Netflix had a great day today, receiving Emmy nominations for two of its original series, House of Cards and Arrested Development. But Netflix doesn’t always show the same care for the movies it hosts.
A new Tumblr blog, called What Netflix Does, accuses the service of disregarding aspect ratios and showing viewers altered versions of movies without warning them the film has been cropped. The site was started four months ago, but it grew in popularity this weekend after being posted about by Gizmodo.
The sites manifesto reads as follows:
“Netflix does not always respect the original aspect ratio of films.
This would be by far my biggest complaint about the service, but not so many people seem to talk about it out here. Let this place be a desperate cry for help.”
In a statement to the Huffington Post, Netflix’s said Joris Evers the movies’ altered aspect ratios are a mistake:
“We want to offer the best picture and provide the original aspect ratio of any title on Netflix. However, unfortunately our quality controls sometimes fail and we end up offering the wrong version of a title. When we discover this error, we replace that title as soon as possible.”
Looking at the Tumblr, the films lose a lot of what you’re supposed to see. In some cases, it changes the whole vision of the movie.
For example:
The Last Action Hero (1993)
Netflix:
Actual movie:
Dune (1984)
Netflix:
Actual movie:
See way more Netflix errors here.
H/T Huffington Post | Illustration by Fernando Alfonso III