‘The Simpsons’ On Disney+ Is Streaming In The Wrong Aspect Ratio
By Chris Evangelista/Nov. 13, 2019 9:30 am EST
The Simpsons is a show from a completely different era. You see, kids, back in the olden days – where I come from – we didn’t have widescreen TVs. Our TVs were blocky monstrosities that took up half the room, rested atop hideous media centers. As a result, many shows from this time were presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Now, you can easily present a show in 4:3 on a widescreen TV. The problem is that doing so would have black bars on the side of the screen. Which is fine, even though many people don’t think so. To help placate people who might complain, some shows in 4:3 have been stretched to 16:9 here in the age of streaming.
This stretching enables the image to fill the screen, but it also ends up cropping the frame. And that’s where issues arise. See for yourself:
The Simpsons didn’t switch over to a modern 16:9 aspect ratio until season 20, and The Simpsons on Disney+ is trying to compensate by stretching the earlier seasons – with dire results. Above you can see just one example of a sight gag that’s been ruined by this decision. And if you’ve watched The Simpsons you know it’s a show of many sight gags. As if that weren’t bad enough it looks as if some of the images have been stretched as well:
All the classic Simpsons episodes on Disney+ are in cropped widescreen format — this means you miss out on tons of great visual jokes, like how Duff, Duff Lite and Duff Dry all come from the same tube. pic.twitter.com/cTy9adulFl
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) November 12, 2019
Not only are the classic Simpsons episodes on Disney+ awkwardly cropped, but they’re stretched in a lot of places too. Bart’s head looks 4 inches wider here: pic.twitter.com/fCpmTPasGj
