17 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Disney+ Right Now
Disney+ isn't just for kids' stuff. While the service offers plenty of animated classics and Star Wars and Marvel franchises, viewers looking for something more grown-up will find plenty to satisfy their bingeing. And if you bundle in Hulu for about $2 more per month, you get even more adult-oriented content like Abbott Elementary and Only Murders in the Building.
Here are our picks for the 17 best movies and series on Disney+.
1. Agatha All Along (2024, 1 season)
A spin-off of the Emmy-winning Marvel series WandaVision focused on witch Agatha, played by Kathryn Hahn. She's well matched by Aubrey Plaza, Patti LuPone, and young Joe Locke as a goth teen. This genre-defying comedy is a hoot.
2. Jane (2017)
Director Brett Morgen's portrait of 90-year-old conservationist Jane Goodall draws on 100 hours of previously unseen footage of her as a 20-something in the 1960s. It's a beautiful work, backed by a haunting Philip Glass score.
3. Madu (2024)
An 11-year-old Nigerian boy earns an invite to a top British ballet academy after a video of him dancing in the rain goes viral. This documentary follows Anthony Madu's unlikely journey despite many naysayers. His talent is undeniable.
4. Arctic Ascent With Alex Honnold (2024, 1 season)
Alex Honnold, the rope-shunning climber from the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, is back. After conquering Yosemite's El Capitan, he teams with Hazel Findlay to mount an even more treacherous rock wall: Greenland's Ingmikortilaq.
5. The Beatles: Get Back (2021)
Peter Jackson sifted through 60 hours of unseen footage captured as the Fab Four made their final album, 1970's Let It Be, to make this doc. This three-part series captures the artists at work and at play, culminating in the band's remarkable final concert on the roof of their London headquarters.
6. Hamilton (2020)
Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda's award-winning musical with the entire original cast from the comfort of your home. The hip-hop opera about Alexander Hamilton's life is mesmerizing. Watching at home lets you pause, rewind, and catch all the wordplay of his lightning-fast lyrics.
7. Isle of Dogs (2018)
Wes Anderson's oddly prophetic film about a "canine flu" outbreak in Japan that leads a totalitarian leader to quarantine all the nation's pups on a remote island is streaming now. The refugee dogs lead an insurrection that's as charming as the imagery.
8. The Muppet Show (1976-1981, 5 seasons)
Jim Henson's creations might seem like kid stuff, but this show was a prime-time sensation that played off grown-up popular culture. Older fans will savor the sketches, musical numbers, and bits with guests like George Burns and Lena Horne.
9. The Princess Bride (1987)
Rob Reiner's adaptation became an instant classic. A fractured fairy tale about a farmhand-turned-pirate (Cary Elwes) and his quest to reunite with his childhood love, Buttercup (Robin Wright), this is a film that will capture the hearts of anyone, young or old. It's part-love story, part-swashbuckling adventure and features Mandy Patinkin, André the Giant, and Wallace Shawn.
10. Queen of Katwe (2016)
A 10-year-old girl in Kampala, Uganda, sells maize at the local market with her mom (Lupita Nyong'o). With help from a local teacher (David Oyelowo), she discovers she has an aptitude for chess that might lift her family out of the slums. Director Mira Nair makes the chess tournament thrilling.
11. The Straight Story (1999)
David Lynch's yarn about a WWII vet (Oscar-nominated Richard Farnsworth) in rural Iowa. After learning his long-estranged brother (Harry Dean Stanton) had a stroke, he sets out on his John Deere lawn tractor to make the 240-mile trip. A slice of Americana that's naturally sweet.
12. Summer of Soul (2021)
Summer of 1969. A few hours south of Woodstock, another seminal event attracted less attention. The Harlem Cultural Festival attracted acts like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, and Sly and the Family Stone. Questlove earned an Oscar for his documentary featuring archival footage unseen for decades.
13. Up (2009)
Pixar's Oscar-winning Up proved animated movies aren't just for kids. Its opening sequence—a wordless depiction of a loving couple who longed for children and a trip to South America they never realized—is peak Pixar. Now widowed, Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) fulfills that dream by rigging balloons to his home for an airborne adventure.
14. West Side Story (2021)
Steven Spielberg's update of the 1961 best picture winner boasts breakout performances by Rachel Zegler as Maria and Ariana DeBose in her Oscar-winning turn as Anita. The original Anita, 92-year-old Rita Moreno, turns up as the neighborhood shopkeeper. The film arrived mid-pandemic and never got the acclaim it deserved.
15. Wings of Life (2011)
Walt Disney helped invent the modern nature documentary. This study of the symbiosis between plants and animals was captured with specialized cameras plus slow motion and time-lapse photography. Meryl Streep narrates from the perspective of a flower.
16. World Eats Bread (2024, 1 season)
World Eats Bread is a three-part docuseries celebrating bread—from San Francisco's sourdough to Guatemalan corn tortillas to Turkish flatbread known as Ramadan pide. Nothing carbitrary about this culinary wonder.
17. Taylor Swift: The End of an Era (2025)
The film documenting Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour is part spectacle, part career retrospective. Fans get a closer look at the final stretch of Taylor Swift’s record-breaking tour, with a mix of concert footage and behind-the-scenes moments from the road. It reflects on how the tour evolved, what it meant to Swift's career, and why it became such a massive cultural moment. It’s part celebration, part goodbye, and a must-watch for anyone who followed along as the tour came to an end.
From prestige documentaries to modern classics, Disney+ proves it’s not just a kids’ streaming service if you know where to look.