Futurama and Simpsons fans rejoice! Matt Groening’s new show – his first since the former debuted in 1999 – is Disenchantment. This animation is due to drop shortly on Netflix. Whereas The Simpsons and Futurama are set in the present and future, Disenchantment is all about celebrating the past.
Here are five things you need to know about the show before you dig into it this Friday.
1. The series is set during medieval times in the Kingdom of Dreamland, a place that boasts no less than five village idiots. It’s also home to a beer-chugging princess named Bean (voiced by Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson). At first glance, Bean shares a few things in common at least personality-wise with Homer Simpson and Bender. Her story is that she’s a princess trying to escape an arranged marriage and she is also unlikely to inherit the throne because that job will fall into her dim-witted brother’s lap.
2. Disenchantment isn’t as funny as The Simpsons or Futurama. Groening has said that they plotted this show as a drama first and then went back and added jokes. It certainly has a more serialised feel then his previous works. Keen-eyed observers will see the inevitable crossover between the three series. The gag involving walruses as mermaids feels a heck of a lot like Patty and Selma’s Islands Of Sirens joke and there are certainly other scenes that feel like something taken straight out of some Treehouse Of Horror episodes.
3. This show features quite an extensive list of Futurama alumni. John DiMaggio AKA Bender plays King Zøg, Bean’s father. The cast also includes Billy West, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille.
4. Bean is trying to discover her true self even though she is in a world plagued by suffering, the *ahem* actual plague and miscellaneous idiots. Luckily, she has two good friends to help her. They are the super-positive Elfo (Nat Faxon), an elf that’s completely besotted with her. Eric André meanwhile, plays Luci, Bean’s own personal demon, someone who often leads her astray and a being that is frequently mistaken for a black cat.
5. Look out for some Game Of Thrones and Monty Python parodies. And if you happen to miss these you can also try spotting some corny puns like the band called The Pillage People. Noel Fielding also has a cameo as an enthusiastic executioner. This series certainly has some colourful moments happening in this Dreamland…
All 10 episodes of Disenchantment will be streaming on Netflix from August 17. Images courtesy of Netflix.
