The best movies to stream on Disney Plus (November 2022)

Three years after its initial launch, Disney Plus is a far cry from the days when it was launched. Aside from serving as the home to the company’s massive back catalog of classic movies, the service has since transformed into the de facto streaming destination for the company’s biggest franchises and studios. Between Disney animation, DCOMs, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and 20th Century Studios, there’s something for everyone — and if there isn’t, there likely will be soon enough.

We’ve plumbed the depths of Disney Plus’ library like Scrooge McDuck leaping from a diving board into his pool of questionably gotten riches, and we have pulled together a list of the very best films you can watch on the service. These are the top Disney Plus movies this month.

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These prices were correct at the time of publication.

For $13.99/month, you can either get the Disney Plus standalone subscription or the Disney Plus bundle that includes Hulu (ad supported) and ESPN Plus. Or for $19.99 per month, Hulu with no ads and ESPN Plus.

Atlantis, The Lost Empire

Image: Disney

Atlantis, The Lost Empire in Disney animation. But it was never to be the same. Milo Thatch is a brave academic who dedicates his whole life to discovering the city that has been lost. Atlantis, The Lost Empire This is an exciting adventure featuring a colorful cast. It’s action-packed with a lot of humor and heart that just operates by the rule of cool with its lumbering steampunk/dieselpunk aesthetic and gorgeously rendered ancient civilization. This hidden gem mesmerized a generation of kids who grew up watching it on home video, and now it’s right here on Disney Plus. —Petrana Radulovic

Cinderella

Image: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Polygon is already adamant that the Brandy Cinderella Cinderella film, also known colloquially as Cinderella Cinderella has the greatest Cinderella story of any Cinderella movie. It is an utter delight — the set design is lavish and colorful, the right blend of stage sensibilities for a TV screen. A similar level of excellence can be found in the costumes. The Prince and Cinderella share an extraordinary and deeply romantic relationship. Jason Alexander is a hilarious and charming valet. The songs are hilarious, particularly with Brandy, Whitney Houston and Bernadette Peers leading the cast. —PR

Fantasia 2000

Image: Disney

Fantasia is a well-known example of big and beautiful creative risks which were never financially profitable for Disney. Economic legacy aside, Fantasia 2000This is a joyous celebration of animation, music and creativity. Each of the shorts follows a different piece of classical music, telling a specific story in a variation of animation styles — sometimes wildly departing from what one would expect. For instance, “Pines of Rome” by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi becomes a tale of flying whales, and graduation classic “Pomp and Circumstance” is now Donald Duck as Noah herding animals onto an ark. But even the tales that don’t subvert expectations, like a beautiful take on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” are evocative and memorable. —PR

No cost Solo

Photo: Jimmy Chin/National Geographic

No cost SoloThe Academy Award nominee for the best documentary in 2018 is “El Capitan: A Journey to the Top” which is about climbing El Capitan without using a rope. But it’s also a movie about love and passion. It is beautiful and dizzying to see Alex Honnold climbing mountains without any protection. The movie also cares about the more quiet aspects of climbing. We see Honnold carefully plan every step and handhold he’ll use on his climbs — no move is a guess. But the real brilliance of the documentary comes in the way it handles Honnold as a person, and questions what drives someone to pursue a passion that’s likely to kill them. —Austen Goslin

Holes

Image: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

HolesThis is one of the most beautiful book-to film adaptations. Stanley is a confusing young man who’s falsely accused. He spends his time in a Texas prison where the others are serving their sentences digging holes into the Texas desert. At first it just sucks, but soon Stanley realizes there’s a reason the domineering Warden is making them dig all these holes. Much like the book, the movie weaves in multiple stories, following a few different time periods, and when they all come together at the end, it’s just satisfying. Young Shia LaBeouf leads the cast, which also includes Sigourney Weaver, Patricia Arquette, Eartha Kitt, and Dulé Hill. —PR

Lilo & Stitch

Image: Disney

One of the strangest Disney animation movies, Lilo & StitchIt is truly a miracle. It’s about an alien who befriends a little girl in Hawaii, but it’s also about two sisters grieving for their parents and outsiders coming together. It’s gorgeously animated and just the right amount of weird and heartwarming. It’s also amazing music! With Stitch being as popular a character as he is, it’s easy to forget just how offbeat and wonderful the movie is. Lilo & StitchThis is still a treasure. —PR

Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

Ok, let’s face it, Captain Jack Sparrow was the main attraction when the Pirates of the Caribbean films first appeared. But Elizabeth Swann is the real star of the show. Jack’s swagger is funny, but Elizabeth drives the heart of the movies and at the end of the day, they serve as one, big, pirate-zombie, seafaring, swashbuckling coming-of-age story for the governor’s daughter destined for more. This is why the Jack-focused spinoffs are weaker than the main trilogy. This is why the original movie that takes you into the lush, mythical world of the First Movie is so strong. —PR

The Princess Bride

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

The Princess Bride has it all — swashbucklers, epic adventures, incredibly quotable humor, Cary Elwes, and a lovely romance that ties it all together. It’s a fairy-tale fantasy that plays with familiar tropes and breathes new life into them. It is hard to believe how many pop culture quotes and references have been spawned by this film. Witty and funny. Also deeply romantic. The Princess BrideIt’s a fantasy-themed romp that features a charming framing device: a grandfather reading a story to his grandson at bedtime. This preserves William Goldman’s narrative a lot better than any simple adaptation. —PR

WALL-E

Image: Pixar

Andrew Stanton’s science fiction odyssey, set in 2185, is a triptych of disparate stories glued together with feels. There’s the dystopian tale of a worker bot tidying up a busted, deserted world that could easily stand alone as a short; there’s the love story of two robots, a pure blend of Asimov and Disney; and there’s the rescue mission, a galactic journey that whisks WALL-E to the Axiom mothership for an encounter with a HAL 9000-like AI. Our li’l robot friend, brought to life through the beeps and boops of Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt, beholds every narrative jump with binocular-eyed wonder. So do we.

It is elegiac, and it can be eerie. WALL-EStanton’s love letter to Earth is hereHello, Dolly! chief among them) and an impassioned plea for us slovenly earthlings to do what we can to save it before it’s too late. We’ll see if humanity can get its act together, but even if we’re destined to decimate the planet and float around in hover chairs on a rocket-powered shopping mall for the rest of our days, we’ll always have WALL-E and EVE dancing among the stars, an ode to the beauty that once was. Pixar’s ongoing mission is to make Pixar great again. WALL-EIt conjures up romantic truth. —Matt Patches