Best new movies and TV series on Disney+ New Zealand: May 2023

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

The Muppets Mayhem: Season 1 (May 10)

Like Daisy Jones & The Six but if the entire main cast were made of felt, this faux-biopic is finally shining a light on one of the greatest bands of all time: Doctor Teeth and the goddamn Electric Mayhem. With a driven young music executive forcing them into the studio to actually record something, the beloved Muppets faves will get their chance to shine without that neurotic control freak Kermit or scene-stealing Miss Piggy taking up the spotlight. More Animal can never be a bad thing.

The Clearing (May 24)

A cult: a kidnapping: a cast of fabulous Australian performers. In Disney+’s first Australian original series, Teresa Palmer stars as the survivor of a female-led cult (those are hard to come by, strangely) sent spiralling back into old nightmares when a young girl goes missing. She’s joined onscreen by Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto, Mark Coles-Smith, Kate Mulvany, and rising talent Julia Savage, who was terrific in the film Blaze, also about repressed traumatic visions (poor kid).

American Born Chinese: Limited Series (May 24)

From its maximalist poster to its main adult cast—Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, and (IMO) snubbed Supporting Actress nominee Stephanie Hsu—everything about this vibrant new series seems to serendipitously mirror a certain Best Picture winner. Can the adaptation of a imaginative YA novel, based in ancient Chinese mythology, stand on its own merits? Well, when we get more fight scenes with that main trio, it’s hard to complain too much if it doesn’t, really.