Not So Fast, Netflix Users

So, one of the big pieces of news this week was that Disney and Netflix were teaming up.

That's right--soon (well, soonish -- in September), Netflix subscribers would be able to access every single Disney movie exclusively via the streaming service -- including Marvel and LucasFilm movies.

But it's Disney, so there's a catch.

That catch comes in the form of the somewhat-annoying-but-undeniably-ingenius Disney Vault: that elusive, mysterious place where all Disney movies hide at some point in their lives -- like a semi-permanent retirement community for Disney's money-makers. Every so often, usually around a "big anniversary," a film will come out of the Disney Vault, usually digitally remastered or with some exclusive content or in some new format (DVD! Blu-Ray!), and always only for a limited time.

Like, I said. Merchandising gold. You've taken a ubiquitous product and made it special and exclusive and only available for a short period of time.

Netflix, however, would change all that: after all, if you subscribed to Netflix and you could watch the movies any time you wanted, why would you buy the special edition DVDs?

Chances are, you probably wouldn't.

So, despite the Internet's typical over-reaction, you won't be able to watch every Disney movie: some of the older movies will still be available (probably to garner interest in older, less popular films) and the newest films will be available as well. I would imagine that watching Zootopia or Finding Dory on Netflix might be akin to watching it on HBO or Starz or whatever TV channel Disney used to have the agreement with.