If you’re a Disney+ subscriber looking for a great movie to watch, the message you don’t want to see is “Included with your Hulu subscription.”
Most of the best Disney+ movies aren’t really Disney+ movies at all. They’re just Hulu movies that you can watch on Disney+, if you happen to subscribe to both streamers.
So if you want something more than just a Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars movie, getting that Hulu subscription may be your only real option.
The Watch With Us team remains convinced that the must-watch movies on Disney+ should actually be on Disney+, including the newly arrived Captain America: Brave New World and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, as well as a Disney classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which features some of the studio’s wildest moments ever put to film.
You can find the rest of the must-watch movies on Disney+ below.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the Must-Watch New Movies on Netflix, HBO and Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and More, Great Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now, Best Action Movies on Netflix Right Now and Best Rom-Coms on Netflix Right Now.
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is the new Captain America. And he’s got his hands full in his first movie in his new role, Captain America: Brave New World.
Sam has a new partner, Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who has taken on Sam’s old Falcon identity. But this duo will be tested as the world edges towards war while President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) acts increasingly erratically. The Hulk’s former ally, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), is pulling all of these strings, and he may have the last laugh as well.
Captain America: Brave New World is streaming on Disney+.
Stop trying to keep track of all of the Spider-Men and Spider-Women in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — it’s too easy to lose count. The most important ones are Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), two teenage superheroes who are kinda in love with each other. Unfortunately, their potential romance just isn’t in the cards because they live in separate universes in the multiverse.
Gwen finds her escape from the heartbreak and tragedy of her world by joining the Spider-Society, a group of spider-heroes from across the multiverse. When Miles finds out, he’s more than a little hurt that he wasn’t also asked to join. But once Miles meets the group’s founder, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), he may not like what he learns about the society. And his relationship with Gwen will never be the same.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is streaming on Disney+.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a revolutionary film for the way it seamlessly blended animation and live-action in a way that had never been done before. This may also be the only time you’ll ever see Disney’s classic characters interact with Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes icons, as well as some genuinely shocking guest stars from the early days of cartoons.
None of that would matter without the terrific performance of Bob Hoskins as burned-out detective Eddie Valiant. Eddie used to be the Toons’ go-to private investigator before his partner and brother were murdered. Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer) needs a little of that Valiant and Valiant magic after he’s falsely accused of murder. Because if Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) finds Roger first, he’ll demonstrate that even a Toon can be killed.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is streaming on Disney+.
Disney’s live-action films haven’t always been as thrilling as the studio’s animated fare, but Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is something special. This adaptation of a Disney theme park ride is wildly entertaining, thanks in large part to Johnny Depp‘s off-the-wall performance as Captain Jack Sparrow and just the right amount of menace from Geoffrey Rush as Jack’s nemesis, Captain Barbossa.
Barbossa and the crew of Jack’s former ship, the Black Pearl, have been cursed to live as undead things until they can return the final piece of a stolen treasure. To reclaim their humanity, the crew kidnaps Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) in the mistaken belief that she’s the daughter of one of their old shipmates. To save Elizabeth, a lowly blacksmith named Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) allies with Jack, who almost certainly can’t be trusted.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is streaming on Disney+.
There are a lot of Disney animated films that could be classified as “must-watch,” both in the 2D era and among the modern 3D flicks. But Beauty and the Beast was in a class all by itself, and one of the rare animated films to ever earn a nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars. The music by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman is amazing, and the animation is still dazzling over three decades later.
None of that would matter without the strong performances of Paige O’Hara as Belle and Robby Benson as the Beast. She has to learn how to see the man beneath his monstrous appearance, while he has to become worthy of her love or else he’ll remain trapped in the body of a beast forever. Their love is also complicated by one of Disney’s most memorable villains, Gaston (Richard White), who manages to be both comical and menacing. This is a masterpiece from start to finish, and few films have ever come close to topping it.
Beauty and the Beast is streaming on Disney+
Pixar has largely surpassed Disney’s animated films in the 21st century with incredible animation paired with emotionally resonant storytelling. The studio has also taken some wild swings, including WALL-E, a sci-fi film about a sentient trash compactor robot (Ben Burtt) who might be the last being on Earth in the 29th century. Long stretches of WALL-E take place without dialogue, but the little guy is so expressive that there’s never any doubt about what he’s feeling.
WALL-E’s long solitude is broken when a female robot named EVE (Elissa Knight) arrives on Earth looking for any sign that the planet can be reclaimed by the humans who left it behind centuries earlier. What she finds will lead WALL-E and EVE on an adventure across the stars that may determine the future of humanity. It’s also an unexpectedly warm love story between two robots who have thoughts and feelings of their own.
WALL-E is streaming on Disney+.
At the time of its release, Logan was meant to be Hugh Jackman‘s swan song as Wolverine and the end of an era for the original X-Men movies. In a dark future, mutants are all but extinct, and even Logan (Jackman) is facing his mortality as his healing powers fade. Most of the X-Men are gone, and only Logan remains to care for his seriously ill mentor, Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).
Their quiet retirement is shattered when Logan meets Laura (Dafne Keen), a young girl who may be his biological daughter. As Logan begrudgingly protects Laura from the killers on her trail, he discovers what really happened to the mutants and if he still has something worth fighting for.
Logan is streaming on Disney+
Modern Star Wars films and shows have been inconsistent both in quality and how they’ve been received by the public, but Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is almost universally loved by new and old fans alike. Director Gareth Edwards and screenwriters Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy capture the look and feel of the original Star Wars in a story with elevated stakes. None of the main characters are Jedi, and they’re closer to anti-heroes than any previous leads.
A young thief named Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is forcibly recruited into the rebellion because her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), is one of the key figures behind the Empire’s super weapon, the Death Star. Jyn, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and a handful of other characters undertake a suicide mission to stop the Death Star before it can be used to crush the rebellion. And in this war story, not everyone gets to come home alive.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is streaming on Disney+.
