Disney+ is easiest to enjoy when you stop treating its catalog as one enormous alphabetical list. WIRED’s January 8, 2026 guide, The 70 Best Movies on Disney+, is a curated set of starting points across new releases, documentaries, Pixar, Disney Animation, Marvel, Star Wars, family films, and nostalgic live action—not a permanent or objective ranking of every movie on the service.
Disney+ is easiest to enjoy when you stop treating its catalog as one enormous alphabetical list. WIRED’s January 8, 2026 guide, The 70 Best Movies on Disney+, is a curated set of starting points across new releases, documentaries, Pixar, Disney Animation, Marvel, Star Wars, family films, and nostalgic live action—not a permanent or objective ranking of every movie on the service.
Quick picks by mood
- Something new: Tron: Ares, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, or Madame Web.
- A proven adventure: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Family animation: Inside Out 2, WALL·E, Finding Nemo, or Moana.
- A full franchise night: the original Star Wars trilogy, the Toy Story films, or a Marvel double feature.
- A serious documentary: Love+War, Free Solo, or Summer of Soul.
- Music and performance: Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour—The Final Show, Music by John Williams, or Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
- Comfort viewing: The Princess Bride, Big, or 10 Things I Hate About You.
- A visually distinctive animated film: Fantastic Mr. Fox or The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Ready to browse? Watch on Disney+ after checking the title in your regional app.
Newer and current-facing picks
Tron: Ares
WIRED places Tron: Ares among the guide’s current-facing choices for viewers who want science-fiction scale and an AI-centered premise. It is a natural first stop if you are choosing Disney+ for spectacle rather than nostalgia.
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Best for: science-fiction, digital-world visuals, and a contemporary blockbuster mood.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour—The Final Show
This is a concert-film choice rather than a conventional narrative movie. Its long-form performance format makes it suited to viewers who want an event-length music experience, whether watching alone or turning the evening into a concert night at home.
Best for: Taylor Swift fans, group viewing, and viewers who want a full performance rather than a short music special.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders remains the guide’s foundational adventure pick: fast-moving, playful, and structured around the kind of globe-trotting mystery that established Indiana Jones as a defining blockbuster hero. It also works as a gateway to a broader Lucasfilm marathon.
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Best for: classic adventure, family viewing with older children, and anyone who wants a reliable single-film choice.
Madame Web
WIRED includes Madame Web as part of the list’s newer superhero and acquired-library mix. It is better approached as a curiosity for viewers exploring the wider superhero catalog than as a required chapter in a Disney-owned franchise sequence.
Best for: superhero completists and viewers looking beyond the standard Marvel Studios run.
Rank #2
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Love+War
This documentary brings journalism and conflict reporting into a movie list otherwise crowded with franchises and animation. Its inclusion is a reminder that Disney+ can also serve viewers looking for contemporary nonfiction and human stories rather than escapist entertainment.
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Best for: documentary audiences, journalism-focused viewing, and a more serious movie night.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
For Marvel viewers, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the list’s contemporary Fantastic Four entry. Choose it when you want a current superhero film without committing to an entire cinematic-universe rewatch.
Best for: Marvel fans, superhero newcomers, and viewers looking for a current franchise film.
Documentaries, music, and cultural history
One of the strongest features of WIRED’s selection is that it is not limited to children’s films and superhero blockbusters. These documentaries cover music, filmmaking, journalism, cultural history, and extraordinary achievement.
| Pick | Why choose it |
|---|---|
| Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story | A filmmaking and cultural-history companion for viewers interested in how a landmark thriller became a phenomenon. |
| Music by John Williams | A composer-focused choice for audiences interested in the sound and legacy of major film scores. |
| Elton John: Never Too Late | A music biography with broad appeal beyond viewers who normally seek traditional documentaries. |
| Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band | A behind-the-scenes music documentary for Springsteen fans and viewers drawn to touring life. |
| The Beach Boys | A cultural-history and band biography pick built around one of pop music’s most recognizable groups. |
| Jim Henson: Idea Man | A creative-life documentary about the imagination behind influential puppetry and entertainment. |
| Let It Be | Music-history viewing for Beatles fans and anyone interested in a band at work during a pivotal period. |
| Summer of Soul | A performance-rich historical documentary that connects music with the social and cultural context surrounding it. |
| Stan Lee | A biography-oriented choice for viewers interested in the public figure and comic-book culture behind Marvel’s rise. |
| Free Solo | A high-stakes achievement documentary for viewers who want real-world suspense rather than fictional action. |
For a documentary-only night, start with Love+War or Free Solo if you want a focused story, then choose Summer of Soul or one of the music biographies for a more performance-led evening.
Pixar and family animation
For emotional Pixar storytelling
- Inside Out and Inside Out 2: Choose the pair for a story about emotions, growing up, and the changing pressures of childhood and adolescence. Watching them together gives the sequel more context.
- WALL·E: A visually led Pixar film that can engage children while giving adults plenty to interpret.
- Up: A compact adventure with an unusually emotional opening and a strong intergenerational appeal.
- Finding Nemo: A colorful underwater adventure that works for family viewing and remains easy to follow as a standalone.
- Luca: A gentler coming-of-age choice with a friendship-and-summer mood.
The Toy Story films
WIRED treats the four released Toy Story films as a connected story about growing up, attachment, and change. That makes them more rewarding as a sequence than as four unrelated children’s movies:
Rank #3
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- Toy Story introduces Woody, Buzz, and the central relationship between toys and their child.
- Toy Story 2 expands the question of what it means for a toy to belong to someone.
- Toy Story 3 turns the series toward transition and the end of childhood.
- Toy Story 4 follows a later emotional chapter and asks what purpose can mean after a toy’s original relationship changes.
Best for: a family marathon, adult viewers revisiting childhood favorites, and anyone who prefers a complete character arc.
Disney Animation essentials
- The Lion King: A broad family pick built around music, loss, responsibility, and a coming-of-age story.
- Moana: A mythic ocean adventure with music and a self-directed hero’s journey.
- The Jungle Book: A classic Disney Animation choice for viewers exploring older studio favorites.
- The Little Mermaid: A musical fantasy for viewers seeking a traditional Disney fairy-tale experience.
- Cinderella: A foundational animated fairy tale and a natural choice for a classic-animation evening.
Marvel: choose by mood, not by a supposed definitive ranking
The Marvel portion of the list spans different tones and eras. Rather than call one film the objectively best, use the following routes to match the movie to the night you want.
| If you want… | Try… | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Marvel comedy and irreverence | Deadpool & Wolverine | A deliberately adult, joke-heavy superhero option; check the rating and your household’s comfort level. |
| A grounded action chapter | Captain America: The Winter Soldier | A spy-thriller direction within the superhero framework. |
| Cosmic team adventure | Guardians of the Galaxy | A music-driven ensemble choice with a more playful space-opera tone. |
| Big emotional payoff | Avengers: Endgame | Best reserved for viewers who have followed much of the preceding Marvel story. |
| Colorful Afrofuturism and political stakes | Black Panther | A standalone-feeling entry with a distinctive world and cultural setting. |
| A follow-up centered on grief and legacy | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | More effective after Black Panther and suited to a reflective franchise night. |
| Light superhero comedy | Ant-Man | A smaller-scale, more accessible Marvel adventure. |
| Another origin-era Marvel entry | Captain Marvel | A cosmic superhero origin story that also connects to the larger Marvel timeline. |
| A less central Marvel catalog detour | The Incredible Hulk | A choice for completists exploring the wider on-screen Marvel library. |
| High-energy myth and comedy | Thor: Ragnarok | A colorful, comedic reset of Thor’s corner of the universe. |
The list also includes Spider-Man- and Venom-related selections. Treat those as catalog and character detours rather than assuming that every Spider-Man film belongs to one continuous Disney+ Marvel order. Availability and rights can differ by territory, particularly for films licensed from other studios.
Planning a Marvel night? Start streaming on Disney+ only after confirming the specific film is available where you live.
Star Wars and Lucasfilm adventure
WIRED’s Star Wars recommendations support both a traditional saga marathon and a shorter standalone route.
The original trilogy
- Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope
- Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi
Choose these three when you want the clearest introduction to the central Star Wars conflict and its original character arc.
The prequel trilogy
- Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace
- Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith
The prequels work best as a separate political and historical lead-in to the original trilogy, or as a second marathon after the original films.
Rank #4
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One offers a more self-contained war-film angle on the Star Wars universe. It is a useful choice when you want the franchise’s setting and scale without beginning a six-film sequence.
Availability warning: The presence of a Star Wars or Indiana Jones title in WIRED’s January 2026 guide should not be read as a guarantee that the entire franchise is permanently available in every country.
Nostalgia, fantasy, and live-action comfort viewing
- Big: A nostalgic body-swap comedy with an accessible high-concept premise.
- The Princess Bride: A witty fantasy adventure that balances romance, swordplay, and comedy.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: A stop-motion favorite that can work for either Halloween or Christmas viewing.
- Fantastic Mr. Fox: A visually distinctive animated adaptation for families and adults who enjoy eccentric, handcrafted style.
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: A family adventure built around an instantly understandable scale-change premise.
- 10 Things I Hate About You: A teen-comedy option for viewers who want romance, banter, and late-1990s nostalgia.
How to turn the list into a movie night
- Pick the audience first. For young children, begin with Pixar or Disney Animation. For adults, consider a documentary, music film, classic adventure, or live-action catalog title.
- Decide whether you want one film or a sequence. Raiders, Free Solo, The Princess Bride, and WALL·E work as single-film choices. Toy Story, Star Wars, and Marvel are better treated as marathon options.
- Check the rating and runtime. Concert films, documentaries, and franchise finales may require a longer commitment; Deadpool & Wolverine is not the same family-viewing proposition as Finding Nemo.
- Search the local Disney+ app. Do this immediately before the screening, especially for licensed live-action titles and movies connected to Sony or other outside studios.
- Choose the viewing setup. A concert film, Free Solo, or a visually ambitious animated movie benefits from a larger screen and better sound, while a dialogue-heavy documentary may be perfectly comfortable on a tablet or laptop.
Prefer to own a favorite?
Streaming availability is temporary and varies by location. For selected titles, a physical copy can be a sensible alternative. Disney’s home-entertainment pages provide evidence of 4K Ultra HD or Blu-ray releases for some films, including examples such as The Lion King; that does not mean every movie in this guide has a current 4K edition.
If you want a permanent copy, compare the exact Disney 4K Blu-ray movies listing before buying. Check the title, cut, disc format, region compatibility, seller, stock, and price at publication time. A Blu-ray or 4K listing should be matched to the individual film rather than treated as a blanket substitute for the Disney+ catalog.
How to watch Disney+
Disney+ supports major smart-TV platforms, streaming sticks, game consoles, mobile devices, and set-top boxes, including Fire TV according to Disney’s supported-device documentation. Compatibility can depend on the exact device model, operating system, and country. If the Disney+ app is not available on an older television, a supported streaming device or a newer smart-TV app may be the practical solution—but verify current compatibility before purchase.
Found your pick? Explore the Disney Bundle or use the approved Disney+ subscription offer available for your market.
At a glance
WIRED’s January 2026 selection is most useful as a discovery map. Start with Raiders for dependable adventure, Inside Out or Toy Story for Pixar, the original trilogy for Star Wars, Black Panther or The Winter Soldier for different Marvel moods, and Love+War, Summer of Soul, or Free Solo when you want a documentary. Then verify the title in your local Disney+ app—the catalog is neither universal nor fixed.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are these objectively the 70 best movies on Disney+?
No. WIRED’s list is a curated editorial selection published January 8, 2026, not a complete Disney+ catalog or an objective ranking. Its choices cover different genres, franchises, audiences, and moods.
Will every movie on this list be available in my country?
Disney+ availability varies by country and can change as licensing agreements shift. Search for the title in your local Disney+ app immediately before watching.
What is the best Disney+ movie for family viewing?
For a family-oriented choice, try Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Moana, WALL·E, or the Toy Story films. Check ratings and your child’s age before choosing.
What is the best order for a Star Wars movie marathon?
Use the original trilogy for the clearest starting point: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Rogue One is a good standalone alternative.
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No. Some selected films have official 4K Ultra HD or Blu-ray editions, but physical-media availability is title-specific. Check the exact edition, region, seller, stock, and price before buying.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: WIRED’s 70-pick January 2026 guide is best used as a set of mood and franchise filters, not as an objective or permanent ranking. Disney+ is particularly strong here for Pixar, Disney Animation, Marvel, Star Wars, music documentaries, and nostalgic catalog films—but regional availability can change, so confirm each title before movie night.
Quick Recap
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