Ahead of catching The Little Mermaid in theaters this weekend, the more hardcore Disney die-hards out there might be looking to get in the mood by bingeing every single one of the studio’s live-action remakes they’d made to date. Of course, other people would prefer to throw themselves in front of a stampede of wildebeest than do that, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is that such a task is impossible thanks to two of said remakes being missing from Disney Plus.
While the likes of Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and many, many, many more (seriously, there are way more than you’d think) are available to stream on the Mouse House’s platform, two are notable for their absence on the site. These are 2014’s Maleficent, the Sleeping Beauty retelling starring Angelina Jolie, and 2015’s Cinderella, a much more faithful rendering of the classic tale with Lily James in the lead.
The reason for these absences is because of previous licensing deals that were put in place long before Disney Plus was even a thing. While both Cinderella and Maleficent used to be on Disney Plus, they were removed in April 2022 due to these old deals coming back into play. Disney doesn’t reveal the specifics of these types of deals, but whenever it’s due to expire you can bet the studio will immediately restore them to the platform in order to complete its collection of live-action remakes.
In the meantime, those who subscribe to Prime Video as well as Disney Plus can rest easy as both Cinderella and Maleficent are able to be streamed on that rival service for no extra cost to Prime users. But don’t tell Disney I told you that.
