What’s New on Disney+ in March 2022
Reading Time: 2 minutesA girl turns into a panda, a guy can’t remember becoming a vigilante…no one can control themselves on Disney Plus this month.
The first time Disney+ premiered a new Pixar movie that had never played in theaters, it felt like a sorely needed pandemic holiday gift, and the streaming-only release of Soul certainly didn’t prevent it from winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. But when Luca went straight to streaming the next summer, it felt a bit like an insult, especially after Raya and the Last Dragon had received a full theatrical release, and even more so when a Disney investor call revealed the next Pixar release—Turning Red, which arrives on Disney+ on March 11—was doing the same thing. Was Disney reclassifying Pixar films as unworthy of playing in theaters?
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Why does Disney release movies to streaming instead of theaters?
It turns out they were simply working from a dataset we weren’t privy to at the time. Given that stats from audience tracking company Nielson showed Luca was the most-streamed movie of 2021, it seems Pixar movies are much more valuable to the company as a key draw for Disney+ service—because why make someone give you money for tickets once (and give half of that to theater owners) when you can convince them to pay a monthly fee to watch your content forever?
Personally I do miss the fun of trying not to weep openly in front of strangers while watching the latest Pixar in a theater, but also, I like not having to make a Herculean effort to get my kids to the theater for the privilege of paying $16 per ticket, so maybe it’s a good plan after all. And at least we’ll all be able to agree what to watch on the day the adorable-looking movie about the little girl who can’t stop turning into an even more adorable giant red panda drops on Disney+.
In other stories of people uncontrollably turning into things, the month will also (barely) see the launch of Moon Knight (March 30), the next Marvel TV series. Oscar Isaac enters the MCU as a soldier for hire who, through comic book shenanigans, becomes the host to an ancient Egyptian god whose spirit turns him into a vigilante anti-hero. The trailer promises a harder edge than Loki or Hawkeye, with more violence and a plot that hinges on the protagonist’s possible dissociative identity disorder. Why am I telling you this though? You already know if you are going to watch it.
Here’s everything else you can look forward to on Disney+ in March, including the streaming premiere of Steven Spielberg’s critically adored, Oscar-nominated, audience-ignored remake of West Side Story (March 2) and a documentary about the making of Olivia Rodrigo’s first album, SOUR (March 25).
Disney Plus series with new episodes premiering weekly in March 2022
- Moon Knight (Series premiere March 30)
- The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
March 2022
March 2
- Brain Games: On The Road (S1)
- Broken Karaoke (S1, 5 episodes)
- Mickey Mouse Funhouse (S1, 4 episodes)
- West Side Story
March 4
- Russia’s Wild Tiger
March 9
- Weekend Family (S1)
March 11
- Turning Red — Disney/Pixar film premiere
- Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red
March 16
- Big City Greens (S3, 5 episodes)
- Miraculous Tales Of Ladybug & Cat Noir (S4, 6 episodes)
- Muppet Babies (S3, 2 episodes)
- Spidey And His Amazing Friends (S1, 5 episodes)
March 19
- Cheaper by the Dozen — Disney+ Original film premiere
- Step
- More Than Robots
March 23
- Doc McStuffins (Shorts) (S1)
- The Doc Files (S1)
- Parallels, Season 1 — Disney+Original series premiere
March 25
- OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u — Disney+ Original documentary premiere
- The Wonderful Spring of Mickey Mouse
March 30
- I Cavalieri Di Castelcorvo (S1)