Written by Jayse Smith
Ay, caramba! Matt Groening is back with Disenchantment, a new series coming to Netflix today!
The creator of the record-breaking animated series The Simpsons, which is heading into its 30th season, and Futurama, which wrapped production back in 2013 is back with a new series. The trailer for the series states that whereas The Simpsons is set in present day, and Futurama was set in the future, this new series will be set in Medieval times and poke fun at fantasy tropes. The name of this series? Disenchantment.
The series follows the misadventures of Bean, the ale guzzling princess as she and her band of misfit friends, an elf, aptly named Elfo and a demon named Luci exploits around the crumbling kingdom of Dreamland. The show has all the makings of a hit, the classic Groening animation style, the look of the trailer feels very familiar.
“People will be surprised,” Groening teases. “No matter what you think you’re gonna get, it’s going to be something different. I hope people laugh and are entertained, but I also hope there’s something a little deeper. Part of the appeal of animation is that you can have both the joy of the hand-drawn, exuberant gesture, along with real emotion.”
THE CHARACTERS
BEAN (Abbi Jacobson)
Bean – full name Princess Tiabeanie – is Dreamland’s hard-drinking, 19-year-old princess, daughter of King Zøg and dearly missed Queen Dagmar, who died when Bean was little. Growing up in this crumbling patriarchal kingdom, Bean knows she’ll never be allowed to rule (though she’s far more capable than her half-brother Derek) and yearns to experience the outside world and find her place in it.
“I just love that Bean is this unstereotypical princess,” Jacobson says. “She’s really rad and ballsy and she fucks up, and I like that she’s always getting into trouble and has a mind of her own. I feel very lucky to get to play a character that isn’t anywhere near perfect.”
LUCI (Eric André)
Luci is Bean’s personal demon who Bean gets cursed with as a mysterious present from a mysterious faraway source for mysterious reasons. Like Bean and Elfo, Luci’s a relatively young demon (though he could already be thousands of years old) and Bean is his first assignment. What could possibly go wrong as he tries to steer Bean toward the darkness? Bean, Elfo and Luci comprise a special Trio that will have many misadventures – and all three have deep-running intersecting arcs that play out over the series.
ELFO (Nat Faxon)
Elfo is an 18-year-old elf from the sheltered, hidden world of Elfwood. Even though he’s upbeat, optimistic, and extremely knowledgeable of candy, he’s always felt a little different from the other elves, and he leaves Elfwood in search of the big life he’s been missing.
The series will feature the voice talents of Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) as Bean, Nat Faxon (The Way, Way Back) as Elfo, and Eric Andre as Luci. Other voice talent includes John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, and David Herman—all of whom have worked with Groening in the past—as well as Matt Berry, Jeny Batten, Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding, and Lucy Montgomery.
Netflix has reportedly ordered twenty episodes with the first ten set to stream internationally on August 17th.
I watched the first episode last night. It was hit and miss with the jokes but I’m looking forward to seeing if it has a continuing story or is more like the Simpsons and behaves like a skit show.