‘Disenchantment’ offers fresh comedic take on fantasy genre

October 24, 2018

Matt Groening released his newest show “Disenchantment” on Netflix in August, and it has quickly become one of my favorite Netflix Original series that the network has put out in a long time.
I have been a long-time fan of “The Simpsons” and was very excited to see how this show turned out, and I could not be more happy.
“Disenchantment” follows the story of Princess Bean, her personal demon Luci and their elf friend Elfo as they travel through the fantasy world of Dreamland, and get into all kinds of trouble as they each try to figure out where they fit into the world they live in.
The entire purpose of the first episode is to introduce the characters and the world of Dreamland to the audience, and because of this, the exposition dumps can seem a little heavy-handed.
With this in mind, once you get past all the setup, each subsequent episode carries its own weight, and contributes well to the overall narrative of the show.
“Disenchantment” features a very similar comedic style to that of Groening’s other shows like “The Simpsons” and “Futurama.”
Slapstick comedy and pretty well-written jokes are found throughout each episode.
Much like the aforementioned two shows, “Disenchanted” has comedy that can appeal to both adults and children.
While some jokes are a little bit risque for younger audiences, I can say that anything that could even be considered explicit is at most implied.
“Disenchantment” blurs the line between being its own property, and a parody of other fantasy shows and movies like “Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones.”
While it takes some elements from these other properties for a couple of jokes, the overarching story it completely unique and is a joy to watch.
It is nice to take a break from all the serious shows that exist in this genre and just sit down with a show that does not take itself or the subject material too seriously.
The animation of “Disenchantment” is much better than I had expected, considering that all the show’s funding came from Netflix, instead of a big network, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Each character is drawn in the classic “Simpsons” style (sans the yellow skin), and each shot has a nice blend of classic and modern animation techniques, wherein the characters themselves and the items they interact with are all hand drawn, while major scenery elements are computer generated.
While this has been done poorly in the past, “Disenchantment” has really figured out how to make the two methods of animation feel like one cohesive product.
“Disenchantment” currently has the first half of its first season available to stream now on Netflix, and the second half is set to come out sometime during 2019.
Due to its popularity, Netflix has also renewed “Disenchantment” for a second two-part season that is set to come out in 2020 and 2021.
Each episode is only a half hour so it does not take long to figure out whether or not you like it, so I say give it at least two episodes, and you will be hooked on it, just like I am.