Disney Plus is missing one killer feature: Karaoke Mode

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really appreciating having some of the best movies and best cartoons from my childhood in one place. And the fact that we got the service in Australia only a week after the U.S, means that I don’t have turn to A Pirate’s Life just to avoid spoilers for the latest Mandalorian episode.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for the Poor Unfortunate Souls across the world who have to wait until 2020.

One of my earliest criticisms of the service was that it didn’t have a ‘resume’ function when Disney first said “Be Our Guest”, and opened the doors to its on-demand vault.

But Disney has since taken a look at this core UX feature on Netflix and has realised it should be Following The Leader by allowing viewers to ‘continue watching’ in a future update.

On the other hand, I’m enjoying some of the wonderful extras you get access to with most classics. The kind of additional treats you would find on the second disc of a special edition DVD: Making Of and Behind The Scenes featurettes, Concept Art, that sort of thing.

It’s not quite as dense as the sort of content you used to get on home release but it’s Almost There.

The one extra feature it’s missing? Karaoke mode.

As much as we love the Disney classics for the heartwarming stories and iconic characters, it’s the songs that fans remember most.

So many of our childhoods are relived by blasting “Friend Like Me”  for the fourth time at the Christmas Party karaoke before tearily working your way through “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?’ with Tim from accounts who you won’t say another word to until next year’s shindig.

I mean, everybody has done that.

The classics are wonderful but it’s the catchy musicals that make them so special. If Disney really wants to keeps its fans from cancelling between seasonal exclusives, a karaoke mode for the classics is all it needs.

Not just for a few titles, but for all the classics. I'm talking a dedicated section that sits in the navigation menu alongside 'Series', 'Movies' and 'Originals' with the option to create karaoke playlists and shuffle tracks from Disney's massive collection of bangers.

The ability to play Disney singalongs on-demand, with the lyrics bouncing across the screen would open up A Whole New World for subscribers; not only would it give fans a reason to stick around but Disney would see a huge spike in streams every Saturday night. This imagined karaoke mode would give a new meaning to “Saturday Disney” for a generation that grew up with it.

I don’t think it’s such a crazy pipedream. After all, When You Wish Upon a Star, your dreams come true. And sometimes, sometimes, writing a dumb article about it on the internet works too.