That Disney + is doing great is no secret, the company knew how to play its cards very well, the impressive volume of audiovisual production for the whole family, which it has accumulated throughout its history, was already a tremendous asset. powerful to enter the homes of millions of viewers. If to this we add Marvel Studios and Lucas Films, everything has been said, the offer is succulent, full of recognizable brands first-rate in terms of impact and consideration among the general public. And yet, how many of us have binged on Marvel, Star Wars or Pixar, and then relegate the platform to the player role of The Mandalorian (first) and, more recently, Scarlet Witch and Vision? Many, sure, and there the familiar term or, what comes to the same thing, the need for the Disney production seal to be behind each of the products that have a Disney + presence, caused a sense of homogeneity and limitation of the catalog that ended up taking its toll.
So, the Disney + Star maneuver it is as obvious to the company as it is interesting to the average viewer. Many of us approached this service streaming for the announced series, both Marvel and Star Wars, but if we can also benefit from a greater variety of catalog, all the better. Taking this into account, and without focusing exclusively on the Star section, we are going to do a review of the hidden gems that right now we can find in Disney +; movies and series, known or unknown, that we may not expect to see on Mickey’s platform.
Films
1. Starship Troopers
We open the list with the good of Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Challenge, Basic Instinct) and its peculiar Starship Troopers (1997), a satire of American imperialism that expands towards other star systems in the XXIII century. Casper Van Dien heads a cast in which we find Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, the charismatic Neil Patrick Harris and the fireproof Michael Ironside. A sci-fi movie that looks mindless and, on the contrary, deliciously tangy and biting.
2. Black Swan
Natalie Portman He was looking for a role that would allow him to take over the screen and show off, from start to finish, all his acting skills. In that impasse he came across the personal project of Darren Aronofsky (El Luchador), who was determined to capture the hardness and beauty of ballet in the Black Swan (2010). The feature was completed with a complex narrative patina sponsored by Satoshi Kon himself, as Aronfsky himself acquired the rights to Perfect Blue in order to freely draw inspiration from the anime classic. Tough, heartbreaking and precious.
3. Good Morning Vietnam
Barry Levinston (Rain man, Sleepers) directs a film that works as a perfect showcase for the figure of a Robin Williams that in the middle of 1987, he was already a totally consecrated actor in Hollywood. A Dramatic comedy that puts the spotlight on the Vietnam War, and he does it through a radio announcer of the United States Army whose main mission is to maintain and raise the morale of the troops, but who does not hesitate to use his microphone as a channel through which to express what you think about said contest. Endearing, funny and critical, but not so much.
4. Strange Coincidences
David O. Russel (Tres Reyes) is one of those directors who generate dichotomous currents. In my case, and in particular with Strange Coincidences (I Heart Huckabees, 2004), I have to admit that it manages to disarm me by raising the laughter as few films can. Something possible thanks to the character and conviction necessary to address a comedy based on the philosophical confrontation between nihilism and existentialism. An environmental activist fond of poetry (Jason Schwartzman), the ambitious manager of a supermarket chain (Jude Law) and his spectacular model girlfriend (Naomi Watts), a couple of existential detectives (Dustin Hoffman e Isabelle Huppert), a firefighter overcome by the social context (Mark Wahlberg) and a series of Strange coincidences that will stir up this swarm of crazed characters to create chaos as histrionic as it is delicious.
5. The Life Aquatic
We continue with another comedy, this time with Wes Anderson and its uncatalogable The life Aquatic (2004), in which the underwater documentary maker Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) prepares to hunt down the great white shark that took the life of his best friend. The minimalist interpretation of Murray is accompanied by Owen Willson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon y Willen Dafoe. A hilarious film with a lot of personality, as absurd as the idea of mounting a mission of revenge against a shark and that, as often happens with the works of the Texan filmmaker, it has the ability to function at various levels. Non-normative.
6. After the green heart
Here we have Robert Zemeckis Growing up as a filmmaker, under the cover of the adventure films that Indiana Jones made fashionable, before Back to the Future, his love affair with Tom Hanks and Contac, he gave us After the Green Heart (1984), with Michael Douglas Y Kathleen Turner. An Adventures movie as simple and innocent as it is fun and well executed, which served Fox to take advantage of the current created by Dr. Jones and company. A writer of adventure novels, the classic hustler hero, the Colombian jungle, jokes and lots of eighties action. As a spiritual sequel to this formula that continued the following year with The Jewel of the Nile, you will also find on Disney +, Coup in Little China (Carpenter, 1986)
7. Road to perdition
Sam Mendes (1917) gave us in 2002 this great approach to film noir; to hats, trench coats and Thompson submachine guns, to the Irish Mafia, Prohibition and the Great American Depression. Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Tyler Hoechlin, Jude Law y Daniel Craig they leave their mark on this spectacular neo-noir production. A film that strikes with its majestic photography and dazzles with its elegance. Intrigue, drama and tough men in a gangster movie that is always a joy to return to.
8. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The British Jim Sharman was presented in 1975 with this musical peppered with black comedy that, over time, has ended up being elevated to the category of cult film. An ode to the hedonism you feel free, happy and shameless. The Rocky Horror Picture Show continues to be hilarious, transgressive and contrary to the bombast of the classic musical. The unforgettable Dr. Frank-N-Furter invites you to spend the night in his castle and, no matter how late the evening ends, it will be a stay to remember.
Sagas
9. Alien
From the flawless “The eighth passenger“by Ridley Scott, until the excessively nineties Alien Resurrection by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, through the “more and better” of James Cameron’s Aliens and the always underrated Alien 3 by David Fincher. The original tetralogy of the xenomorph is available in full on Disney +. A more than decent option to prepare a weekend of space terror and blanket, along with one of the most mythical sagas, as well as irregular, in the history of cinema.
10. Die Hard
Another mythical saga that not only established a very determined way of making action films, but was also able to do it with a protagonist dressed in an empire shirt. Here you can enjoy John McClane (Bruce Willis) both in the two tapes directed by John McTiernan, in the second part of Renny Harlin, in the fourth installment of Len Wiseman and in the, let’s make it difficult to see The Jungle: A Good Day to Die. The entire pentalogy.
11. Shyamalan Universe
I would not fall into the category of sagas, but being such an identifiable director and with such characteristic creative tics, I think it is worth noting that his fans came across four of his films on this streaming service right now. These are The Protected (2000), Signs (2002), The Forest (2004) and The Incident (2008).
Series
12. File X
A mass phenomenon that marks the television history of the nineties and that is still part of the legacy of the mythical Twin Peaks. Mulder and Scully return to their 11 full seasons. An iconic series that covers science fiction, pulp horror, urban legends, government conspiracy, ufology and everything that has to do with the supernatural.
13. Futurama
For many, the best series of Matt Groening. Set in fantastic New York, we accompany Philip J. Fry, who after being frozen by accident in 1999, is thawed on December 31, 2999. With a satire as present as it is usual in Groening products, science fiction takes over a discourse that sometimes allows itself one more point of aciditywith.
14. Gravity Falls
Alex Hirsch is uncovered with this animated series that dares to drink from the sediment left in the popular imaginary gclassic randes like Twin Peaks or X-Files. Dipper and Mabel spend a summer with their great-uncle Stan. Humor, mystery, strange creatures and characters with a hook that deserve to have gone less unnoticed.
15. Lost
Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber, Carlton Cuse and JJ Abrams launched, in 2004, one of the biggest television milestones of the last 20 years. Lost meant the consolidation of a new way of doing television, the opening of a path without which it is difficult to understand current television. An original narrative structure for conventional television of the time, mystery, science fiction, unforgettable characters and the certainty that sometimes, the important thing is not the end, but the path itself. A series worth revisiting, of those that win in a second viewing, when passions subside, and allow us to see more clearly.
So far the 15 hidden gems at Disney +, more than half a dozen recommendations of all kinds with which to spend a few hours of audiovisual entertainment. Without a doubt, there are many more series and films, and these have been chosen as they could have been others. We only hope that this text will serve a reader to find a title you were looking for or to discover a little gem that until now would have gone unnoticed.
