Disenchantment - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Disenchantment Here!

[Kromm]

JANUARY 15, 2016 3:10pm PT by Lesley Goldberg
'Simpsons' Creator Readying Animated Comedy for Netflix

[BetterButter]

[Vermicious Knid]

The silhouette of the castle is almost exactly the same as the Planet Express building. I am expecting this will subvert all the fantasy tropes the way Futurama did with science fiction. Can't wait!

[Bort]

This dropped today on Netflix. I'm only a couple episodes in, but the sight gags are already killing me. A store called Kraken Barrel? A party barge called El De Barge? Bwah.

[Philip]

I was so excited to watch this given how brilliant the trailer was but then actually watching it gave me an entirely different experience. Didn't find it as comedic as they made it to be on the trailer and god dammit, it's between 28 to 36 minutes long which shouldn't be a thing. Animated series whether in Western countries or Japan generally keep it at 20mins max because they know that's the appropriate amount for a cartoon series episode.

[Keywestclubkid]

eh

[PityFree]

 I just finished watching the entire season and I love it and can’t hardly wait until the next season.

 I see a possible plot hole or a way to bring Elfo back. Didn't Elfo have to be an elf in order to cause the chimes to sound when they were looking for the chalice (for some reason I can’t remember what they were calling out on the show)?  How was he suddenly not elf enough?  I think his father was going to tell him that he was half elf ...and another half of him was elf, too! Elves are funny like that.

Elfo is the most adorable, wonderful character. I love him. 

I do wish Matt Groening had used different voice actors. They are great, but I recognize too many from Futurama and it’s annoying to me

Edited August 19, 2018 by PityFree

[Peace 47]

I watched the first two episodes and the third is playing in the background right now.  I found it to be “medieval Futurama” in almost every respect.  I know it’s sacrilege, but I never found original Futurama to be funny when I watched it—sometimes touching, certainly plot-twisty-and-intensive with all the implications of Fry’s time travel and whatnot, but never actually lol-worthy like classic Simpsons was to me, and I gave it lots of tries over the years.

It felt kind of the same here:  lots going on with the plot, but very weak on the comedy, other than the signs, as @kariyaki mentioned.  (I did like the “bridge out” sign that had the king on it saying something like “next time pay your &$@! taxes!”)  Nothing else about the comedy felt clever or witty.  Lawyers being demon jokes?  Jokes about blackout drinking?  Eh.  And I don’t love how Bean keeps killing (or attempting to kill) people.

22 hours ago, PityFree said:

I do wish Matt Groening had used different voice actors. They are great, but I recognize too many from Futurama and it’s annoying to me

I agree on this point.  Tress MacNeille, John DiMaggio and Billy West are talented, but the voices that they are doing here are exactly (or only slightly, slightly varied) from other characters they’ve done, and it gets super-grating.  I also don’t like the elf voice guy very much.  I did think that the voice actor for Prince Merkmur or whatever the name was was extremely talented.  His pomposity was amusing.

[PityFree]

You guys — watch more. The story gets better. Also, I just discovered that you need to WATCH THE END CREDITS OF THE FINAL EPISODE ALL THE WAY TO THE END! There  is a short scene hidden there that hints about something with the next season!

[ganesh]

Oooh, I just saw that. Nice. 

[ganesh]

I watched the first episode. I thought it was all right. I enjoyed myself. It seems more of a coming of age story than Futurama was. 

[iMonrey]

I've seen two of them so far. It's just OK. I don't think I've had any genuine LOL moments but it's mildly amusing and I've probably snickered once or twice. I'm sure I'll watch the rest of it eventually but it's not something that's compelling me to sit down and binge the whole thing at once. 

Quote

I found it to be “medieval Futurama” in almost every respect.  I know it’s sacrilege, but I never found original Futurama to be funny when I watched it—sometimes touching, certainly plot-twisty-and-intensive with all the implications of Fry’s time travel and whatnot, but never actually lol-worthy like classic Simpsons was to me, and I gave it lots of tries over the years.

Yeah I'm kind of the same way about Futurama and agree this feels more like that than the Simpsons. 

[stan4]

My son was drawing parallels between Futurama and Disenchanted characters.

 

Luci = Bender

Elfo = Fry

 

Etc

[Bort]

4 hours ago, stan4 said:

Luci = Bender

Elfo = Fry

I think it’s more like both Elfo and Bean = Fry. It’s like they split him up into two different characters. Especially with the last two episodes revealing origin mysteries for them. 

[stan4]

13 hours ago, kariyaki said:

I think it’s more like both Elfo and Bean = Fry. It’s like they split him up into two different characters. Especially with the last two episodes revealing origin mysteries for them. 

Possibly.  We have not finished the series.

I was just impressed that a 6 year old came up with the parallels spontaneously.

 

He saw a bit of Leela in Bean.

[AnimeMania]

5 hours ago, stan4 said:

He saw a bit of Leela in Bean.

They are both very good fighters and sleep with everybody but the person that is pining away for them.

[Jack Kerouac]

I like it so far, but I just can't get over how much Elfo reminds me of Bart Simpson, design-wise.

[Pearlinbloom]

Physically Elfo reminds me of Bart. But personality or story function wise (only three Episodes in)I feel like he’s a rated R version of Olaf from Frozen. 

[iMonrey]

Not even really R rated - and that's kind of the surprising thing about the show, if not disappointing. It's not really all that edgy considering it's not on broadcast TV. The humor is more or less tame and the type of thing you could see on The Simpsons. most of the time. 

[PityFree]

It’s a bit R rated; I kind of love the running joke they have with Elfo accidentally performing cunnilingus.

[NJRadioGuy]

Just got through Episode 6 and yeah, it's OK. I like the sight gags and there's a ton of potential, but frankly this needs to get kicked up a notch or two into solid R-rating territory. The material just begs for it, in fact. Also, I hope they're not always stuck pressing the reset button all the time. I like growing stories, not just stand-alone episodes.

[ganesh]

I thought it was going to be raunchier as well, but I like the show. I'm into the mystery of the people looking through the flame at Luci and Bean. 

[Blakeston]

On 8/21/2018 at 1:24 PM, stan4 said:

Possibly.  We have not finished the series.

I was just impressed that a 6 year old came up with the parallels spontaneously.

 

He saw a bit of Leela in Bean.

Wow, it says a lot that a 6-year-old immediately saw the parallels between these characters and the Futurama ones.

Bean seems extremely similar to Leela - the ass-kicking tomboy who's rebelling against the position society chose for her, and loves the male main character but only as a friend, and would be conventionally gorgeous except for one huge physical oddity.

Elfo had Fry written all over him, especially with his extreme positivity, and him not fitting in well in his home world, and loving his new world - and having unrequited love with his female best friend, and pretending he's fine with being just friends. And Luci serves the same role as Bender. Showing him smoking seemed to really hit home the parallel.

That said, despite all of the similarities to Futurama, I felt the last three episodes showed that it's capable of taking things in a different direction. The first seven episodes were just sort of mindless entertainment, but the last few had some real weight to them.

[ganesh]

I don't know if Fry's love for Leela was unrequited though.

[stan4]

7 hours ago, Blakeston said:

Wow, it says a lot that a 6-year-old immediately saw the parallels between these characters and the Futurama ones.

Bean seems extremely similar to Leela - the ass-kicking tomboy who's rebelling against the position society chose for her, and loves the male main character but only as a friend, and would be conventionally gorgeous except for one huge physical oddity.

Elfo had Fry written all over him, especially with his extreme positivity, and him not fitting in well in his home world, and loving his new world - and having unrequited love with his female best friend, and pretending he's fine with being just friends. And Luci serves the same role as Bender. Showing him smoking seemed to really hit home the parallel.

That said, despite all of the similarities to Futurama, I felt the last three episodes showed that it's capable of taking things in a different direction. The first seven episodes were just sort of mindless entertainment, but the last few had some real weight to them.

Yes.  He said "They both (Leela and Bean) fight good and don't know where they fit in."  The kid really enjoyed Futurama.

 

 

I agree. The last 2 episodes were something else.  I was just mildly amused and enjoying the show...then suddenly it got some teeth!

[Blakeston]

6 hours ago, ganesh said:

I don't know if Fry's love for Leela was unrequited though.

It took a long time for them to get together. At this point in Futurama, it was all about Fry's feelings for Leela.

[ICantDoThatDave]

Quote

 

Bean seems extremely similar to Leela - the ass-kicking tomboy who's rebelling against the position society chose for her, and loves the male main character but only as a friend, and would be conventionally gorgeous except for one huge physical oddity.

I saw Bean as "What if Leela was a princess?" as well.  At this point a non-ass-kicking tomboy who's rebelling against the position society chose for her would be refreshing.  The anti-tropey character has become more cliche than the tropey character.

Quote

 

That said, despite all of the similarities to Futurama, I felt the last three episodes showed that it's capable of taking things in a different direction. The first seven episodes were just sort of mindless entertainment, but the last few had some real weight to them.

 

Agreed on this point as well.  I thought it was surprisingly tame & paint-by-numbers for a "Groening on Netflix" type show, but it picked up a lot in the last few episodes.  I still didn't get more than a few chuckles ("Eye of newt. Tail of newt. Rest of newt."), but the storyline held my interest a lot more towards the end.

[tennisgurl]

The last three episodes definitely seemed like the show was really hitting its stride, and had some of the weight and the humor that the better episodes of Futurama did. I mean, it hasn't gotten to the heights that Furturama did eventually, but it shows the show moving into that direction. The first episodes had a lot of good gags, but the best of Futurama was always based around character, playing with tropes of the genre (science fiction there, high fantasy here), and using continuity to enhance the jokes and the story.

The most obvious character to character comparison is Luci, who is basically demon Bender. Elfo is definitely rather Fry-ish, while Bean is a combination of Fry and Leela, with some of the rebel princess trope thrown in. But, like I said, it seems like in the later half of the season, it seemed to be heading towards doing its own thing, and actually made me excited to see where the story goes next. I also enjoy how, like with Futurama, there is a lot of fun had with the world being created, and the world building is used both for plot and for jokes. I hope to see more of that, like we did in later seasons of Futurama.  

[OtterMommy]

I started watching this with my husband but didn't get too far until he fell asleep (take that as you will).  However, my complaint is that my children found this in Netflix's "kid" section and were halfway through the first episode before I caught it.  Grrr.....

[iMonrey]

OK . . . I did grow more invested in the story by the time I got to the end. It's still not as funny as it could be but it's sort of endearing in its own way and I"ll happily watch another season. 

[AnimeMania]

Apart from the ending episodes, I really enjoyed the part where Elfo dates the giant.

[weyrbunny]

This was fine but didn’t inspire any enthusiasm. Mostly, I surprised by how unoriginal it was, copying not just Futurama… there were scenes in 1.6 - Swamp and Circumstance where I thought, “Wait, didn’t The Last Airbender do that years ago?”

It also bugged me that it feeds into a lazy trend of using drinking as shorthand to show that a woman is flawed, as if writers aren’t sure how women are flawed. Perhaps I wouldn’t have been distracted by this, but I watched Sharp Objects this week. Apples and oranges… but Disenchantment is “fake edgy” in comparison.

I did laugh occasionally, like when every ship crashed while Bean worked in the lighthouse or when the scepters thrown by the king all landed in the same bar, The Flying Scepter. Some of the throw-away lines or visual gags were more interesting than the rote main characters. If I watch season 2, it’ll be for them.

[arachne]

Just finished the series last night. I found it both funny and charming in its way, and its piqued my interest enough to look forward to more. (My only beef was having to replay the last show and ff to the end credits -- but that's really Netflix' fault.) 

Does anyone else think Bean's stepmom sounds like Melania Trump -- and was that intentional? 

[ganesh]

I'm on 8 and I liked that they're having call backs to the witch and the blown up house. It's nice worldbuilding.

[Ceindreadh]

2 hours ago, arachne said:

Just finished the series last night. I found it both funny and charming in its way, and its piqued my interest enough to look forward to more. (My only beef was having to replay the last show and ff to the end credits -- but that's really Netflix' fault.) 

Does anyone else think Bean's stepmom sounds like Melania Trump -- and was that intentional? 

I don’t know if it was, but I actually felt sorry for Queen Oona. 

She’s gone through with an arranged marriage for the sake of diplomacy. Her husband is still in love with his first wife and so too it appears is the rest of the kingdom.  And then she gets blamed for the stone related shenanigans in the final episode. 

I enjoyed the show right up to the point where I realized it was ending on a cliffhanger. I hate it when shows do that without warning and I just somehow didn’t expect it of a cartoon. 

Anybody know if it’s got a second season?

[hertolo]

Yeah, why the cliffhanger...

I liked all the callbacks in the episodes, it made everything a little bit more coherent. I also like how stupid many of the jokes were, just the right level of silliness. But yes, the humor here is more hidden than with Futurama or the Simpsons.

[ganesh]

I liked how the elves were all cutesy but wiped the floor with the knights. 

[PityFree]

Elfo differs from Fry in his extreme naïveté. Fry wasn’t worldly but he certainly wasn’t the same innocent that Elfo is.  I simply adore Elfo.  The little thumbs up he gave when he was vomiting into the bucket after drinking the poison water?? Brilliant.

[ganesh]

WOW Big drama in episode 9. 

(Fry was more lazy than anything but could actually do things once and a while. He didn't do a bad job adjusting to the future.)

I think Futurama did a little better out of the gate with establishing a wide cast. Though I thought the show was more going to be about Bean out in the land having adventures than as court-centered as it was. 

[ganesh]

2 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

I don’t know if it was, but I actually felt sorry for Queen Oona. 

She wasn't doing herself any favors slapping Dagmar though. I get why she was upset. 

Unicorn bacon.

I wish they got to the season mystery sooner though.

[AnimeMania]

6 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

Anybody know if it’s got a second season?

Stolen from this article:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/feature/a864341/disenchantment-season-2-release-date-cast-trailer-spoilers/

When Netflix announced the show, they ordered 20 episodes and the first batch of 10 episodes arrived on August 17, 2018 as "Part 1".

The characters from Futurama appear in Disenchantment:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a864377/futurama-easter-egg-disenchantment/

[neptunewaves]

It took me a couple episodes to get warmed up to Bean but, once the trio dynamic fell into place, it was true love. "Swamp and Circumstance" aside (man, did that one ever drag), the series got progressively better with every new episode and the final three were pure, unadulterated awesomesauce! I love the little clues spread through the series (remember Elfo's dad trying to give him The Talk back in the pilot?!) and the endless callbacks to previous episodes; also, how every single character is so awful yet somehow charming at the same time? Even King Zog has his moments!) I wish they would officially announce the second season airing date already!

A few things about the finale... I think it's safe to assume both Oona and Derek (locked up in some tower for protection by Zog) escaped Dagmar magic goo. I wonder if they will reunite with Zog as the dysfunctional family unit they are to get back at Dagmar/rescue Bean.

Luci knew whoever bottled him up and wasn't particularly surprised to see him in the castle - then again, it's hard to tell with Luci. The first to come to mind was Big Jo, but the more I think about it it doesn't make much sense? He seems to be working solo, which would put him at odds with the Enchantress/Maru and whoever Dagmar's loyalty lies with. The witch's ex and that one Cremorrah's warrior knew Bean - could they be in Dagmar's side? Or maybe Dagmar truly belongs to Maru and corrupting Bean was always part of the plan? I feel like we have to separate sides - good and evil if you will - vying for Bean's magic (she's totally a witch/demon's spawn) and the lady shipping her with a bunch of demonic creatures might not have her best interests in mind! (All this to say it wouldn't make sense for Big Jo to retrieve Luci from the chaos unless he was working with the Maru people, which he's obviously not.)

Oooh, finally someBODY make it to mermaids island! Do merfolks grant wishes in this universe? The heck could they possibly want of a dead non-elf corpse!

You wouldn't believe how unbelievable DEVASTATED I was when I saw Pendergast turned into stone. And now he and Odval will be MIA for most of the second season. Sob.

[ganesh]

I'm usually got a good eye, but I totally missed Fry et al., there. 

[andipandi]

I got bored around episode 5, I think. Maybe 6? Bean is so incredibly unlikeable, I don't care what happens to her. Most of the characters are like that. The only one I actually like is the devil. He gets the best lines too.

[PotterOtherP]

Like many shows these days, it has a good premise but way too much plot. The whole point of a show like this should be to watch the characters interact with each other and get into funny situations. Instead, there has to be a season-long arc involving twists, reversals, backstory reveals, and cliffhangers. Enough already.

[BetterButter]

Netflix is giving Disenchantment 20 more episodes to get more enchanting

[SoMuchTV]

The little guy whose name I forgot had a cameo in the latest Simpson’s treehouse show.

[PityFree]

2 hours ago, BetterButter said:

Netflix is giving Disenchantment 20 more episodes to get more enchanting

Yay!!!!!

13 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

The little guy whose name I forgot had a cameo in the latest Simpson’s treehouse show.

Elfo?

[SoMuchTV]

22 minutes ago, PityFree said:

Yay!!!!!

Elfo?

No the demon-ey guy. I watched it but apparently didn’t retain a lot. Maybe someone else will remember more than I have at this point!