Roald Dahl’s imagination has brought us innumerable wonders, but none so bizarre as The Twits.

Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world who also happen to own and operate the most disgusting, most dangerous, most idiotic amusement park in the world, Twitlandia. But when the Twits rise to power in their town, two brave orphans and a family of magical animals are forced to become as tricky as the Twits in order to save the city.

The strange, wonderful tale of The Twits has Roald Dahl’s fingerprints all over it, and stuck to the most unlikely places. He originally wrote the story because he wanted to do something about the disturbing number of men who wore beards, which he loathed.

The feature originally entered preproduction in 2003, through Vangaurd Animation. Vanguard, as part of a multi-picture deal, was going to make the film, and Vanguard’s John H. Williams was set to produce, with John Cleese and Kirk DeMicco writing the screenplay. This version would spend six more years in development hell starting in 2006 when Michael Isner stepped down as CEO of Disney. In 2012, Vanguard Animation had chosen a director, Conrad Vernon, the director of Shrek 2 and Monsters vs. Aliens.

This version would never see the light of day. Due to a lack of progress, Kirk DeMicco and John Cleese would rework the story into a completely different film, The Croods.

The Twits is based on the Roald Dahl 1980 novel by the same name, and stars the voices of Johnny Vegas (Mr. Twit), Margo Martindale (Mrs. Twit), Emilia Clarke (Pippa), Alan Tudyk (The Sweet Toed Toad), and Natalie Portman (Mary Muggle-Wump). It features songs written especially for the film by none other than David Byrne, and debuts on Netflix on October 17.