A Princess, Elf, and Demon walk into a Bar: Disenchantment - the Initial Review

In my preview of Disenchantment, I confessed that I had never been particularly impressed with Matt Groening's filmography, but I was willing to give the show a chance based on the fact that not only was it being backed by Netflix (who has an uncanny ability to find top-rated, quality television content), but also because the general premise of the story, namely an adaptation of the "hero's journey" is so fundamental to story-telling it is almost impossible to do wrong, if you follow and include all of its essential elements.

For this review, I have another confession... I read quite a bit of the the show's pre-release press. Much of it, or at least most of what I read about the show, was either quite negative or else lacking a full-throated endorsement. As a result, as I settled in to watch the first couple of episodes, my expectations were quite low, perhaps even subterranean.

After watching the first two episodes, however, let me be one of the first to happily endorse the show as worthy of watching. This is especially true of the "binge watcher" who could watch all 10 episodes in a little over 3 hours.

Spoilers Alert: The story, as mentioned previously, centers on the struggles and triumphs of Princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson) of Dreamland, a semi-developed, fairly prosperous kingdom. Her father, King Zog (John DiMaggio), is a boisterous, rather crude benevolent tyrant who, in the absence of eternal life, is trying to prepare his daughter for the responsibilities of marriage and the position of future queen. Princess Bean, however, opposes her father's plan, and would much rather spend her time playing cards, drinking and doing whatever else it is wealthy, royal teenage princesses do. Her actions lead to the death, or at least, maiming of Bean's first fiancee, Prince Guysbert from the Kingdom of Bentwood who King Zog hopes will result in a future combined Dreamland-Bentwood empire. Not to be denied, King Zog agrees with the King of Bentwood to marry Bean off to Guysbert's brother Prince Merkimer (Matt Berry), as the next best choice. Just as the marriage is about to be consummated, the ceremony is interrupted by Elfo (Nat Faxon) a happy-go-lucky elf who recently left the Elven community in search of something more exciting than being happy all the time. Having not seen an elf in a number of year and believed to hold magically properties, Bean's near-marriage ceremony descends into a free-for-all as King Zog orders Elfo captured. Seeing her chance to escape, Bean attempts to flee the palace with Luci (Eric Andre), a recently manifested cat-like demon who was originally sent by two dark magic wielders to turn Bean to the dark side, but turns up being sympathetic to her plight. In escaping, Bean also rescues Elfo from her father's men, and he is immediately smitten with her. So begins the adventures of Bean, Luci, and Elfo as they each grapple with their own "demons," so to speak and getting into loads of trouble and good times along the way.

As expected for a Groening cartoon, the artwork is superb. In addition, the writing contains an abundance of classic the Groening irreverence, satire, and humor we all have grown to expect. However, two elements I really liked about the show, and will make me come back for more, was the chemistry between the three main characters and, most importantly, the show's unique take on the hero's journey. Both elements offer Groening/Netflix a lot or room for exploration.

What do you think?