How to Watch Classic Simpsons in the Original 4:3 Aspect Ratio on Disney+

A lot of people were excited by the news that Disney+'s UK catalogue would feature 30 seasons of The Simpsons, only to have their hopes dashed by the fact they featured classic episodes in their 'remastered' 16:9 aspect ratio. Since the originals were shown in 4:3 it meant that chunks of the frames ended up being cut, and with them a number of visual gags that The Simpsons is known for.

It's not the first time The Simpsons has suffered thanks to our new widescreen TV standard, but Disney did promise us that the original versions would hit Disney+ on 28th May. Sadly they're not enabled by default, so here's a little bit of help to ensure you get to watch the best episodes of The Simpsons in the best format.

First thing to do is find The Simpsons on Disney+ and head to the page that has the episode list. From there you want to hit the details tab so you see something like this:

As you can see there's a little toggle that keeps things in 16:9 when activated. All you want to do is flick it off and you'll be set back to 4:3 on all your devices. Well, on the episodes available in 4:3, that is, because the aspect ratio changed partway through season 20 and those are obviously only watchable in 16:9.

And that's it, that's all you have to do to see The Simpsons as they were meant to be watched. I would take screenshots to show you an example of the difference, but Disney+ won't allow it for reasons. The quality obviously isn't as good, but you're not going to miss any of those classic visual gags like how Sneed's Feed and Seed used to be called Chucks... well you figure out the joke. Plus saying the remastered episodes are good quality is debatable.