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Disney Plus puts The Simpsons in widescreen and fans are not happy

D'oh!

Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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The first 30 seasons of The Simpsons are now available on Disney Plus. 

 Fox Network

The first 30 seasons of The Simpsons (for the most part) are available on Disney's new streaming platform, Disney Plus, but fans can only watch in widescreen -- cutting out some of the beloved visual gags from the long-running animated Fox series, TV Guide reported. 

For example, the widescreen format means you miss the gag in season 4 episode Duffless when Duff, Duff Lite and Duff Dry beer are all shown coming from the same pipe, Tristan Cooper of Dorkly and CollegeHumor pointed out on Twitter. 

Disney Plus

The widescreen, cropped version of older episodes of The Simpsons may lead to a slightly stretched out and zoomed in look.

 Sarah Tew/CNET

It also means characters' faces look more stretched out at times. 

Disney Plus uses a 16:9 aspect ratio, which The Simpsons didn't switch to until season 20, TV Guide reported. Simpsons fans experienced the same problem when FXX (which is owned by The Walt Disney Company) began airing the show in 2014, only in widescreen. 

Outside of The Simpsons, Disney Plus subscribers reported a number of issues with the platform's Tuesday rollout, including trouble logging in, an inability to stream, app failures, and shows and movies disappearing from the library. The service costs $7 per month (though you may be able to get it for free) and is the exclusive home to stream movies from the Star Wars and Marvel catalogs, from Pixar and Disney's own studios, as well as original programs and other titles. 

Editors' note: TVGuide is owned by CBS, which also owns CNET.

Watch this: Disney Plus is here! What do we think? (The Daily Charge, 11/12/2019)

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