Ever since its start in 1923, Disney has been shaping the lives of many across the world. The first Disney movie, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” premiered on Dec. 4, 1937. In its time, it was a milestone, making $1.8 million in the box office. This marked the start of the animation industry. This eventually led to “Pinocchio,” then to the legendary adventure of Mickey Mouse’s journey with his magic hat called “Fantasia.” Now these famous movies can be accessed. The brand new streaming service, Disney+, opens up a new level of streaming, from the famous Star Wars saga to the oldest Mickey Mouse cartoons. 

      When it comes to using disney+, Sophomore Izzy Harwood, “to kinda take a blast from the past”.

 It’s had an impact on not only Harwood, but multiple students throughout West Albany, and any Disney fans. Throughout the yearsThere has been a major change amongst the movies from the past to now, 

     “There’s the damsel in distress and the prince needs to ride in and save the day or give the princess a kiss without permission,” Spanish teacher Ken Beiser said.  “At the time, (This) seemed totally normal and now seems like, ‘ew.’” 

     The “true love” in the older Disney movies has changed from prince and princess to more of a mother and daughter, or even an unorthodox form of love. For example, the Maleficent series had started out in 1959 in “Sleeping Beauty.” Now, “Maleficent” is telling the story of the motherly love between her and the princess. The movie goes more in depth on the past movie “Sleeping Beauty,” and answers questions that were not answered in the first. Causing a big phenomena occurring in Disney movies of our decade, and planned movies for the future. 

     When asked about what got her invested into Disney originally Freshman Amelie Crow shares,”When I was younger I went to Disney World. I went on the Aladdin Ride and for some reason the characters that were dressed as Aladdin and Jasmine came onto the ride and sat behind us and rode the ride with us. Then we got off and they let us cut the whole picture line and take pictures with them.” By Disney World doing this for their riders and fans that visit the theme parks they are able to make great memories that will last throughout their lifetime. The princesses have had their own stand alone movies, such as previously mentioned “Brave” and “Moana”. Another Disney change in its movies is “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. This movie has made roughly 2.068 billion dollars. In “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” the main leads are a woman and an african-american male. This is different from older movies such as “Sleeping Beauty” where the main lead characters are white. Again proving that Disney has changed from where they used to be to where they are now, giving a chance to people that don’t have one. 

     There is a part of the change that is based on our generation, according to Beiser. “I think that is very much a part of it. I also think that the people creating films are very different.” 

     The generational change affects how people see the movies, how they picture Disney, and how Disney’s message is taken to heart from people. “I think it’s good to show that women can be anything like anything from a damsel in distress to the independent hero,” senior Connor Dodd said.  The change in the tone with the videos have helped Disney grow, but they have also caused Disney to lose older fans according to their old fans, and some of the newer. 

     Disney+ has had a major effect on the other streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and HBO. This Disney+ effect has given people a reason to lose their subscriptions to providers such as Netflix. Disney+ and Hulu have started a partnership for $13 a month, which is saving $5 each month. Hulu has had a major increase in its subscribers since the bundle has been released. Netflix and Disney have yet to expose a deal for subscribers to purchase both at the same time, but Netflix has begun to work with Nickelodeon and released Nickelodeon specials such as “Victorious” and “Sam & Cat”. However, Harwood says,” […] Netflix is still my go to, but like once a week.” Netflix can still be viewed as a big part of streaming, regardless of Disney+’s effect on Netflix’s viewers.

      After Hulu started to cost insane prices, Beiser and his wife left it for better providers. He says “I don’t have Hulu anymore. My wife and I had Hulu when it was free, but when we started having to pay we ditched it but Netflix is good in my opinion, I am a big fan of ‘Stranger Things’ and a lot of the true crime shows.” Netflix can still be costly, but they have a vast amount of shows and movies. 

     With Nickelodeon and Netflix teaming up they will try to surpass Disney+, but this will be hard when Disney+ is nearly half the cost it will be hard to beat. With that said, streaming devices overall can still be seen as better than having to pay for cable. Also being able to stream your shows in higher quality is a great feature. With Disney+ on the rise, Netflix, and other streaming services are being suppressed by Disney’s fame and it’s low costs.

        The newest generation is born into the popularity of technology and is nowhere behind with the constantly updated streaming services. Since the launch of Disney+ on Nov. 12, the TV shows and movies are endless. Disney+ has more than 500 movies and 7,500 episodes in total. Some view Disney+ as a blessing due to the fact that they can find those childhood movies that some spent hours looking for if they don’t own it, even those 90’s shows like “Duck Tales,” “Darkwing Duck,” and the legendary “Talespin,” which were popular in the past. 

     The 90’s cartoons aren’t the only throwback uploaded on Disney. These hit shows from our childhood like “Kickin’ It,” “Hannah Montana,” and “Wizards of Waverly Place,” are all the shows that were uploaded onto the new streaming app. This gives us access to many childhood shows that we had to wait for to come on cable when we were younger. The start of streaming has opened the doors to many new ways to watch our favorite Disney films. Our generation of technology serving us the things we valued most, keeping our youth alive through the films of the past.