Best new movies and TV series on Disney+ New Zealand: February 2024

Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Disney+’s New Zealand library. Here’s Eliza Janssen’s recommendations for the titles most worth watching. Scroll down for the full list of everything arriving on the platform.

Top picks

Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold (February 5)

Ever since his name-making athletic achievement was chronicled in Oscar-winning doco Free Solo, Alex Honnold’s had a hard time getting a grip on things. Which is highly ironic—Honnold is a world-class climber, known for scaling terrifying heights at the risk of his home life and, well, actual existence. This new venture sees Honnold tackling a lifelong dream amid the frosty peaks of Greenland, trying to clamber his way back to a sense of purpose and direction. I still feel terrible for his long-suffering partner, though…

Shōgun (February 27)

Ambitious men from very different worlds experience an epic collision, in this historical drama set in feudal Japan. It’s based on a 1970s novel that was previously adapted into a 1980s TV series, but the saga of a British sailor (muso Cosmo Jarvis) teaming up with a powerful samurai lord (martial arts legend Hiroyuki Sanada) is perfected in the form of a big-budget, sweeping limited series. It’s a fictionalised retelling of true, culture-clashing events: well worth a dive down the Wikipedia rabbit hole once you’ve dipped your toes into the series.

Iwájú (February 28)

Disney broadens their horizons in this exciting new sci-fi project, collaborating with Pan-African comic book company Kugali for an out-of-this-world, coming-of-age adventure. It follows two friends living in futuristic Lagos, who uncover surprising secrets and incredible possibilities in their two very different cities. Think a touch of Wakanda’s Afro-Futurist, utopian worldbuilding, plus characters and cultures that we haven’t yet seen in the realm of big-budget animated storytelling so far.