UPDATE: Disney+ to restore all of The Simpsons you’ve been missing by “the end of May”
TV Features Disney plus
Originally posted 4/02/20 at 4:25 PM. – Ed.
A promising update in the ongoing battle against a public scourge. No, not that one. Not that one either. This one: Disney+ subscribers will soon be able to watch the first 19 seasons of The Simpsons (and the first nine episodes of season 20) in their original 4:3 aspect ratio. How soon? Well, as with anything these days, that’s kind of a moving target.
Expressing gratitude for Simpsons fans’ famously deep reserves of patience, Disney+’s Twitter feed estimated a “late May” rollout for episodes that don’t stretch their characters’ proportions or leave some of their best jokes out of the frame. So not exactly the “early 2020” timeframe promised last November, but pretty much the same amount of time it took to deliver standard-definition crops the last time The Simpsons went to streaming. No matter how they view the episodes, subscribers are still unlikely to see Leon Kompowsky—though that’s more the producers’ decision than Disney+’s.
UPDATE, 5/20/20 @ 3:50 P.M.: National Streaming Day may be a blatant exploitation of our nation’s proclivity to cling to fake holidays, but at least it’s informative. For example: Today, after informing waiting fans of a forthcoming Muppets series, Disney+ also confirmed that the proper aspect ratio will be restored to The Simpsons beginning May 28.
36 Comments
OK, now do FXX.
I hate this trend more than cropping 16:9 into 4:3.
Could be worse—-FXX stretches the full 4:3 source to 16:9 so that all the characters and objects are way too fat.Yes, even Comic Book Store guy.
I think it all falls into the big bucket of, stop fucking around with aspect ratios. The only people who care about black bars on their screens are fucking boomers and they are all chugging so much hydroxychloroquine they are gonna be blind in 6 months anyways
It’s not really just boomers, it’s all the technologically inept.The move to HD happened at the same time as the move from 4:3 to 16×9.You have a whole generation of, at best ill informed and at worst dumb, that just don’t get that something doesn’t have to be 16×9 to be HD.They just don’t get it. If the image isn’t filling the screen, they think they aren’t getting the full image. It’s dumb, but, I get it.Cartoons getting cropped is obviously dumb.But, 4:3 to 16:9 conversions has basically saved Sopranos, The Wire, Friends, Seinfeld for future generations. Whereas other shows from that era that aren’t giving the same treatment are going to get forgotten.
Some shows were shot on film so they have the 16:9 but weren’t meant to be seen that way so you can see fun behind the scenes stuff on the sides like stand-in actors and production equipment in the way.
Given the fact that the Simpsons never age. Homer was a boomer, then Gen X and now actually may be a millennial.
I prefer the Homer who believes rock attained perfection in 1974.
lol
Currently on a Simpson’s binge, and yes this issue does ruin some of the greatest scenes in the show.
I avoided watching it on Disney+ because of these issues. Plan to binge it once this is fixed though. Have not revisited those early seasons in years
Great. Now we can get on to the really important stuff like Iron Man’s costume.
There’s no such thing as smay….it’s smarch!
I don’t understand what takes so long. Just use a dvd rip
They can’t as Disney are too cheap to pay for the full version.
They have to go through everything to make sure it’s PC, and SJW-compliant.
bah, missed it by a month and a half
Must you insert your childish, anti trump rhetoric into your articles?
All of these episodes were available as 4:3 on FX/Simpsons World. I guess I don’t understand why it would take this long to just put those files up, unless there’s something to developing an underlying mechanism to offer different versions of the same episode.
Have they given a definitive date for the commentary tracks? That’s one of the things I’m missing most right now: Human voices that seem like they’re talking to me.
Give us “Stark Raving Dad” back, goddammit.
I’ve been holding off on watching for this exact reason. FINALLY.
The worst thing about streaming services truly.
I’ve been hesitant to sell many of my dvds because of that. Not my Simpsons ones. Can’t sell those because the packaging is too entertaining. But other ones. I’ve pretty much reconciled that I’ll never “own” things I buy digitally and that companies could pull whatever at any moment, but it would be cool at least for some brief time to access, as you say, commentaries and such like on the Simpsons world site
It really seems like a huge oversight, especially when a lot of commentaries and other dvd extras just already exist. I’ve never rented or bought a movie on iTunes or whatever so I dunno if it’s also the case with that, but Netflix etc have multiple audio tracks included already, so I’ve always found it disappointing.
Just by suggesting this they’ll probably do it for a ridiculous fee like 5-10$/commentary, but I’d pay a dollar for a commentary track.
Yep, this. Venture Bros. will end one day, and it’ll have a limited streaming shelf life. I will NOT be unprepared!
National Streaming Day may be a blatant exploitation of our nation’s proclivity to cling to fake holidays…Happy Love Day, everyone!
Can’t wait to enjoy watching the correct aspect ratios on a brand name TV like Sorny
Put it in H!
“We’ll have them ready once we finish ripping the DVDs”
The fact that this has gone on as long as it has is ridiculous. The stock market crashed because of this! Tens of thousands of people dying because people don’t respect aspect ratio! So sad. So tragic.
I have Disney plus but I’m too lazy to check on this, but are they the original broadcast cuts or the syndicated cuts? The broadcast versions keep some great gags in.