Disenchantment
Netflix
Season 1, Episode 1
Disenchantment is The Simpsons’ creator Matt Groening’s third animated series. Both The Simpsons and Futurama have basically become household names. That being said, there are some very high expectations for this show from fans who’ve been watching for the past 30 years. One of them became the longest-running scripted show in history! Yeah, no pressure.
While Groening’s last show was set in space, this is a totally new territory. It’s set in a mid-evil fantasy kingdom. The story revolves around a hard-drinking princess named Bean who doesn’t want to marry someone just to keep the peace between kingdoms. She’s miserable. Then Elfo. He’s an elf who hates the Elf kingdom because they’re forced to be happy all the time. He wished for a place where people are miserable all the time. Bean wishes for a place are happy all the time. So yeah, they end up meeting up eventually. Not before Elfo wreaks a little havoc and oh, not before we meet our third main character. Part of the awkward trio, Luci. Luci is a demon who is Princess Bean’s very own and attached to her for life.
Disenchantment didn’t stray away from the creator’s own animation style. In the opening scene, you know exactly who made the show. The first box checked on my list of things I was most excited and hopeful for! Princess Bean looked like a whole new character of course, but in the form of the animation I grew up with. There are some parts of a formula you just shouldn’t stray away from. I like Bean’s character a lot but at times, I feel like it’s been before. I honestly haven’t seen enough to judge that to a huge extent just yet. She just stood out the least to me. The reason being is that it’s also very much building this whole new universe while showing some character building. I’d say Elfo is my favorite character. He’s voiced by Nat Faxon. He’s appeared in many comedies and definitely brings the kind of comic relief I can see the show is trying to convey. It’s adult humor in a world that kids and adult kids, like myself can get into. It seems to me Netflix may be giving Groening a little more creative freedom.
The demon Luci who’s appeared out of nowhere just in time to “save” the Princess while also causing chaos and the odd people we see plotting behind it, seems to be something new and unique for him. I’m not sure if Fox would’ve gone for something like that. The character is definitely a fun addition to Bean and Elfo as a trio. It’s also not the overdone animal sidekick who can talk that we see on adult cartoon sitcoms. It’s in medieval times. There are some funny spoofs and puns that I liked I’m just hoping throughout the series they’re not overdone. There were some ‘Princess Bride’ references that were pretty obvious, at least to me that made me chuckle. All in all, it was a bit of a slow start in the beginning of the episode with funny punchlines but once the main characters got together it picked up. By the end of the episode, I could see that it was going to definitely be more exciting while also being hilarious. It literally ends in a cliffhanger.
