“The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening explained how his upcoming Netflix animated series “Disenchantment” came about during the TCA summer press tour on Sunday.
“I keep sketch books that are full of characters and I started drawing fantastic creatures we couldn’t do on ‘The Simpsons’ and we just went from there,” Groening said. “I filled up an entire sketch book full of imps and gnomes and trolls and fairies…Josh [Weinstein] and I had put together this universe and we’ve only gotten to the fist dozen mythical creatures.”
“Disenchantment” follows the misadventures of hard-drinking young princess Bean (Abbi Jacobson), her feisty elf companion Elfo (Nat Faxon), and her personal demon Luci (Eric Andre). Along the way, the oddball trio will encounter ogres, sprites, harpies, imps, trolls, walruses, and lots of human fools. The voice cast also includes some “Futurama” vets like John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, and David Herman, as well as Matt Berry, Jeny Batten, Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding, and Lucy Montgomery.
Groening also spoke about the joy of seeing his original ideas going off in unexpected directions as the show began to take shape.
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“We plotted the show as a drama and then we added jokes,” he said. “You’re sort of working in this imaginary, ideal animated world that you’re thinking of in your head and it always turned out different than you expect.”
Animation is being done by Rough Draft Studios, who previously worked on “Futurama”. The series is produced by The ULULU Company for Netflix, with Groening and Weinstein serving as executive producers.
