New Disney Plus logo: Disney unveils its new streaming branding

Disney has been hinting at some big changes in the Disney Plus branding. In recent days, lots of users checked their TV, tablet, or phone to find the streaming app had a new logo — the iconic Disney blue replaced by a glowing green background. The new logo has been controversial: some people see it as a needless simplification of a familiar design; some people appreciate that it doesn’t look like every other streaming service; some people find themselves wondering if the color really changed or if they’ve just been looking at their TV wrong all this time.

Well, it did change. Permanently. That new green color is called “Aurora,” both in tribute to the aurora borealis and the protagonist of Sleeping Beauty. (I don’t remember much of this green color in that movie, but whatever.) It’s meant to be a mix of Disney blue and Hulu green — here’s a really fun deep dive into the exact alchemy of said mix — as Hulu becomes a part Disney Plus.

Here’s the official new logo:

Here’s the new logo in GIF form:

Here it is side by side with the old logo:

And here it is alongside a new “mnemonic,” which is a fancy word for the brief audio logo that plays when you open the app or start a movie:

Is it just me or is that kind of intense? The dark background giving way to the flash of light is almost ominous, in a way. But it does resolve into that nice, warm, glowing logo, so it’s eventually good feelings all around.

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The new mnemonic was created by Ludwig Göransson, the composer behind The Mandalorian, Black Panther, Tenet, and more. He also just recently won an Oscar for the Oppenheimer score, which is decidedly less whimsical than the new Disney Plus sound. (I hear a tiny bit of the old “When You Wish Upon a Star” vibe, a little of the Hulu crescendo, and maybe even a smidge of the Pixar light switch right there at the end? Maybe I’m overthinking it.)

The color change is a blow for nostalgic Disney fans everywhere, who see that deep royal blue and immediately think of Cinderella’s castle and the sweeping orchestral introduction to their favorite childhood movie. But from a branding perspective, it’s probably a good idea: our TVs are a sea of blue and black logos, and Disney’s now stands out from the crowd.

So far, the change seems to be limited only to the logo. The Disney Plus app retains its dark blue and gray hues and continues to look both like every other streaming app and pretty much like it did the day it launched. It’s very Hulu-centric, too; in other countries, Disney is bringing Star and other services into the app, but the Aurora-colored logo is going worldwide.

Adding Hulu to Disney Plus might not seem like a huge deal, but inside the company, it’s something like a relaunch — the Disney team has rearchitected a huge amount of its streaming infrastructure in order to get the whole company running on a single platform. So it’s treating today like a big redesign, complete with multiple ad campaigns to tell the world: Hulu is now part of Disney Plus. And everything’s a little greener now.