‘Simpsons’ Fans are Mad At Disney+ For Cropping Jokes Out of Episodes
Disney+ launched yesterday, but fans of The Simpsons are struggling with one element of the show on the streaming service.
The first 30 seasons of the animated classic are included on the platform, the first 20 of which have been stretched out from their original fullscreen/4:3 ratio into the modernly-used widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning a whole universe of visual gags on the outskirts of the shot are being cropped out.
This is because The Simpsons only adopted the widescreen format during season 20, but surely Disney should've learned from the mistakes of FXX, which still airs episode marathons in a similarly frustrating way.
Posting on social media, The Simpsons' loyal fans voiced their displeasure at the awkward aspect ratio of classic episodes.
"Old episodes of The Simpsons on Disney+ aren't in the original 4:3 aspect ratio so they're squished into widescreen and it looks bad I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news!!!" wrote one user.
As you can see in some of the tweets below, a number of classic and very funny Simpsons jokes and sight gags are rendered meaningless. The one shot where the three different types of Duff beer are revealed to all be coming from the same tube is completely stripped of its humor—the tube is cropped out, and instead Duff looks like any other normal functioning brewery. The eccentric charm and attention to detail that Disney was surely interested in from The Simpsons when they purchased 20th Century Fox is stripped away here.
"Time to watch my favorite Simpsons Ep. of all time & please, give us the option to use 4:3 Aspect Ratio. Looks ugly in Fullscreen/Widescreen," another said.
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
This is from season 1, Episode 1: The Simpsons roasting on an open campfire. The left photo is the DVD realase and the right is from Disney +#SimpsonsAspectRatio pic.twitter.com/PqQAAYLzf3
— Gotta catch Em All (@SolderBen10) November 12, 2019
*clears throat* “ah yes, in episode 9F14 there is one tube pouring into three distinctly different vats of Duff beer, yet now I cannot see said singular tube, thus rendering the visual joke meaningless. Please explain it.”#SimpsonsAspectRatio pic.twitter.com/eVyw9IiNzN
— Timohthy Jay (@TimothyJ44) November 13, 2019
When they cropped The Simpsons into widescreen, they kept shots of the TV in 4:3. They really should've just kept the entire thing in it's original aspect ratio. pic.twitter.com/N2w7IxL3l9
— Tanooki Joe (@TanookiKuribo) June 4, 2019
— TopSpot123 (@TopSpot123) November 12, 2019
Time to watch my favorite Simpsons Ep. of all time & please, give us the option to use 4:3 Aspect Ratio. Looks ugly in Fullscreen/Widescreen. #TheSimpsons #DisneyPlus
— SkullDude (@xSkullDude) November 13, 2019
UPDATE:
Disney+ only has The Simpsons stretched/cropped to widescreen
shameful, @DisneyPlusHelp. canceling my subscription until this is fixed.— Corey Atad (@CoreyAtad) November 12, 2019
Are we witnessing the makings of another petition?
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