TV

New Lizzie McGuire And High School Musical Are Coming To Disney’s Streaming Service

Today at D23 Expo, Disney buried fans under an avalanche of news about new shows, films and documentary series that will be coming to the service.

by Amanda Yeo  24 August 2019
Disney Lizzie Mcguire High School Musical

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Disney’s D23 Expo is underway this weekend, filled with teases and announcements regarding the gargantuan mouse’s plans to swallow us whole. Hey now, hey now! This is what dreams are made of.

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Earlier this week, Disney announced that its new streaming service Disney+ would arrive in Australia and New Zealand on November 19, just a week after its US launch.

However, though we had a local launch date and pricing, information on exactly what content anyone could expect from Disney+ was vague at best.

Today at D23 Expo, the House of Mouse buried fans under an avalanche of news about new shows, films and documentary series that will be coming to the service.

Most importantly, Disney announced a new Lizzie McGuire series, with Hilary Duff reprising the title role. Now 29, Lizzie has an apartment in Brooklyn, a “dream job” as a New York decorator’s apprentice, and a boyfriend who owns a restaurant. Of course, a lot of that will probably fall apart once the series starts.

Series creator Terri Minsky will return to work on the series, and Lizzie’s cartoon self will still offer commentary on her life, but we don’t yet know if any other cast members will be returning. No release date has been announced either, so we’ll just have to dream a little longer.

Disney also released a trailer High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a 10-episode mockumentary series that I expect to be as silly as its title. It follows a group of students putting on a production of High School Musical at East High School, where the movie was filmed.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series will be available on Disney+ at launch.

Further available at launch will be Disney’s live-action Lady and the Tramp, because this company will not stop until we have creepily photo-realistic pink elephants dancing in a live-action remake of Fantasia. The trailer includes a glimpse of the iconic spaghetti meatball scene, and a somewhat overdone rendition of ‘Bella Notte’.

Tessa Thompson is voicing Lady though, so I can’t really complain. Justin Theroux will play Tramp, with Yvette Nicole Brown, Ken Jeong, Janelle Monáe and Benedict Wong also providing voices.

Even though Disney+ will arrive in November, there will be a new Christmas movie available on the service at launch. Noelle stars Anna Kendrick as the new Santa’s sister, who goes in search of him after the stress of the job causes him to seemingly abandon his Christmas duties. Ten bucks says she takes over the job by the end of the film.

Disney further shared a couple of trailers for original reality shows making their way to Disney+.

Available at launch, The World According To Jeff Goldblum will have the enigmatic trickster spirit learning things and living his best life. Many a fan has proclaimed they’d happily watch Jeff Goldblum doing anything, and it seems Disney took them at their word.

And Kirsten Bell’s Encore! will have her reunite former castmates of high school musicals and have them reprise their roles. The concept sounds as though it could be packed with schadenfreude, but since it’s Disney it will probably just be full of wholesome, feel-good fun. Encore! will also be available at launch.

There were a ton of other announcements as well, including a Phineas and Ferb movie, a series of Pixar shorts called Forky Asks A Question, and Monsters At Work, a workplace comedy set in the world of Monsters Inc. It follows a monster who has just finished studying how to scare children at Monsters U, only to see the community turn to laughter as a power source instead. Too real.

It seems as though Disney+ won’t be hurting for content when it launches in Australia on November 19.