Kyle McMahon streamed 8 Hours Of Disney+ and This Is What Happened
You know I've been excited about Disney+ since it was announced. I've been talking about it on my radio show, on Pop Culture Weekly and right here on the blog pretty much non stop. Well it finally has arrived and it was everything I hoped and more! So, let's not waste one more second (that I could be binging Disney+)! Here's what happened when I streamed 8 hours of Disney+
Logging On To Disney+ For The First Time: Pure Unbridled Joy
I woke up the morning of Tuesday November 12th and immediately flipped on my Apple TV because the day is here! Disney+ has launched!
I quickly signed in and was overjoyed with it all. Seriously, I felt like a kid on Christmas. The interface is breathtaking and vibrant and makes it easy to find content. There is a section at the top that takes you into some of Disney's biggest properties: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars & National Geographic. Clicking on any of these will take you to a hub filled with content from that studio including TV series, movies, documentaries and original, exclusive content.
Back on the main screen, there's a ton of ways to discover content to watch including carousels for Originals, Recommended For You, Hit Movies, Trending, Out of the Vault, Inspired by True Stories, Throwbacks, Shorts and more! Each one of these carousels features an incredible variety of content.
A sidebar allows you to search all of Disney+, has a Watchlist, a section for originals, movies, series and settings.
First Up: Marvel's Expanding The Universe
As a huge Marvel Studios fan, I had to kick off my 8 hour Disney+ binge with Marvel Studios' Expanding The Universe. This all too brief look previews the upcoming original series from Marvel Studios coming to Disney+. Taking footage from San Diego Comic Con and D23, MCU mastermind Kevin Feige kicks off the 12 minute documentary with a preview of Falcon And Winter Soldier before teasing WandaVision, Loki, What If?, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight and She-Hulk. Footage of the reveals were inter spliced with concept art and cast announcements and got me insanely excited for the upcoming debuts of all of these series. Seriously, I! CANT! FREAKING! WAIT!
Encore!
Next up was Encore!, the Kristen Bell produced & hosted reality show. Encore! is a fun, touching show that follows up with the original cast of a high school theater production today, bringing in professionals in the theater field to help guide them to performing the show once again. The first episode focuses on the Santana High School production of Annie from nearly 20 years ago, bringing the cast together to give an encore performance. Emotions are stirred, friendships are rekindled and personalities shine in this extremely heartfelt series.
Since I was not a theater kid, I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I enjoyed watching Encore! The show is incredibly well done and is a refreshing reality series bringing out the best in everyone and giving me all the feels.
Marvel's Hero Project
Marvel's Hero Project is an incredible original series that spotlights a kid doing incredible work in their own community. I spoke with Executive Producer Liza Wyles for Pop Culture Weekly about how the docuseries goes even further to make the young philanthropists feel like the superhero they truly are: Marvel Comics artists and writers create an entire comic book for the child highlighting their incredible "superpowers".
Marvel's Hero Project is a truly heartwarming series that focuses on the good the next generation is already doing in their communities. I went through a range of emotions from inspiration to hope to happiness and everything in between. It truly is a series that stands as a heart warming inspirational 30ish minutes that you'll look forward to each week.
The World According To Jeff Goldblum
On the National Geographic side of Disney+, one of the first originals is The World According to Jeff Goldblum. I turned on this series having no idea what I was getting into and I am so glad that I did. The first episode revolved around snekers and the culture surrounding them. Goldblum visits ADIDAS to learn about how sneakers affect the body and the brain. Additionally, he checks in with a popular sneaker focused YouTuber and learns about unboxing videos, attends a Sneaker convention to watch the buying process of sneaker heads and genuinely asks both what the viewer wants to know but also things the viewer would never have thought to ask from the wonderful and odd brain of Jeff Goldblum.
The World According to Jeff Goldblum is a unique, fun oddball of a series that has quickly become one of my favorite series on Disney+
The Mandalorian
The icing on an amazing cake, The Mandalorian is the first live action Star Wars show in history. The Mandalorian follows Jarren, a lone gunfighter from Mandalore. It takes place after Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens. This is the Star Wars show we've waited a lifetime for and it was worth the wait. I don't want to spoil a thing if you haven't seen it yet, but if you even remotely enjoy any of the Star Wars films, this is a must watch!
To Great Content and Beyond!
There is so much good content to watch on Disney+ it was actually hard to choose what I wanted to watch next. After much internal debate, I finally decided on Flubber, the Robin Williams live action classic that was a staple of my childhood. The quality of the picture was amazing and it sounded incredible on my Apple HomePods. The experience of watching it in high def with amazing surround sound sort of mirrors my life watching Flubber now compared to when it came out: an incredibly fun time with a much needed upgrade to the experience.
I also watched Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit because, why not? It's freakin' Sister Act 2! I was delighted to watch this one with my godson Aiden and others I love. I felt the same way I did as a kid watching the movie: joy, awe and laughing and singing away. Aiden was just as enamored with it watching it the first time as I was back when I watched it.
Then I binged a random sampling of incredible Disney shows from my childhood including Boy Meets World, Doug and X-Men: The Animated Series. To watch these series again was like a dream come true. Seeing these shows in HD in incredible surround sound made it even better. It's yet another reminder of the incredible content that Disney has in its huge catalogue and makes me excited to know I have a huge dearth of wholesome, entertaining high quality content to watch.
Disney+ is the streaming service we've been waiting for. With incredible 4K HDR video and Dolby Atmos sound on all of their originals and many of their recent blockbusters and HD on everything else, there is a huge catalog of content as well as an amazing lineup of Disney+ originals that you won't find anywhere else. It wasn't just a pleasure to stream 8 straight hours of Disney+, it was a magical vacation in my own home.
You can sign up for your free 7 day trial right now on the Disney+ website so you too can bask in the best entertainment library in the world.
Listen to Kyle McMahon seven days a week on 92.9 TOM-FM or the iHeart Radio App. Subscribe to the Pop Culture Weekly podcast and check out KyleMcMahon.me. You can follow him on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.