Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Disney+‘s Australian library. Here’s Eliza Janssen’s recommendations for the titles most worth watching. Scroll down for the full list of everything arriving on the platform.
Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles (September 3)
I feel so crusty and old even using the phrase “these days” or trying to comment on Gen Z’s pop culture icons, but here we go. These days, pop stars are barely established before they’re expected to present a sophisticated evolution of their sound, image, personality. Billie Eilish, certainly one of the major multi-coloured-hair-sporting, main characters of the moment, is your prime example. The ‘bad guy’ singer has already made one intimate behind-the-music exclusive for a streaming service (for Apple TV+) and now here’s another to represent her latest era as an artist. Weirdly enough, it features segments directed by Robert Rodriguez??
As its title suggests, this concert doco acts as both a live performance of Eilish’s latest album Happier Than Ever, and also an experimental, elongated music video of sorts to celebrate LA, where the pivotal Hollywood Bowl performance takes place. The trailer shows the singer’s CGI alter-ego speeding around the city streets before belting out the album’s angsty title track. Growing up is overrated, but if you’re into the spidery sounds of Billie and her brother/producer Finneas, watching them mature onstage in visual-album-form could be time well-spent.
Doogie Kameāloha M.D. (September 8)
Disney+ can’t keep its big moneyed mitts off any nostalgic 90s properties! After the feel-good revivals of The Mighty Ducks and Turner and Hooch as streaming TV series, Neil Patrick Harris’ precocious teen doc is next up. Peyton Elizabeth Lee stars as a 16-year-old medical prodigy who raced through school, college, and Harvard Med to save lives at a Honolulu hospital. I actually haven’t seen the 90s original series so I have no clue why that child was named ‘Doogie’ in the first place, but thankfully, the remake’s protagonist goes by Lahela Kameāloha, with ‘Doogie’ as a nickname.
The young physician’s responsibilities don’t start and end at the hospital: she also has to juggle the usual teen struggles of romance, puberty, and an overbearing mum and dad. If I know anything from Disney’s previous attempts to depict Hawaiian culture and home life, though, it’s that “ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” Aw.
Star Wars: Visions, Season 1 (September 22)
Have we seen too much of Star Wars lately? It seemed impossible, about 5-10 years ago, given that a fictional ‘galaxy far, far away’ should have no limits to its creative storytelling. But maybe we’re all just a bit sick of the Skywalker saga, focusing on one bloody family, all boringly humanoid, when the sci-fi possibilities could be endless. Enter Visions, an animated anthology series in which seven different anime studios are given the keys to the LucasFilm canon. This should be interesting.
Disney+ has assembled a nice crew of Hollywood acting talent to voice the Visions dub, including Lucy Liu, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and a duelling Alison Brie and Neil Patrick-Harris in studio TRIGGER’s duel story ‘The Twins’. (Side note: why is Neil Patrick-Harris so present in this month’s Disney+ picks?) But you could also watch each glorious, diverse-looking animated episode with subtitles, listening instead to Japanese vocal performances from a slew of anime veterans.
All new titles arriving on Disney+ Australia in September
September 1
Dug Days
That one Word: Feyenoord
Marvel Studio Legends
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted—Season 3
September 3
Spin
Kickboxer: Retaliation
Disney Launchpad presents: Growing Fangs
Disney Launchpad presents: Let’s Be Tigers
Disney Launchpad presents: Dinner is Served
Disney Launchpad presents: The Last of the Chupacabras
Kickboxer: Vengeance
The Man with One Red Shoe
The Guardian
Aloft
September 8
Danger Decoded
Prairie Dog Manor
Dollhouse: Season 1 and 2
The Invaders: Season 1
Apocalypse: War of the Worlds—Season 1
Shots Fired: Season 1
What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage
September 10
Twenty Something—SparkShorts
Hot Tub Time Machine
Women of 9/11
My 9/11
9/11: Control the Skies
9/11 Firehouse
9/11 Rescue Cops
9/11: The Plane That Hit the Pentagon
George W. Bush: The 9-11 Interview
Shock and Awe
All I See is You
Blaze
September 11
9/11: One Day in America: Season 1
September 15
Narco Wars—Season 2
Facing…: Season 1
September 17
Isle of Dogs
Descendants: The Royal Wedding
Nona – SparkShorts
Bunk’d – New Episodes
The Darkest Minds
September 22
Star Wars: Visions, Season 1
Pepper Ann: Season 1-3
Zeke and Luther: Season 1-3
September 24
A Spark Story
September 29
Summer of Soul
PJ Masks: Season 5
Disney Magic Bake-Off
See also
* Best new movies and TV series on Netflix
* Best new movies and TV series on Stan
* Best new movies and TV series on Prime Video
* All new streaming movies & series
