DisneyLife Feedback thread. Non-testers: Share your favourite Disney moment for the chance to win a £300 DisneyStore voucher NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnetters who are testing out DisneyLife.

Here’s what DisneyLife has to say, “We’re so excited to launch DisneyLife, which will give the whole family access to its biggest collection of Disney and DisneyPixar movies, Disney Channels TV box sets, books, and music, in one place. Designed to be enjoyed at home or on the go as an iOS or Android app for tablet or mobile, DisneyLife will create magical moments for the family to share: from sing-a-long songs on the way to school; to movie nights at home; children’s TV shows on the move; and enchanting bedtime stories to read with Mum and Dad. For one monthly price of £9.99, DisneyLife will give you instant access to stream thousands of Disney Channels TV episodes, hundreds of movies, albums, and books – plus a free download every month from a selection of fun Disney apps. We’d love to know what Mumsnetters think about the new offering"

Check out our bloggers review of DisneyLife in the new video:

Non-testers: What is your favourite Disney or Pixar moment? Perhaps you love the opening sequence of Up? Or maybe your favourite is the Circle of Life from The Lion King? Whatever your favourite moment is, please let us know (with a spoiler alert if necessary!) and you will be entered in to a prize draw where one winner will receive a £300 DisneyStore voucher.

Testers, once you have tested DisneyLife for a little while, here are some questions to get you started, but please feel free to add your own comments too:

• Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
  
• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?
  
• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?
  
• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?
  
• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?
  
• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
  

All testers who add their feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will receive a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Please note DisneyLife may well use your anonymous feedback comments on their website, on social media as well as possibly elsewhere.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

[mshell1231]

Non- tester:

My favourite Disney moment as a child was singing along to the songs with my sister- especially 'Be our guest' from Beauty and the Beast. Now It's singing along to the songs with my children- especially the songs from Frozen.

[LishK]

• Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
  

My sons 5 and 3 years old.

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?
  

It was fairly easy, but at times very slow.

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?
  

We watched wall e and Mary poppins (lots of times). Kids loved them.

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?
  

Not bad but seems steep for £9.99 a month, considering competitor prices.

• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?
  

I liked the app and individual profiles. The books took forever to load and weren't reliable though

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
  

I would recommend but at a cheaper price point. The app is nice and easy enough for a 5 year old to control. The content is familiar and fun. The books need improving. Thanks for letting us test!

[CordeliaScott]

Non tester

I love so many of the songs in the Disney films but I think my favourite moment is in Aladdin "you're only in trouble if you get caught. I'm in trouble." I may have lived my life by that quote!

[Samichuboo]

Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
DD of 3 and DD of 1

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?
  

I found it easy to load and set up. Easy to navigate but girls found it difficult to look for content they were after as they haven't masers searching yet.

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?
  

My DD's have watch most of the age appropriate stuff already, on DVDs, through sky or Netflix. It was nice that the girls could access the content though and browse throu all the film on our Friday night film night.

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?
  

Loved that there were a lot of older films that I haven't seen for a long time and have enjoyed the music but the girls were disappointed that there were not more in the way of activities and games on there, although being able to download the additional apps with these on has slightly improved this.

• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?
  

A great go to for all films and music Disney. Unfortunately you do need to have good broadband to access much of the content (which we do not), there are no games or activities in the actually app and there are no more recent films such as frozen or the latest Cinderella (which are available on sky) so not really worth the 9.99 being asked.

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
  

Due to the reasons given just above I would have to say no. If these were all to be included in the app then I would consider it a treat as it is on the pricey side

[skyeskyeskye]

Non tester - My favourite Disney moment when I took DD to see Disney on Ice. Going again this year.

Not a tester - but think that the DisneyLife should be available on Kindle as a lot of children have those.

[lottietiger]

Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
My son aged 3

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?

Very easy to use

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?

He watched some of the Mickeys short stores, finding Nemo, and lots of the Frozen short stories

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?

Extensive, just a massive amount TV in one place.

• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?

It was good but not for us. or £9.99 I feel you would have to use it every day and we just wouldn't use it that much.

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not? Yes I would recommend it as some of y friends probably would think its g ood value or money for the amount of content. Is just not for us.. thank you for the opportunity though.

[oneplus2is3]

• Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
  

3 Year Old DD

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?
  

Easy to install (though glitches in app meant I had difficulty setting up profile for DD on iPad and started again on Mac)

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?
  

Her addictive personality meant watching the same films over and over again- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (difficult as it doesn't appear on home screen so has to be searched for)and The Little Mermaid. She eventually started branching out but mainly stuck to classics and pixar animations.

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?
  

A wide range but hard for my DD to navigate around and distinguish between movies, books and soundtracks. I appreciate she is very young but can navigate iPlayer alone.

Generally pleased with but no Frozen is a HUGE turn off. Favourites option on each profile is good if you enjoy some of the lesser known titles and can't be bothered to search for them each time. Constant logging in was a pain.

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
  

Yes, but only if I knew they had lots of disposable income (£9.99 a month is expensive for something that only the kids will use) and didn't already own a lot of the films; so perhaps in reality no.

[ladygoingGaga]

Non-tester
A firm favourite and a film everyone remembers has to be finding Nemo!
Who doesn't walk into a pet shop or aquarium see a 'Nemo' fish

It also has the very best line from Dory 'when life gets you down, you've got to just keep swimming'

I still use that phrase today with my DS who is now 9, wise words.

[TrollTheRespawnJeremy]

My DD aged 6 has been involved with testing Disneylife.

Install was easy, although a bit slow on the laptop. Ok on phones. I liked that it synched with my account that I have with the Disneystore.

Annoyingly, DD drawn to watching films that we already own on DVD. I thought she would be more interested in the television content as we have done the films to death!
To clarify- we don't have television as such in our house. We use internet television and mostly watch programmes through subscription services so she has had no access to Disney Junior etc. I would pay £10 a month to have Disney television, but will not pay £30 or more to have Sky or Cable in order to get Disney channel. We are dead against advertising to children which is part of the reason that we do not subscribe to TV and I was pleased to note that there is no advertising on the Disneylife app.

I thought that the range of content was decent, a mixture of films, tv and family feature films. Disney has such a huge back catalogue that I can imagine this being added to/changed sporadically. I liked the idea of the books, perhaps this could be expanded upon to interactive games/storybooks so that it's a less passive experience?

I would recommend this but not in it's current format. Having it on ipads, phones and laptops is maybe ok for journeys (but then the internet connection might be an issue), but it's not very family friendly. We prefer to watch films as a group.
We did hook the laptop up to the tv monitor and stream from there, which is better, but not ideal. If Disneylife could become available as a downloadable app for the PSN or whatever the Xbox version is, or for internet television then it would definitely be a winner.
With Netflix/Amazon et al, it is easy for kids to get onto a profile not meant for them and watch unsuitable content, whereas you don't get much in the way of unsuitable content with Disney. (Apart from historical racism, but even that's important within context as a learning tool.)

I don't agree with kids having their own ipads/phones either so this means it's all done through the parents devices... this means that if the parent wants or needs to use said device it is going to cause a ruckus! I'd rather not encourage independent binge viewing and hope Disney supports viewing as families by expanding their offering to internet television and console networks.

[axlbaby]

Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
My 2 DDs. 5.5 and 4.

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?

Was fairly easy to use. Being able to click through via character pictures was useful for the 4 year old who can't read yet. Took a little while to set up as I had forgotten I had a Disney movie rewards account so had to faff around with the password for a while.

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?

We watched aristocats, Robin Hood and some Sofia the 1st so far. The girls enjoyed these but we have quite a lot of the films already on dvd so there was a lot they'd already seen.

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?

It was pretty good, I liked the books that were available but on the whole would rather the girls sat with a real book rather than in front of a screen.
Liked the apps option and downloaded the frozen one.

• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?

We had some technical issues with films crashing. The single most annoying thing was that it didn't remember your login so everytime a film/show finished you had to relogin. Incredibly frustrating.
Overall I liked it though didn't feel like it was something we would pay for as we have so much of the content already.

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?

I wouldn't not recommend it as I think it is good but a bit too expensive. However I think I would suggest to most people they'd be better using one of the other services that also has content for grown ups and will have stuff for the kids too. Our Amazon prime gives us enough stuff and would make it hard to justify the cost for this.

[axlbaby]

Oh and forgot not being able to cast to the TV was a major issue for us.

[Missydurrani]

Tester:
Right nightmare setting this up ad the worst thing it only works on latest IOS. My son had 3 years old ipad and I didn't install the latest IOS on old machine because it slows it down so couldn't download the app on his ipad.
Downloaded it on my tablet and husband's ipad but gutted that we can cast on chrome on iOS grrrrrr so had to use android tablet or laptop to stream it on TV.
And when we streamed it it kept hanging and was so slow my 6 years old cried. So I didn't use it again.
I'm going to install new ios on his ipad today and will give this app a go again and will leave detailed feedback in few days.

[Missydurrani]

I means to say we cannot cast on chrome on iOS

[Figwin]

I have two fav Disney moments. This firsts is Ariel bursting out the water into the rock singing Part of Your World. The second is Simba being held up at the beginning of The Lion King as I can recreate it with my daughter (she's only 1)

My one year old daughter is a sucker for the hotdog song at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She's can't help but dance. That's her jam.

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

TESTER further update on my feedback

We've been looking at the books but I can't find any way of filtering or sorting by age. If we're to use them I want ones DD can read herself (she's 6yo) or longer stories we can read to her. Seems a bit stab in the dark or endlessly searching. I could be missing something but I could only find pre-school readers (which seemed really hard and designed to be read by a parent) or older teenage style books. Gave up in the end and switched back to our extensive library of actual books

I'd only really use the books if they were graded and suitable for reading practise by my daughter. She's a reluctant reader so I was hoping some books featuring her favourite characters would be just the ticket.

We haven't used the music as we have Spotify so no need. We don't really listen to music in the house, just in the car. We have a variety of mixed playlists already on Spotify and DH would go crazy if we had Disney songs on loop (I sneak a few good ones into existing playlists!).

I still don't think we will use the service much (haven't since we set it up) as we can't easily watch films on our TV. Basically makes it useless for us as a family as we watch films together either via apps on our PS3 or via our Chromecast.

I might consider the service if it would cast from iOS apps and was cheaper. We have lots of Disney films on DVD and access via Netflix and NowTV. I'm guessing I could also rent titles via other online suppliers such as wuaki.tv

[Mindfulofmuddle]

• Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
  

Ds1 - 7yrs and Ds2 - 2.5 yrs

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?
  

Ds1 navigated his way around DisneyLife easily once he had investigated it and Ds2 could even find stuff he wanted to watch, thanks to the pictures.

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?
  

They watched the films we already own mostly, Monster Inc., Toy Story etc. but also checked out some of the classic films too such as Snow White.

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?
  

I thought the range was good. There was enough variety to keep them occupied for 1/2 hour, which is their Tech limit.

• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?
  

I think DisneyLife would be a very useful thing to have, if you didn't own many of the films already, or didn't have access to TV apps or channels that allowed you to see them. However, as we already own many of the films the kids like on DVD, I certainly couldn't justify the monthly subscription price (which is pretty steep imo) as the additional modes on DisneyLife other than viewing the movies wouldn't provide enough longevity for my children to warrant that kind of outlay.

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
  

I would recommend (and maybe sign up myself) if we were going to be away from home without access to a DVD collection for any period of time, but otherwise I couldn't recommend DisneyLife because of the high subscription cost.

[ThomasRichard]

Non-tester. At the end of Tangled and Beauty and the Beast my DC insist that I dance with them through the credits. It so cute and funny; one of those moments that I feel that I'm getting this mothering thing right!

[allthingsred]

Non tester
My favorite Disney moment...as a girl pretending I was ariel singing "part of there world " at the top of my voice in the bath & now seeing & hearing my little girls doing the same🐳🐙🐡

[MorganPrince]

Tester

We are huge fans of Disney and love the music, the movies, and the books. We've tried out the app and the boys (6 and 11) have really enjoyed having access to all the Disney things.

My eldest particularly enjoyed the music, he loved being able to pick and choose his favourite movies and listening to the soundtracks.

My youngest enjoyed having access to all the movies, especially the ones we don't own!

My biggest issue with DisneyLife is the constant need to sign in. Mid-song or Mid-movie it will log me out and I'll have to log in again. It can be quite frustrating when the boys come racing into the kitchen complaining about being logged out.

Another thing I would like to mention is that if someone pays for Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime, they might think it's too much to also pay for DisneyLife because most of the movies are already available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. However I would recommend it to someone who doesn't have the streaming subscriptions.

Overall I loved the app, and so did the boys. They liked having their own profile pics (disney characters) and thought it was awesome to play the music whenever they wanted to.

[KittyKat88]

• Which of your DCs joined you in testing the DisneyLife?
  

My DDs aged 3 & 5

• How easy did you find it to use DisneyLife?
  

Easy to navigate and DDs liked the 'Character Worlds' feature of choosing a favourite character and then being able to access all content relating to that character in one place. DDs enjoyed setting up their own profiles with a special Disney pic. DD age 3 was perfectly able to find what she wanted - althouh she did get a bit frustrated at having to wait for each book/prog to download

• Which films/programmes did you or your DCs watch? What did you and your DCs think of these?
  

We tried to watch Snow White and Sleeping Beauty films initially. DDs were also interested in the stories (but worth mentioning all are narrated with an American voice-over)

• What did you think about the range of content on offer on DisneyLife?
  

I think that the range is rather limited for a £9.99 p/m price tag. It's nice having access to the ebooks as well as films/TV progs and shorts, but it is by no means comprehensive.

• What was your overall impression of DisneyLife?
  

Sadly with the feature films we watched, they all 'crashed' about 15-25 minutes in - the screen just went dark blue, and you could hear the soundtrack but no images I had to reboot the App each time. Very frustrating and my DDs quickly lost interest as a result

• Would you recommend DisneyLife to friends or family? If so, why? If not, why not?
  

As it stands, unfortunately I can't recommend DisneyLife. The App is too glitchy - for £9.99 per month you would NOT expect frequent crashes! Another irritation is having to log in EVERY time the App is opened. So when it crashes, it is doubly annoying as you need to login a 2ns time! I also think that content needs to be developed. It doesn't include EVERY Disney film or short (e.g it doesn't have "Toy Story That Time Forgot" which, considering that short came out in Dec 2014 should really be on there!!!). To be honest, even if the App was perfect and had more content, plus the option for UK/English speaking narration then I still don't think I'd be happy to pay more than £5 per month. I think £9.99 p/m is VERY expensive for an App, particularly as it also can't be viewed/streamed on a large screen, only on mobiles/tablets.

[HappyHeart87]

Non-tester
My favourite Disney moment ever was from Toy Story.
"The Claaaaw!"

[NK5BM3]

Ive just set this up so will feedback on the weekend when we've had a good go but just wanted to check.. Is it 3 month trial or only one month??? I thought it was 3 but I seem to only have got one. Have I got it wrong??

[marymanc]

Non-tester

My favourite moment is definitely Balu in the Jungle Book singing 'Bare Necessities' whilst scratching his back on a tree.

[kateandme]

Opening of lion king

[ohlittlepea]

Non-tester

my daughter is 21 months old, and has a very random favourite Disney moment,
In Beauty and the Beast the scene where Beast eats his porridge really messily has her in absolute stitches everytime! She asks to 'have porridge like the beast has' most days!

I love the scene selection option on Dvds as we can skip any more scary or sad parts that her little head isn't ready for and just enjoy the Amazing songs and heart warming moments together.