GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

Disenchantment is set to become a third animated experience by Matt Groening and Company

Matt Groening of Simpsons and Futurama fame is releasing a new animated series on Netflix called Disenchantment. The setup thus far has been: a princess, an elf and a demon walk into a bar…

There were no pictures to go along with this setup until about two hours ago when Groening shared these shots of his main characters. Disenchantment will make its Netflix debut on August 17, and will include 20 episodes airing over two seasons of 10 episodes each.

The animated comedy will flow in the same vein of other series with adult-oriented humor of which I can only vouch for BoJack Horseman as wry and somewhat funny. Set in the medieval kingdom of Dreamland, the series will follow the misadventures of young princess Bean (Abbie Jacobson), her elf companion Elfo (Nat Faxon), and her personal demon Luci (Eric Andre).

With a triumverate ensemble as the main cast playing off each other and the problems of their mouldering kingdom of Dreamland, there appears to be plenty of action available for the players to participate in and a host of other voices who will be making appearances including: John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, and David Herman.

Given the cliquish nature of the voice acting community, I expect there will be plenty of talent from other recent and popular animation series as well. Animation duties will be done by the same studio which produced Futurama (hence the similarity in art style), Rough Draft Studios.

Fans have already begun linking the three shows as Disenchantment being the past, The Simpsons, in the present and Futurama as a future connecting these three series. Given half the chance, I could see Matt Groening weaving one large story with all three casts playing off each other fabulously.

It looks to me as if Disenchantment is trying to gather a bit of the Star vs. the Forces of Evil and the Steven Universe adult crowd who may have acquired a taste for such fare watching these children and YA shows but are hoping for more adult problems and situational comedy. Fantasy has been making a comeback particularly in animated circles so seeing Groening picking this up doesn’t strike me as strange at all.

Groening has managed to sustain his seminal show, The Simpsons for 29 seasons, making it one of the longest running shows in television history (and it will be renewed for one more season) in which I hope they wrap up the First Family of Orange Situational Comedies once and for all. Futurama was promised another lease on life but no new episodes emerged, only another chance to be seen on Netflix. I guess that’s better than nothing. Disenchantment is produced by The ULULU Company for Netflix, with Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein as executive producers.

I look forward to Disenchantment being an avid fan of Steven Universe and Star vs. the Forces of Evil. I am curious to see if the show can add anything new to the angles presented by these currently running hits or will it just be a last gasp from a team of writers who have for 29 seasons kept Home and Company dishing out comedy.

And while I say this so casually, these same showrunners have singlehandedly keeping the largest host of comedy writers in history working for decades at a time. Seriously. If you check the writing credits for The Simpsons, you will see alumni there have produced nearly every significant and funny comedy series for the last twenty years, including Parks and Recreation, Community, The Office and many others.

Again, Disenchantment hits Netflix on August 17.

Welcome to the family, Disenchantment. Try not to disappoint.

-30-

 

SCIFI Radio Staff

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