Simpsons creator’s princess for the ages
ANIMATION legend Matt Groening has set his latest creation, Disenchantment, in the magical kingdom of Dreamland long, long ago — but a fluffy, family-friendly fantasy this definitely is not.
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ANIMATION legend Matt Groening has set his latest creation, Disenchantment, in the magical kingdom of Dreamland long, long ago — but a fluffy, family-friendly fantasy this definitely is not. Dreamland is a menagerie of ogres, trolls, imps and countless questionable humans.
There is the requisite castle, cobblestone streets and a feared royal family, but the princess at the centre of this medieval tale is the not the outwardly beautiful — yet pathetically passive — heroine of fairy tales past. Princess Bean is a tough-talking, beer-guzzling gambler who doesn’t hold back when it comes to voicing her disapproval of the marriage her father is desperately trying to arrange for her.
As she does everything she can to avoid being handed over to a prince from a more prosperous kingdom, she befriends an elf — aptly named Elfo — and is mysteriously saddled with a small demon named Luci, who pops out of a wedding gift and sets about convincing Bean to do increasingly erratic things as she rebels against the king.
This foul-mouthed princess might not be the greatest role model for modern day royals Meghan and Kate, but she might be someone they secretly envy when times get tough with the in-laws. Groening, the creator of animated giants The Simpsons and Futurama, tells Insider there is much more to this story than first meets the eye. “As garish and goofy as animation can be, we want people to get caught up in the story,” he says, of the series which drops on Netflix this week. “We go to places in the story that are going to surprise you and maybe bring a tear to your eye. There’s a real depth to it.”
Surprisingly, given the painstaking effort that went into creating the animation series, Groening wants audiences to forget the characters in front of them are two dimensional.
“We are able to indulge ourselves in being more cinematic, try to make the show more like a movie and go for deeper emotions and make people forget they’re watching a cartoon — that’s the ultimate goal,” he says.
The phenomenon of binge-watching television meant Groening and his team took a different approach to writing the series than they did with The Simpsons and Futurama.
For someone who created the longest- running sitcom in history, it was a concept the 64-year-old had to get used to.
“This is a show we spent two-and-a-half years putting together and I know that when it premieres there are going to be some lunatics who watch the whole thing that weekend (but) we worked so hard,” he laughs.
“Because you can watch them in quick succession we can have longer stories, we don’t have to wrap everything up at the end of an episode so that’s nice. It’s just a different way of storytelling — we have more time to tell a story in each episode and we don’t have to cut away to commercials.”
You might think someone with his resume would be a little blase about kicking off another project, but Groening admits he was on edge while creating this new series.
“You realise that not everything works so my anxiety has increased slightly over the years,” he says. Early reviews have been lukewarm but most critics acknowledge that The Simpsons and Futururama both got off to a slow start before enjoying phenomenal success.
Had things gone differently a few years ago, Groening would be promoting the launch of his new show Futurama, and Disenchantment, or something like it, would already be a part of animation’s history books.
“I’ve thought about fantasy since I was in high school,” he says. “Then about the time that I came up with Futurama, I thought science fiction or fantasy. It was almost a flip of a coin but I decided to go with science fiction.”
The delay means the show’s many subtle themes — women’s rights, distribution of wealth and even immigration — come in a much more relevant time. But Groening says any parallels between Dreamland and the real world, or at least real events, are coincidental.
“It does seem to resonate right now (but) there’s nothing conniving or intentional about that,” he says. “There’s no doubt people watching the show are affected by what’s going on in the world.”
DISENCHANTMENT IS ON NETFLIX FROM AUGUST 17