
Google’s promotional materials take pains to show that “Ancestra” is a live-action film made by humans and with real actors, though it’s bolstered with effects and imagery — including a tiny baby holding a mother’s finger — that were created with AI.
The partnership was touted during Google’s I/O developer event, where the company showed off the new Veo 3, which allows users to create videos that include sound effects, ambient noise and speech (a step up from OpenAI-owned competitor, Sora). The company also introduced its new Flow film creation tool, essentially editing software using Google AI functions.
Google’s push to court creative types coincides with a separate initiative to help AI technology overcome its massive public relations problem.
As my colleague Wendy Lee wrote recently, the company is working with filmmakers including Sean Douglas and his famous father Michael Keaton to create shorts that aren’t made with AI, but instead portray the technology in a less apocalyptic light than Hollywood is used to.
Simply put, much of the public sees AI as a foe that will steal jobs, rip off your intellectual property, ruin your childhood, destroy the environment and possibly kill us all, like in “The Terminator,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the most recent “Mission: Impossible” movies. And Google, which is making a big bet by investing in AI, has a lot riding on changing that perception.
There’s a ways to go, including in the entertainment industry.
Despite the allure of cost-savings, traditional studios haven’t exactly dived headfirst into the AI revolution. They’re worried about the legal implications of using models trained on troves of copyrighted material, and they don’t want to anger the entertainment worker unions, which went on strike partly over AI fears just a couple years ago. The New York Times and others have sued OpenAI and its investor Microsoft, alleging copyright theft. Tech giants claim they are protected by “fair use.”
AI-curious studios are walking into a wild, uncharted legal landscape because of the amount of copyrighted material being mined to teach the models, said Dan Neely, co-founder of startup Vermillio, which helps companies and individuals protect their intellectual property.
“The major studios and most people are going to be challenged using this product when it comes to the output content that you can and cannot use or own,” Neely said by phone. “Given that it contains vast quantities of copyrighted material, and you can get it to replicate that stuff pretty easily, that creates chaos for someone who’s creating with it.”
But while the legacy entertainment business remains largely skeptical of AI, many newer, digitally-native studios and creators are embracing it, whether their goals are to become the next Pixar or the next Mr. Beast.
The New York Times recently profiled the animation startup Toonstar, which says it uses AI throughout its production process, including when sharpening storylines and lip-syncing. John Attanasio, a Toonstar founder, told the paper that leaning into the tech would make animation “80 percent faster and 90 percent cheaper than industry norms.”
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former leader of DreamWorks Animation, has given a similar estimate of the potential cost-savings for Hollywood cartoons.
Anyone working in the traditional computer animation business would have to gulp at those projections, whether they turn out to be accurate or not. U.S. animation jobs have already been hammered by outsourcing. Now here comes automation to finish the job. (Disney’s animated features cost well over $100 million to produce because they’re made by real-life animators in America.)
Proponents of AI will sometimes argue that the new technology isn’t a replacement for human workers, but rather a tool to enhance creativity. Some are more blunt: Stop worrying about these jobs and embrace the future of uninhibited creation. For obvious reasons, workers are reluctant to buy into that line of thinking.
More broadly, it’s still unclear whether all the spending on the AI arms race will ultimately be worth the cost. Goldman Sachs, in a 2024 report, estimated that companies would invest $1 trillion in AI infrastructure — including data centers, chips and the power grid — in the coming years.
But that same report raised questions about AI’s ultimate utility.
To be worth the gargantuan investment, the technology would have to be capable of solving far more complex problems than it does now, said one Goldman analyst in the report. In recent weeks, the flaws in the technology have crossed over into absurd territory: For example, by generating a summer reading list of fake books and legal documents polluted with serious errors and fabrications.
Big spending and experimentation doesn’t always pan out. Look at virtual reality, the metaverse and the blockchain.
But some entertainment companies are experimenting with the tools and finding applications. Meta has partnered with horror studio Blumhouse and James Cameron’s venture Lightstorm Vision on AI-related initiatives. AI firm Runway is working with Lionsgate. At a time when the movie industry is troubled in part due to the high cost of special effects, production companies are motivated to stay on top of advancing tech.
One of the most common arguments in favor of giving in to AI is that the technology will unshackle the next generation of creative minds.
Some AI-enhanced content is promising. But so far AI video tools have produced a remarkable amount of content that looks the same, with its oddly dreamlike sheen of unreality. That’s partly because the models are trained on color-corrected imagery available on the open internet or on YouTube. Licensing from the studios could help with that problem.
The idea of democratizing filmmaking through AI may sound good in theory. However, there are countless examples in movie history — including “Star Wars” and “Jaws” — of how having physical and budgetary restrictions are actually good for art, however painful and frustrating they may have been during production.
Even within the universe of AI-assisted material, the quality will vary dramatically depending on the talent and skill of people using it.
“Ultimately, it’s really hard to tell good stories,” Neely said. “The creativity that defines what you prompt the machine to do is still human genius — the best will rise to the top.”
Like other innovations, the technology will improve with time, as the new Google tools show. Both Veo 3 and Flow showcase how AI is becoming better and easier to use, though they are still not quite mass-market products. For its highest tier, Google is charging $250 a month for its suite of tools.
Maybe the next Spielberg will find their way through AI-assisted video, published for free on YouTube. Perhaps Sora and Veo will have a moment that propels them to mainstream acceptance in filmmaking, as “The Jazz Singer” did for talkies.
But those milestones still feel a long way off.
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The Memorial Day weekend box office achieved record revenue (not adjusting for inflation) of $329.8 million in the U.S. and Canada, thanks to the popularity of Walt Disney Co.’s “Lilo & Stitch” and Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”
Disney’s live-action remake generated $183 million in domestic ticket sales, exceeding pre-release analyst expectations, while the latest Tom Cruise superspy spectacle opened with $77 million. The weekend was a continuation of a strong spring rebound for theaters. Revenue so far this year is now up 22% versus 2024, according to Comscore.
This doesn’t mean the movie business is saved, but it does show that having a mix of different kinds of movies for multiple audiences is healthy for cinemas. Upcoming releases include “Karate Kid: Legends,” “Ballerina,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and a Pixar original, “Elio.”
“Lilo & Stitch” is particularly notable, coming after Disney’s previous live-action redo, “Snow White,” bombed in theaters. While Snow White has an important place in Disney history, Stitch — the chaotic blue alien — has quietly become a hugely important character for the company, driving enormous merchandise sales over the years.
The 2002 original wasn’t a huge blockbuster, coming during an awkward era for Walt Disney Animation, but the remake certainly is.
Walt Disney Co. has secured the exclusive streaming rights to the children’s TV series “CoComelon,” according to people familiar with the matter, taking one of the most popular kids’ programs in the world away from Netflix.
Starting in 2027, Disney+ will have every season of “CoComelon,” a compilation of nursery rhymes for toddlers, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing a deal that hasn’t been announced. The Burbank-based movie, TV and theme-park company will pay tens of millions of dollars annually for the rights, one person said.
“CoComelon” has been one of the most-popular kids’ programs in the world for almost a decade. Its flagship YouTube channel has 193 million subscribers and averages more than 2 billion views a month, according to Social Blade. It was the second-most-watched program on Netflix in 2024, trailing only the “Bridgerton” shows.
The series adds to an already strong lineup of kids’ programming on Disney+, which is home to the most-watched preschool show on streaming, “Bluey,” as well as classic Disney films and TV shows. Disney had three of the most-watched preschool shows in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year with “Bluey,” “Spidey and his Amazing Friends” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
Former advertising executive Jay Jeon created the YouTube channel in 2006 to entertain his child and sold it to U.K.-based Moonbug Entertainment in 2020. Moonbug was later acquired by Candle Media, an independent media firm led by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. Moonbug, which declined to comment, will continue to post videos of “CoComelon” on YouTube while Disney+ will be the exclusive paid streaming home.
The popularity of “CoComelon” on Netflix has waned over the last 12 to 18 months. While the show was the fifth most-watched program in all of streaming in 2023, it didn’t appear in the top 10 last year. Viewership has declined by almost 60% over the last couple of years. Netflix will continue to be the home of “CoComelon Lane,” an original series, as well as “Blippi,” another property owned by Moonbug.
Disney has been the biggest brand in kids’ entertainment for a century, producing beloved characters such as Mickey Mouse and the Little Mermaid. But many of the most popular new properties for kids began outside of Hollywood. Bluey, for example, is from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and BBC Studios.
Disney is placing renewed emphasis on kids’ programming as it competes with Netflix and YouTube, which is the most popular video service in the world, especially with viewers under age 30. Disney+ had 126 million subscribers at the end of March, up 1.4 million from the three previous three months.
In addition to “CoComelon,” Disney is licensing several seasons of “Little Angel” and a couple seasons of “JJ’s Animal Time,” two other Moonbug shows. “Little Angel” will remain available on YouTube, Netflix and Amazon.
Streaming services that once focused primarily on signing up new customers are increasingly occupied with keeping customers for as long as possible. The longer that subscribers stay with a service, the less likely they are to cancel and the more valuable they are to advertisers. Kids’ programming drives a lot of engagement for streaming services. It accounts for about 15% of all viewing on Netflix, the company said last week. Netflix closed 2024 with more than 300 million paid subscribers.
On May 19 the company announced an agreement to begin carrying new and old episodes of the children’s classic “Sesame Street” and also has the hit kids’ show “Gabby’s Dollhouse.”
“CoComelon” will arrive on Disney+ the same year that a movie based on the property will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures.
In the last several years, YouTube has become an increasingly formidable competitor to streaming services and entertainment studios, providing videos from amateur and professional creators, as well as livestreaming major events and NFL games.
Now its growing threat to studios is playing out in the courts.
The Google-owned platform recently poached Justin Connolly, president of platform distribution from Walt Disney Co.
On Wednesday, Disney sued YouTube and Connolly for breach of contract, alleging that Connolly violated an employment agreement that did not expire until March 2027 at the earliest.
Connolly oversaw Disney’s distribution strategy and third-party media sales for its streaming services like Disney+ and its television networks. He also was responsible for film and TV programming distribution through broadcasting and digital platforms, subscription video services and pay networks.
As part of his role, Connolly led Disney’s negotiations for a licensing deal renewal with YouTube, Disney said in its lawsuit.
“It would be extremely prejudicial to Disney for Connolly to breach the contract which he negotiated just a few months ago and switch teams when Disney is working on a new licensing deal with the company that is trying to poach him,” Disney said in its lawsuit.
Disney is seeking a preliminary injunction against Connolly and YouTube to enforce its employment contract.
YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At YouTube, Connolly will be become the company’s head of media and sports, where he will be in charge of YouTube’s relationships with media companies and its live sports portfolio, according to Bloomberg.
YouTube accounted for 12% of U.S. TV viewing in in March, more than other streaming services like Netflix, according to Nielsen. YouTube’s revenue last year was estimated to be $54.2 billion, making it the second-largest media company behind Walt Disney Co., according to research firm MoffettNathanson.
Unlike many other major streaming platforms, YouTube has a mix of content made by users as well as professional studios, giving it a diverse and large video library. More than 20 billion videos have been uploaded to its platform, the company recently said. There are over 20 million videos uploaded daily on average.
Streaming services such as Netflix have brought some YouTube content to their platforms, including episodes of preschool program “Ms. Rachel.”On a recent earnings call, Netflix co-Chief Executive Greg Peters named YouTube as one of its “strong competitors.”
Connolly entered into an employment agreement with Disney on Nov. 6, Disney said in its lawsuit. That contract ran from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2027, with Connolly having the option of terminating the agreement earlier on March 1, 2027, the lawsuit said.
As part of the agreement, Connolly agreed not to engage in business or become associated with any entity that is in business with Disney or its affiliates, the lawsuit said. Disney said YouTube was aware of Connolly’s employment deal with Disney but still made an offer to him.
Entertainment companies have brought lawsuits in the past to stop executive talent poaching by rivals.
In 2020, Activision Blizzard sued Netflix for poaching its chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann. That case was later closed, after Activision asked to dismiss the lawsuit in 2022.
Netflix years ago also faced litigation from Fox and Viacom alleging executives broke their contract agreements to work for the Los Gatos-based streaming service. In 2019, a judge issued an injunction barring Netflix from poaching rival Fox executives under contract or inducing them to breach their fixed-term agreements.
Editorial library director Cary Schneider contributed to this report.
Don’t let this captivating series based on an unbelievable true story fly under the radar
Disney+ drops its ‘gripping’ answer to The Queen’s Gambit
Disney+ is now streaming a six-part series that’s absolutely essential for any fans of Netflix’s hit drama The Queen’s Gambit.
The series starring Anya Taylor-Joy as chess prodigy Beth Harmon captivated millions of viewers during the pandemic and spurred a huge boom in the classic game’s popularity.
Now, the rival streamer has acquired a new drama that originally aired in France last year about an equally gripping chess tournament. The biggest difference? This one’s based on a true story.
Starring Christian Cooke as Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov, this addictive miniseries follows his historic rematch against the first computer to win a game of chess, IBM’s groundbreaking Deep Blue.
Speaking to Express Online about his approach to playing Kasparov, British star Cooke teased the intensity of this incredible true story.
Garry Kasparov took on the powerful supercomputer known as Deep Blue in 1997
“I equated it to boxing,” he explained. “It really is the same in that it’s one person against another opponent and that’s the kind of mindset.
“With each move you’re kind of sussing your opponent out and trying to lure them in and then jabbing and jabbing and then you go for the kill.
“That was helpful for me, in terms of how he thinks about his opponents and how he might stare them down over the board. Or after a game, you shake hands like boxers who embrace afterwards.”
Elaborating on the challenge on portraying the real life Russian chess pro, Cooke added: “I didn’t want to imitate Garry in any way but I wanted to capture who he was, which is this very focused person with a healthy amount of aggression to succeed and win.
“Or maybe unhealthy, occasionally, but that’s just what it takes to be the top of any discipline, on the top of the tree. You do have to sacrifice a lot and you have to be slightly cutthroat and apologetic and driven, and that’s how he was.”
Disney+ is streaming the series from today (Wednesday, 21st May), but it’s already scored rave reviews from fans who caught the initial release in France last year.
Rematch is a must-watch for fans of The Queen’s Gambit
Watch Andor season 2 on Disney+ with two months free
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A five-star review on Google read: “Absolutely amazing. Gripping and exciting until the very last second.”
Another raved: “Captivating. I watched all 6 episodes in one go.”
Someone else gave an ecstatic reaction: “It’s amazing whether you like chess or not, we’re 200% into it.”
An enthusiastic IMDb reviewer called Rematch a “masterpiece”, claiming: “this is [a] high class series.
“Have fun watching it is breathtaking all along the 6 episodes. Interesting high class.
“Worth a 9/10 and up for those who like or don’t like chess you will appreciate it. I watched the 6 [episodes] in a row!!!”
For fans of The Queen’s Gambit – which is pretty much everyone with a Netflix subscription – adding Rematch to the top of your watchlist is an absolute no-brainer.
