FXX Crops Simpsons SD Episodes for Marathon, Purist Nerds Riot

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Despite the world universally embracing FXX’s 12-day Simpsons marathon (according to a poll I made up for this article) there has been some backlash from series purists and animation nerds alike regarding changes to the show’s appearance. Episodes are now being broadcast in 16:9 aspect ratio, even though most installments are in 4:3. This caused some 911 calls from old school fans who want the move 86’ed after they got the 411 on the situation.

So what does this all mean? Basically, FXX has digitally remastered episodes into a high definition format, which involves cropping the tops and bottoms of most shots. Thankfully, as Reddit users pointed out, the network was careful with majority of the crops, attempting to keep the most important parts of the picture whenever possible.

Also, the episodes were each “color corrected,” making the images appear sharper and brighter. However, this also made some of the animated lines/outlines appear rougher than before.

The show made the switch from standard definition back in 2009 for Season 20, meaning 19 of the 25 seasons been newly-cropped for FXX.

In the end, small potatoes considering we’re getting 552 episodes and a movie of the greatest show in TV history in one giant 12-day marathon. But still, a tiny piece of nostalgia has been killed off in each of our hearts, so – you know – shame on FXX, how dare they, and so forth.

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[Story & GIF via The Verge]

About Gonzo Green

@Gonzo_Green is a chronic sufferer of Pre-life Crisis Syndrome. He drinks frequently, and wears hats sometimes, with these events occasionally occurring concurrently. Gonzo also likes watching baseball, and putting ketchup on foods that ketchup has no business being on. He enjoys rock’n’roll from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, when rock was rock, and meaningless repetitive phrases were frowned upon. But it is what it is.