A whole new world for Disney+ with Apple Vision Pro
California / USA
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California / USA 〰️
TL;DR: Got a Disney+ subscription and an Apple Vision Pro? You can watch Star Wars, Avengers, Elemental and more at home in 3D.
So what? Hold on to your magic carpets and light your French-accented, personified candelabras—because Disney just got a whole lot more magical.
Fans can now experience Disney’s iconic storytelling in a whole new way with Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro. The groundbreaking collaboration, known as Disney+ environments, uses Apple’s first spatial computer—the Vision Pro—to transform viewers' spaces into landscapes with animations, sounds, and Easter eggs from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars.
If you’re a Disney+ subscriber with a Vision Pro—you can enjoy streaming entertainment in a groundbreaking new way, at no extra cost (phew, because that Vision Pro ain’t cheap.)
What can I watch with Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro?
You can now stream the entire Disney+ catalog on Apple Vision Pro, including thousands of TV shows and films and Hulu content. When it comes to immersive environments, the first four Disney and Apple have released Disney+ Theater, inspired by the historic El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, the Scare Floor from Pixar’s Monsters Inc., Marvel’s Avengers Tower overlooking downtown Manhattan, and the cockpit of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, facing a binary sunset on Tatooine from the Star Wars galaxy.
In Disney’s 3D at home movies, storytelling leaps off the screen like never before with the Vision Pro through dozens of popular movies like Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Elemental, and Encanto.
Disney+
What’s so spatial about the Apple Vision Pro?
Spatial computing blends the physical and digital worlds, allowing computers to interact with and understand their environment in three dimensions. Put simply, it makes technology more intuitive and immersive for users. The Vision Pro, like the Magic Leap, Microsoft HoloLens and Meta Quest Pro, is a wearable headset that enables users to engage with augmented reality and virtual reality experiences within their physical environment. While the technology is still in its infancy, it represents a shift for how we can engage with computer technology in our day to day lives.
Apple
Why the collaboration between Disney+ and Apple?
Disney+ on Apple Vision Pro extends the long-standing history of innovation and collaboration between Disney and Apple that shapes the way we experience storytelling and media.
“At Disney, we’re constantly searching for new ways to entertain, inform, and inspire by combining exceptional creativity with groundbreaking technology to create truly remarkable experiences,” said Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. “Apple Vision Pro is a revolutionary platform that will bring our fans closer to the characters and stories they love while immersing them more deeply in all that Disney has to offer.”
Apple
How does the technology behind Disney+ and Apple Vision Pro’s partnership work?
The partnership came to life through the collaboration of technology teams from across The Walt Disney Company like Disney Studio Technology, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology, ILM Immersive, and Skywalker Sound.
Disney+ environments were developed using the Universal Scene Description (USD) format, originally developed by Pixar and open sourced in 2016. USD allows software developers to collaborate in real time across creation tools and development pipelines to build complex 3D experiences at scale across multiple applications.
The Alliance for OpenUSD – a group formed by Pixar and Apple, among others – is working to standardise the USD format across the industry. Pixar and Apple working together in this way makes for a Disney fairytale worthy story itself, with Pixar having been founded by Apple founder Steve Jobs in 1986, and acquired by Disney in 2006.
Using Dolby Vision and Multiview High Efficiency Video Coding, 3D movies on Disney+ promise ultra high definition resolution in high dynamic range for viewers. The movies will be unfiltered and independent for each eye, and at a high frame rate for several titles so that the filmmakers’ creative intent is preserved, and elevated by the 3D experience.
A new era of entertainment
The Apple Vision Pro and Disney+ combo aims to make you feel like you're part of the story, engaging with characters and worlds in a deeply personal way. It's about experiencing stories, adventures and experiences in a way that's never been possible before—and delivering every-day magic for fans around the world.
