We come with great news! The earlier seasons of The Simpsons are now finally available to stream in its 4:3 aspect ratio, as they were supposed to. But this wasn’t an easy job to do.
When it comes to The Simpsons, aspect ratios are essential. Fox firstly aired the show back in 1989, and they used a 4:3 aspect ratio. The show is all about visual, and this thing hasn’t been a problem until 2009. Then they switched from 4:3 to 16:9. Disney decided to upload all 30 seasons of the show to Disney Plus back in November 2019. All of the episodes were only available in the 16:9 ratio. This means that the older episodes looked stretched out. And all the jokes that relied on visuals did not make any sense.
The team has tried to fix it, but it wasn’t really that easy. Right now, Disney Plus subscribers have to switch the toggle on the description page of The Simpsons. The team had to think about how the content was packaged for streaming purposes. This has been a fundamental change.
The team had to create multiple facets, a combination of video, audio, and subtitle components. They fixed it in the meantime, and right now, it doesn’t really matter what aspect ratio people choose when watching The Simpsons. The basic features, like Autoplay and Continue Watching, will still work as normal.
Joe Rice, the Vice President of Media Product, stated: “To support both the original 4:3 aspect ratio and the 16:9 versions of The Simpsons, we needed to challenge prior assumptions and rethink how content for streaming is packaged and delivered. We introduced a new Disney+ app feature today that not only gives fans a choice in video viewing formats but also opens up a number of exciting opportunities for novel ways of presenting content in the future.”
