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

Echo: Season 1 Premiere (January 10)

This lower-stakes, earthy Marvel series might be just the thing to shake off your superhero fatigue. We were introduced to deaf, First Nations superhero Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) back in Hawkeye’s standalone Disney+ series, and now she’s trying to return to her roots and confront her past as a henchman of the vicious Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). A far cry from the galaxy-stomping, multiverse-remixing MCU entries of late, we’re hoping that Echo brings things back to basics in a good way.

Death and Other Details: Season 1 Premiere (January 16)

Tired of the recent slew of clever whodunnits in ritzy high society settings? ‘Course you’re not! This new one’s set on a lavish Mediterranean ocean liner (so far, so Poirot) and Mandy Patinkin is the moustachioed “world’s greatest detective” Rufus Cotesworth (okay, that’s very Poirot). Violett Beane stars as our lead ingenue, Imogene, who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets pinned as prime suspect.

A Real Bug’s Life (January 24)

An epic tale with a miniature (and at times microscopic) scale, this new National Geographic docuseries promises an up-close-and-personal portrait of all critters creepy and crawly. Will it have the same intricate plotting and goofy characters of Pixar’s A Bug’s Life? Ehhh probably not. But with luck—and Awkwafina’s lively narration—it should help any bug hater get over their fear of the wee beasties.


All new titles arriving on Disney+ New Zealand in January

January 3

Ishura: Season 1

January 10

Bob’s Burgers: Season 14 Premiere
Marvel Studios’ Echo: Season 1 Premiere
The Secret Life of Dancing Dogs: Season 1

January 11

Daughters of the Cult: Season 1

January 16

Death and Other Details: Season 1 Premiere

January 17

Air Crash Investigation: Season 5, 7, 19, 20
America’s Funniest Home Videos: Seasons 24-26
A Shop for Killers: Season 1
It Was Always Me: Season 2
Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin: Season 1
Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends: Season 3
Me & Winnie the Pooh: Season 1
Wicked Tuna: Seasons 11-12

January 19

Cristobal Balenciaga: Season 1

January 22

Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People: Season 1

January 23

The Last Repair Shop

January 24

Drain the Oceans: Seasons 2-5
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted Showdown: Season 1
A Real Bug’s Life
Secrets of the Zoo: Seasons 2-5
Family Guy: Season 21

January 27

Flex X Cop: Season 1

January 31

Choir: Season 1
A Hero’s Journey: The Making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Echo
Secrets of the Zoo: North Carolina: Season 1
Secrets of the Zoo: Tampa: Seasons 1-4
Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks Showdown: Season 1