Disenchantment is the newest animated series from The Simpsons and Futurama creator, Matt Groening. It’s a Netflix Original, which means, you won’t be able to watch it anywhere else, and that’s great for Netflix because you know what? Disenchantment is good.
Netflix needed a quality series to keep folks throwing money at the service every month, and Disenchantment is the perfect series to get the job done. This is also a huge success for Groening at a time when The Simpsons is in decline, and Futurama is long dead.
OK, so here’s the thing, then. Disenchantment is all about the adventures of Princess Bean, a young woman who doesn’t want to do all the things expected of a princess. She wants to marry a person out of love and not out of necessity, and such things fail to go down well with her father, King Zog, the ruler of Dreamland.
As for her mother, well, she was turned to stone 15-years ago, so because of that, the family is very dysfunctional. You see, Zog is the type of King who gets whatever he wants, and he uses his immense power to control his daughter.
Later on, we get to meet Elfo, a young elf who chose to leave his magical land to travel the human world. It didn’t take long for Elfo to end up in Dreamland, and right away he was captured for the magic in his blood.
Now, what makes Disenchantment so fun to watch, has everything to do with the characters. Bean is serious, yet she loves to have fun, and usually, these fun things put her in danger and cause others to lose their life.
Elfo is almost the complete opposite because he’s new to this world, therefore, he’s quite naïve. But at the same time, he loves to have fun, and on the other side of the coin, he’s in love with Bean.
The next main character here, is Luci, a demon sent by a rival kingdom to manipulate Bean into doing bad things. It’s all in the plan of overthrowing King Zod and destroying Dreamland, but as the series continues, it becomes apparent that Bean, Elfo, and Luci, have all become great friends.
As for the animation, it’s similar to that of The Simpsons, but at the same time, it’s clear it series lacks a big budget. You won’t see popping colors here, then again, it is likely the design choice of the team.
In terms of the humor, then, it’s more targeted to adults, which shifts Disenchantment from being this family-oriented series at first glance to something for people with a quirky and crude mentality.
I don’t want to spoil this show, but I will say, if you’re looking for the next best thing on Netflix, then Disenchantment is your best bet. You see, the final few episodes completely took me by surprise because things are not as they seem.