Disney+ was formed on the strength of five brands: Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and Disney itself.
Since then, Disney+ has mingled its movie selection together with Hulu, and it’s a lot harder to tell what is or isn’t a Disney+ movie. The full film library is only available to users who subscribe to both Disney+ and Hulu.
That’s why Watch With Us is focusing solely on the five best movies on Disney+ that are actually Disney+ movies. You won’t find these films on Hulu!
From across the various Disney brands, these are the movies you need to see.
Need more recommendations? Then check out 20 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.
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) makes an alliance 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 compacter 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 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+.
