We said Disney+ would be making The Simpsons available in its proper aspect ratio on May 28, and lo and behold, it came to pass. But getting there isn’t immediately intuitive. Read on to find out how to make the switch and avoid cramped Springfield viewing.
Up until the mid-2000s, most TV shows were produced in the “fullscreen” format — kind of an anachronistic name these days, given that they no longer fill up the screen of any modern set. It wasn’t until February of 2009 that The Simpsons went to the “widescreen” or 16:9 format, meaning there are 429 episodes that are square instead of rectangular.
When converting the episodes to HD Fox made the wincing decision to zoom into the picture, creating a faux 16:9 with foreheads, shoulders, and interesting sight gags cropped off. It was this version that made its debut on the “Simpsons World” app, and public outcry forced them to go back and add the original 4:3 version. History has now repeated itself as Homer’s new owners wound up making the same mistake.
But after public demand, they corrected that error, and as of today, here’s how to watch The Simpsons properly: from the main screen (the one that has thumbnails of all the season on it), navigate to Details. You’ll see a toggle at the top that says “Remastered Aspect Ratio,” which is what they call the wrong version of this show. If it’s blue, switch it to grey to turn it off. Now you have perfectly cromulent viewing settings, and the app will remember them, so you only have to do it once.
And it only took six months. To make up for the long wait, tomorrow Disney+ will get The Longest Daycare, the original theatrical Maggie Simpson short that Playdate With Destiny was a sequel to. It’s not up yet, but I can certainly wait…I have over 200 eeeeexcellent episodes to binge first.