Disney+ review: A streaming candy store for kids, but parents need to pay attention

I'm old enough that my kids grew up watching a combination of VHS tapes and DVDs. I can only imagine what it's like for modern parents to have access to Disney+, the streaming service that delivers Bluey , Moana, Luke Skywalker, Iron Man and endless other kid-friendly content to just about anywhere: living room, restaurant, backseat, window seat, etc. I'm insanely jealous. 

While kids certainly need limits on screen time , there's no denying the precious resource that is Disney+. It's almost silly to review it, but review it I shall — in part because there's a very important aspect parents should consider before subscribing. Here's my Disney + review.

Disney+: What will it cost you?

Disney+ is available on its own or as part of a few different bundles — and to say this gets a little confusing is an understatement.

The cheapest, simplest, most straightforward option: Disney+, which costs $11.99 per month (a $2 increase over last year at this time). It includes ads and doesn't let you download content (like to a phone or tablet) for offline viewing. Disney+ Premium ($18.99, a $3 increase) frees you from commercials and allows downloads on up to 10 devices. It also adds Dolby Atmos into the mix; the basic plan limits you to 5.1-channel audio (which, to be honest, is perfectly fine unless you're a die-hard audio enthusiast).

My take: It's probably worth the extra $7 per month to avoid ads and be able to download content to phones and tablets (for car, airplane and other on-the-go viewing).

Ready to complicate things a bit? Disney+ is also available bundled with Hulu , with Hulu and ESPN or with Hulu and HBO Max . The various configurations are too numerous to mention, but I'll share a couple recommendations: 

• Disney+ with Hulu adds just $1 to both the with- and without-ads plans, so that's a no-brainer; add it.

• Disney+ with Hulu and HBO Max costs $19.99 with ads or $32.99 without. That saves you about $5 per month versus subscribing to HBO Max separately.

It's nice to have choices, but keep in mind that while adding Hulu to your subscription adds that content to the Disney+ apps, adding HBO Max does not; you'll access that service separately via its own apps.

Disney+: What kind of content does it have?

As you'd expect, this service is home to the vast majority of Disney media: Classic and recent favorites from the company's archives (everything from Bambi and Cinderella to The Lion King and Moana 2 ), as well as newer TV shows like Bluey , Phineas and Ferb and Young Jedi Adventures . Vintage Mickey Mouse shorts, modern live-action movies, Disney originals — it's an embarrassment of kid-friendly riches. (There are, however, a few movies still locked in the Disney vault because they haven't aged well or they're enmeshed in some convoluted licensing issues.)

I'm partial to some of the documentaries, including absolute gems about composer John Williams and Muppets creator Jim Henson. If you're a Star Wars fan, Light & Magic is not to be missed.

And that's just under the Disney umbrella. You'll also find just about everything from Pixar, Marvel, the Star Wars universe and National Geographic. So you've got Coco and Toy Story for the younger kids, Avengers and The Mandalorian for the older ones, and on and on. 

Because Disney owns the bulk of the 20th Century Fox film library too, you'll also find some proto-Fox family fare like Home Alone and Ice Age . That includes all 30-plus seasons of The Simpsons too. 

With the notable exception of Dancing with the Stars (and a simulcast of the free web stream from ABC News), Disney+ doesn't have much live content. However, the "Streams" section lets you dip into one of five ongoing programming blocks divided by genres, including musicals, preschool-targeted cartoons, documentaries and family-friendly adventure movies. (It's still a difficult section to find, however: Streams is relegated to one of the randomly ordered rows on the Home page.)

When you consider that you can get all this for as little as $12 monthly, it's easy to see why I'm so enthusiastic. (Or, as noted above, rather jealous. I really wish Disney+ was a thing when my kids were younger. We had to drive all the way to Blockbuster just to see whether Tangled was in stock. It was the Stone Age, people!)

Disney+: What's the interface like?

A streaming service designed with families in mind needs to be easy to navigate (though your kids will likely figure it out regardless; be prepared to ask them for help). For the most part, Disney+ is intuitive, with featured-item carousels, recommendation rows and the now-standard left-hand menu that leads you to Search, Home, Watchlist, Movies and so on.

Because I tested the service with the Hulu/ESPN bundle, my home page is slightly different than if I had only Disney+. Up top, there's a silo selector: For You, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN. This partially resolves what was previously a significant interface problem: Hulu content mixed directly in with Disney content. (I found it jarring, for example, to see the likes of Hell's Kitchen and the movie Nightbitch below a row of recommended Marvel movies.)

Granted, any kid who sifts through this combined For You page is likely to encounter similar adult/kid mishmashes. But at least the Disney+ silo filters out the Hulu stuff. And parents can also create up to seven individual child profiles that include age restrictions on all content. This doesn't remove the Hulu silo, but it does block inappropriate material from appearing there.

I like that the Disney+ silo includes quick-access thumbnails for Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic sub-pages, a smart and useful addition. Further down, you get the usual rows of categorical selections: new additions, recommended for you and the like.

So, navigation is simple enough, but there are certain aspects of the interface I don't like — especially in the Roku version of the Disney+ app. For example, when you pause a show, nothing pops up: no status bar indicating progress, no access to audio settings. If you hit the down arrow on your remote, you get the status bar, at least — but there's still no option to change the language or enable closed captions. (Turns out you do that via a Roku menu.)

In the Google TV version of the app, pausing brings up a status bar and an audio icon, same as in pretty much every other streaming app. (I didn't test the Amazon Fire TV version, but the Disney app is available for that and most other streaming devices.)

The search function is also poorer on the Roku side, starting with the design of it: When you click the magnifying glass, you're presented with a page showing a search field at the very top and a bunch of tiles beneath the heading "Explore." If you navigate up to access that search bar, a keyboard appears — from the bottom of the screen, which is also where the active search field lives. The top one just sits there, unused. Weird.

What's more, that keyboard occupies fully half the screen, so as you start typing, the results appear mostly obscured; you can see only one row's worth of results. The whole thing is just poorly designed. On the plus side, you can use voice search if your remote has a microphone. But the Google app's version of search is better all around, with a completely different (and more logical) layout.

Disney+: The verdict

I'm overjoyed to see that Disney+ has solved its "Hulu problem," even if it's not exactly perfect just yet. As long as parents set up child profiles, or at least teach kids to stay in the Disney+ silo, inappropriate content is less of an issue.

And even with the latest price increases, I can't deny the value of this service. For parents and grandparents, for fans of Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars, it's really a must-have. There's simply no other source for all that great content, and happily, it's fairly affordable as well.

For more on streaming, be sure to see our roundup of the best streaming services for 2026 .

Update, Feb. 27, 2026: We identified changes to Disney Plus' pricing and user interface, most notably the improvements in separating Disney and Hulu content. That caused us to remove an entire section subtitled "The Hulu Problem".

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