Matthew DeCarlo
You may have noticed that some movies are no longer available on Disney+. The new video streaming service has had to remove certain titles because of licensing issues, but they should return once that’s sorted.
The movies Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York are counted among the content that was once available but has since been yanked from the platform. Fans of the classic holiday flicks weren’t thrilled to discover that they couldn’t watch those movies, and perhaps worse than the content going missing is the fact that Disney removed them somewhat quietly without much of an explanation, prompting a bit of confusion and annoyance from subscribers on social media.
@WilliamBibbiani your fears were realized! Unknown to everyone @disneyplus has removed and vaulted content they own including Home Alone 1 & 2 as well as a Pirates movie! https://t.co/8sL21JiWXR
— Brian Niland (@BobTheLoveGoat) January 1, 2020
However, if you’ve been closely following news about the platform since its arrival in early November, you might have already expected some content to vanish. Speaking with Vanity Fair about Disney+ in late October, Disney CEO Bob Iger made it known that certain videos would be removed “for brief periods of time” due to legacy deals the company made with others before the launch of Disney+.
Here’s the current list of everything that was previously watchable on Disney+ but is no longer listed on the streaming service’s library—for now, anyway:
- Home Alone
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- The Sandlot
- Flicka
- Dr. Dolittle
- White Wilderness
- Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
- The Shaggy Dog (2006)
- Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
- Strange Magic
- The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration
Considering Disney+ only went live two months ago, it may come as a surprise and perhaps disappointment to learn that some of your favorite videos are no longer available. This is true even if you downloaded the content for offline viewing. Fortunately, none of the content is particularly new or difficult to find elsewhere if it’s something you want to watch. And again, once those legacy deals have expired, the content should return.
While that’s great and all, it would probably benefit Disney to communicate this more clearly with subscribers instead of letting them discover that the video they want to watch is no longer available. It would also be nice to know precisely when those legacy deals expire and when folks can expect to see the videos added back to the service.
Source: Gizmodo, Screen Crush, Vanity Fair, Reddit
