On those days when you want to beat the summer heat and just stay in and enjoy the AC, it’s a good time to catch up on the most popular streaming services – sometimes, they even intersect with the franchises we feature!
We want to give you a round-up regularly of some of the best you can stream to compliment your loot before it arrives, and these titles, featured across Loot Crate, Loot Crate DX and Loot Wear for July’s TEAM UP theme should get you in the mood!:
Bill and Ted
It seems like at any given time, at least one feature film’s worth of most excellent Bill and Ted action is available on the major streaming services. Right now, Netflix is heinously lacking in your favorite San Dimas residents, but the original film is available on Hulu if you’ve got it! That said, if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, we really recommend you take the time to watch Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, which while less of a crowd-pleaser than Excellent Adventure is smarter, weirder, and more freakishly hilarious than you remember if you haven’t seen it since 1991. (You can see the real seeds of Alex Winter’s Freaked and Idiot Box here.) By the way, if you’re prone to browsing through YouTube, you might try looking up the Bill & Ted animated series while you’re at it. *cough*
Ant Man and the Wasp
So, while your options for standard streaming services is definitely lacking this month when it comes to all things Ant-Man and The Wasp (well, except for trailers for the new film and the like) – now’s a good time to point out something which we didn’t ever discuss before, which is Hulu Live TV. For those who decided to go the cord-cutter route, the $40 a month streaming broadcast option from Hulu is not a bad deal, so long as you realize it won’t deliver as many channels as, say, cable or satellite. If you’re jonesing for ant-sized Marvel adventures, though? – the original Ant-Man film is on TNT On Demand through the service. Also, Disney XD On Demand has Marvel’s Avengers: Secret Wars, which has some most excellent Ant-Man and Wasp action of the animated sort.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
We’ve featured everyone’s favorite ooze-induced reptilian heroes a few times in Streaming the Loot, and virtually every time the available options seem to change; this month, unfortunately it’s not one of the better offerings. Netflix has got the mid-90’s Saban-produced live-action kids show Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation; meanwhile, Hulu‘s offerings are a little more robust, featuring the most recent Nickelodeon CG TMNT kids’ show, as well as the feature-film sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. (Hey, if you’re an Arrow fan and Stephen Amell playing Casey Jones is right where your fandoms collide, then you’re in luck!) Out of the Shadows is also on Amazon Prime at the moment, and of course there you can rent virtually all of the TMNT animated series by season.
Adventure Time
It seems almost too soon to contemplate, but next month we reach the end of the road for one of the greatest animated series of all time: Adventure Time will conclude in August with a four-part series finale entitled “Come Along With Me.” The trailer alone has us feeling all the feels, so now is definitely a prime time to dive into Adventure Time if you’ve never experienced the brilliance before – and if you have, revisit your favorite moments as we’ve watched Finn grow up in the Land of Ooo for the past 10 seasons! The entire run of the show up through Season 9 is currently on Hulu. There are far too many classic episodes to list, but we’ll throw out a favorite musical moment anyway: “Daddy, Why’d You Eat My Fries,” Marceline’s solemn ode to her dad’s potato-thieving hijinks in Season Two’s “It Came From the Nightosphere.”
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Here’s a streamin’ report that is also pretty much the same as the last time these heroes graced our crates, only we think your options have gotten even better… well, if you’re a Netflix subscriber, anyway. The o.g. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, sure, they’ve got it – and so much more. Power Rangers Samurai! Power Rangers Megaforce! Power Rangers Dino Thunder! Power Rangers Ninja Storm! – If you’re into the many subsequent Rangers series in the ongoing canon, the Netflix folks have got you covered in spades. Meanwhile, over on Hulu and Amazon Prime, your pickings are a lot slimmer – although if you never got a chance to see 2017’s polarizing Power Rangers feature film, it’s available to stream on both so now’s your time to weigh in!
The Powerpuff Girls
Much the same as with Adventure Time – and the majority of Cartoon Network’s major titles, really – your best option for streaming The Powerpuff Girls is over at Hulu. Where it’s basically every bit of sugar, spice, and everything nice you can handle!: All six seasons of the original PPG series, plus all of the 2016 reboot to date, and the rather excellent 2002 The Powerpuff Girls Movie. That’s a lot of adorable fisticuffs to catch up on if you’re a newbie, so we’d advise starting from the very beginning. (Though if you wanted to skip forward a little and start with the episode where they totally put the beatdown on those pesky Rowdyruff Boys (see above), then we wouldn’t object…)
