Disney+ Reveals Why Home Alone, The Sandlot, and More Were Removed

2019 is in the rear-view mirror and a bunch of people are ready for the staggering slew of online content available this year. Disney+ users kicked up a bit of a stir online after some users reported that the service had lost some of the previously available content. Now, a Disney+ spokesperson has stepped forward to clear the air with Gizmodo. The outlet asked the source directly about the problem and it turns out that the service has some more kinks to iron out on the legal side before all the titles that have been deemed “missing” by fans will be back in the fold. A sampling of the titles affected includes Dr. Dolittle, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration, and The Sandlot. Now, that might not seem like a ton, but there are people who absolutely wanted to get a little bit of Home Alone in before they went back to work or school this week.

A Disney+ spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that, “a small number of titles had left the platform over issues relating to legacy deals. However, all of those titles that have left will return to the service as soon as those licenses expire.”

This was a fear for some users before the service launched, but the company was quick to shout down those concerns form folks who thought there might be a bit of a revolving door when it came to Disney+. After all, those kinds of changes are basically standard operating procedure for companies like Netflix. Problems like the one discovered today were to be hopefully avoided, but as the day’s events illustrates, sometimes the world of streaming can be a frustrating one.

“There will not be a ‘rotating slate’ of licensed movies each month,” a Disney+ representative previously said. “With Disney+, beloved classics from the Disney vault will now stream in a permanent home, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King – the entire thirteen film Signature Collection – all available on day one.”

One Twitter account flagged the potential for something like this last year, and it looks like they were proven absolutely right about some of those expiration dates being more than just mere placeholders. There is no established timetable for the titles to return at this time.