How to Watch Disney Movies in Chronological Order on Disney+
Disney+ is now a streaming leader eight months after its debut last November 12. Since then, the service managed to fix the technical glitches that plagued them in their first two weeks.
As an example, they fixed the aspect ratio problem with older episodes of The Simpsons. They also added numerous features to make finding favorite movies and TV shows easier.
Search features and recommendation lists are well-designed for the most part. What if a user wants to watch Disney movies chronologically, though?
This all depends on what you designate a Disney movie. Since they own Star Wars, Marvel, and 20th Century Fox, any of these movies might apply. The problem is Disney+ initially made it challenging for chronological viewing on everything.
Can you watch all films produced by Disney in chronological order?
Disney+ does offer a feature called “Disney Through the Decades“, categorizing Disney products by eras. Keep in mind this means almost everything produced directly through the studio, including animated shorts. Yes, this list starts with 1927’s Steamboat Willie (Mickey Mouse’s debut), takes viewers through the Silly Symphonies, and then individual character shorts.
Despite this designation, the shorts are incomplete. Only select character short films are here and not a complete list of Silly Symphonies either. Once getting to the animated feature films, it becomes more comprehensive.
Starting in 1937, fans will be able to see all the animated movie classics in the order they were made. It starts, naturally, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and goes right on through to 2020.
Even then, this list is not complete on everything Disney made in the way of short films, not including things produced for TV. It does include some live-action, incidentally, for those wondering if that part of classic Disney is represented there.
Disney+ designed this after media gripes
Back in December, sources like Screen Rant complained Disney+ had no way to place their films chronologically to give a better sense of film history. Former media site wrote this in late December when Disney+ was still taking suggestions from people on how to improve things.
Evidence began to show already then that Disney was listening carefully to their users. After complaints about The Simpsons aspect ratios caused an uproar, Disney announced they would fix it at some point in 2020. They already have, including adding the “Disney Through the Decades” section.
Listening to their subscribers intently is obviously why Disney+ is now listed as one of the top downloaded apps in the world.
What about all other movie properties they own, though? Can you do a chronologic order for those, or are they lumped in with the “Disney Through the Decades” feature?
Disney+ organizes everything fairly comprehensively
The good news here is “Disney Through Decades” does have everything they own, whether Disney originally made it or not. Yes, this means the Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and 20th Century Fox movies are all lumped into each era.
Using this feature alone will allow you to watch every Disney property in the order they were made. Regardless, they also have a few other sections organizing individual movie franchises.
For instance, the platform created “Collection” boxes where specific franchises are grouped together. Star Wars is finally organized like a nine-chapter serial in their own collection section. Marvel is done the same way, even if the selection is still limited to MCU films available.
As an alternative, plenty of other online sources exist that compile every Disney product made by year. When seeing those sources, Disney fans soon see Disney+ still has a way to go to include everything they ever created for the big screen or TV.
