Before the Simpsons, There was Disenchantment.

So, first, The Simpsons heralded in the reign of Matt Groening in ’89.  Then, Futurama came in ’99.  Yesterday, Groening released his world on Netflix with the first season of Disenchantment with a medieval setting, making the circuit complete to paraphrase another long-standing series.

Some say The Simpsons, the contemporary timeline and the longest running animated cartoon’s, lost its steam into its 30^th anniversary, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie perpetually the ages they started in ’89, but somehow dealing with current issues.

Futurama’s started and restarted as it’s been canceled and resurrected by sheer force of will by its fanbase.  Of course, none of The Simpsons’ cast has crossed over to Futerama to my knowledge.  I admit, I don’t follow the series like The Simpsons since Joey’s been loyal to that series.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I got an email with the trailer for Disenchantment.  I immediately recognized the animation and checked out said trailer, showing it to Joey.  She said she was game, so last night we started it and finished today.

Abbi Jacobson voices Bean, who’s the princess of Dreamland, but she wants to find her own path, eschewing the planned wedding she’s supposed to have.  Along the way, she meets Elfo, who’s voiced by Nat Faxon.  Elfo also wants to see if there’s more to the world than his own same stomping grounds.  Rounding the immediate cast is Luci, voiced by Eric Andre.  Luci’s a demon, who’s supposed to be Bean’s id, but actually winds being more helpful than a burden.  Bean’s overbearing dad, King Zog, and her stepmom, Queen Oona, voiced by John DiMaggio and Tress MacNeille respectively, round out the main cast.

First, the animation’s beautiful, and you know you’re in a Simpson-esque world with Bean the female Bart; although, Elfo’s wearing his color scheme as Joey pointed out.  The storyline’s age-old with the kid wanting to find her own way from the parental units.  In this case, it’s twofold with Elfo.

Something the first series prided themselves on was being not politically correct as much as the TV censors’d let them go.  With Netflix, it stands to reason those boundaries’d be blurred even more, if non-existent.  This first 10 episodes, of an order of 20, had its moments, but we found most of the season chuckles instead of guffaws.  The violence and nudity was no more than your standard episode of Family Guy…a little blood and an ass crack and side boob here and there.

Ultimately, it’s fun to go to a different time period with familiar animation.  It’s kind of like the trilogies of the Star Wars franchise, it widens the scope, gives a sense of completeness.  In this case, it’s like what a who predated Bart and his fam like Futurama seems to show after The Simpsons in a way.

I might be off base there, but, hey, it sounded good.

At least, give it a go.

Be good to each other.

-J-