Disney Plus Australia review

With Disney Plus launching in 2019, there's been plenty of time to see whether the House of Mouse has real staying power in a competitive streaming service, or whether it's an optional subscription that's best ditched. While the content churn of the post-lockdown world has started to dry up, Disney Plus in Australia continues to stay relevant by adding content for young and old viewers, not to mention the timely addition of ESPN sports.

It's been years since the Disney Plus free trial was available for new sign-ups. With around 126 million global subscribers, it's unsurprising that, like Netflix, a Disney Plus free trial is no longer available. Compared to other streaming services, Disney Plus is one of the most expensive, but it also has enough content to justify the price. So, how much is Disney Plus in Australia?

At its cheapest, you can get Disney Plus Standard for $15.99 per month or $159.99 per year (~$13.33 per month). Even that better-value annual fee means Disney Plus has a pricier monthly fee than the cheapest ways to buy any other popular streaming service in Australia, except for Foxtel Now. If you want 4K and up to four streams (Standard has two 1080p streams), Disney Plus Premium is $20.99 per month or $209.99 per year (~$17.50 per month). That's not as cheap as 4K on Prime Video, Paramount Plus or Apple TV Plus, but it is cheaper than 4K streaming on Netflix, Stan and Binge.

There are benefits to subscribing for an entire year. In the case of Disney+, you'll save roughly $23.90 if you sign up for a year (rather than paying every month). It also temporarily safeguards you against sudden price increases.  Disney+ has been around long enough now that we can say with a good deal of confidence that if you like it so far, you'll still be enjoying it a year down the track. That said, it's not a guarantee and there aren't any options to get a refund if you find you're not using the service as much as you used to.

We've enjoyed the originals Disney+ has released so far but they're few and far between and the quality can be hit and miss. Still, if you've got those Disney classics on repeat, signing up for a year is a good way to save a bit of dough.

If you’ve used any popular streaming service in the past few years, you'll feel at home with the Disney Plus app and its layout. Log in to Disney Plus and you'll be greeted with a rotating banner of recommended content. There's a top menu for navigation, but the more prominent categories are just beneath the main banner: namely, Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Star and ESPN.

Keep scrolling for personalised recommendations based on your viewing, as well as a carousel to continue watching TV series you've started or movies you haven't finished. The more you scroll, the more you're greeted with other categorised carousels, from new additions and popular picks in Australia to logically grouped content and more straightforward categories like drama, documentaries and K-Dramas.

If you've ever been overwhelmed by viewing possibilities in the heyday of Netflix, Disney Plus feels like a whole new world of overwhelming choices (in a very good way). Tap or click on content to go to a details screen where you can start watching, skip between seasons and episodes (for TV content), add to your watchlist, or check out basic details.

The descriptive audio is the star of the show here. It's clear, concise and does a bang-up job of describing every scene for the titles we've tested it on. However, the audio navigation could use a little work. Subtitle options and closed captioning customisation have also improved across devices, allowing you to select the language of the audio and subtitles, and tweak the font (size, colour, background) to whatever reads best.

Just because Disney isn't churning out new Marvel and Disney shows like it was in the early 2020s, doesn't mean there's not a wealth of content. In 2021, Disney Plus added Star content, which is effectively adult-focused movies and TV shows that would otherwise be on Hulu in the USA. In early 2025, Disney Plus bolstered its offering with ESPN, which brings select live sports content to the once exclusively on-demand streamer.

Whatever your tastes, you shouldn't have trouble finding shows to watch on Disney Plus. For Star Wars, Andor is essential viewing, but there's also The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Bad Batch. Marvel has a range of new and old shows, including Ironheart, Daredevil: Born Again, plus the older Marvel shows from Netflix. If you're a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fiend, you'll likely appreciate the curated MCU Complete Timeline, which puts the movies, TV shows, and even the Marvel one-shots in chronological viewing order.

There's plenty to watch for older viewers, too, most notably found under the Star banner. There are six seasons of The Rookie, seven seasons of 9-1-1, and 18 seasons of Criminal Minds. Alternatively, check out popular new shows like High Potential. If you want FX-branded content, there's The Bear, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Welcome to Wrexham, and Adults. There are also more recent Star Originals like Call Her Alex, Paradise, or The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. If that's not enough, there's also the National Geographic docuseries that cover a range of interests.

Disney Plus is filled with great movies for kids, adults and family viewing. For the adults, there are older classics like 28 Weeks Later or newer gems like Predator: Killer of Killers. Because Disney owns 20th Century Fox these days, Disney Plus is home to all of that content, too, including every Predator movie and every flick in the Alien universe (yes, including the awful AvP ones).

This is also the home of almost every Marvel movie, including the MCU (minus the Spider-Man films) and everything that Fox made: X-Men, Deadpool, and even the older Fantastic Four movies. If you prefer the galaxy far, far away, Disney Plus has every Star Wars movie, including deep cuts like The Battle for Endor, and Caravan of Courage.

Disney Plus is also where you'll find Pixar movies, which include everything from Toy Story and A Bug's Life through to Inside Out 2 and Elio (when it hits streaming). For Disney animated movies, Disney Plus has Moana and Moana 2 (including sing-along versions) alongside all the others, like Raya and the Last Dragon, Wish, and Luca. Star has most of the Transformers movies alongside old and new classics: Ford v Ferrari, Life of Pi, The Revenant, and A Real Pain to name a handful. When it comes to Disney Plus movies, you're spoilt for choice.

Disney Plus kid and family-friendly content has been around since launch, and more mature Star content came later. In 2025, a Disney Plus subscription added ESPN to its offering. Unlike Stan Sport, there's no add-on cost for ESPN, so you can access live sports and replays for a range of sports, including UFC, Major League Baseball, All Elite Wrestling, and National Basketball Association matches.

A lot of the sports have a US focus, but I was pleasantly surprised to find cricket on there when Australia toured the West Indies in mid-2025. If ESPN is the broadcaster, you should be able to stream the sport with a Disney Plus subscription. The cricket stream was only slightly behind an identical one on Kayo Sports. Strangely, the Disney Plus stream didn't have any ads, just a placeholder for where ads should go.

Disney Plus has an impressive range of supported devices:

• Smartphones and tablets (iOS, Android, Amazon Fire)
• Web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari)
• Windows 10 and 11 (via Microsoft Store)
• Amazon Fire TV
• Apple TV
• Chromecast
• Roku
• PlayStation 4 and 5
• Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
• Android TV (Hisense, Philips, Sharp, Sony Bravia, TCL, Nvidia Shield TV)
• Smart TVs (LG, Panasonic, Hisense VIDAA, Samsung Tizen)
• Fetch TV
• Foxtel iQ
• Hubbl