Disenchantment
Entry updated 12 January 2026. Tagged: TV.
US animated tv series (2018-2025). Created by Matt Groening. Developed by Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein. The ULULU Company, Rough Draft Studios. Directors include Wesley Archer, David D Au, Crystal Chesney, Frank Marino Jeff Myers, Brian Sheesley and Ira Sherak. Writers include David X Cohen, Eric Horsted, Bill Oakley, Bill Odenkirk, Jameel Saleem, Patric M Verrone and Josh Weinstein. Voice cast includes Eric Andre, John DiMaggio, Nat Faxon, Sharon Horgan, Abbi Jacobson, Phil LaMarr, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille. 50 28-minute (or thereabouts) episodes. Colour.
In the Kingdom of Dreamland, teenaged Princess Tiabeanie or "Bean" (Jacobson), daughter of King Zøg (DiMaggio), flees her arranged wedding; she is accompanied by Luci (Andre), a demon, and Elfo (Faxon), an Elf. Bean, whose mother Dagmar (Horgan) was turned to stone when she was four, is not suited to royal life, preferring to drink and be irresponsible. Luci was sent by a pair of enchanters to turn Bean evil; Elfo, weary of the compulsory happiness of elfland, came to the human realm and accidentally wandered into Bean's wedding, disrupting it.
Bean is quickly recaptured but, what with the groom being turned into a pig, the wedding does not go ahead. The trio now have several adventures, at the end of which Dagmar is de-petrified. However – in a nice twist on fantasy Clichés – the King's beloved first wife turns out to be evil, whilst Queen Oona (MacNeille), Bean's foreign step-mother, is relatively good (an interesting character, she is sidelined by becoming a pirate captain). Dagmar, whose siblings are the aforementioned enchanters, talks to Zøg of "a dark battle of a hundred centuries and our daughter's destiny." Taking advantage of the chaos, part two ends with Prime Minister Odval (LaMarche) putting Bean's step-brother on the throne as his puppet.
The penultimate episode of part two is the show's strongest, with Luci and Elfo kicked into the long grass of a minor subplot, freeing Bean to help the Scientist Skybert Gunderson (LaMarr) after he crash-lands in a flying machine. She accompanies him back to Steamland, a Steampunk City whose advanced Technology stuns but intrigues Bean. She notices that women here have more independence and authority than in her country (see Feminism), though Steamland is no Utopia: it, or one of its factions, plans the Invasion of Dreamland. Part three has a further visit to Steamland, with the episodes set there again being the most interesting; on returning to Dreamland Bean is crowned Queen, but Ogres attack and her mother arrives to take her deep underground "to your destiny". At the end of part 4 Bean enters her own mind, to battle her bad self – who has processed rather than ignored her experiences, and as a result is smarter (see Dream Hacking; Identity; Psychology). It is Bad Bean who returns to the waking world, leaving Bean trapped in her mind – but visible in mirrors, which enables her friends to rescue her (too quickly and easily). Bean beheads her doppelganger; but Dagmar appears, throws her into the sea and picks up the decapitated head: "I can work with this."
In part five, after a visit to Steamland to rescue her father, Bean returns to Dreamland in time to join an uprising against her mother and the resurrected Bad Bean: the latter manipulates Bean's Perception so she fatally stabs Mora (Luci also dies). Grief-stricken, Bean vows to end magic, as it has been at the root of her and Dreamland's suffering, and succeeds in destroying the crystals that are the source of the country's magic. Bad Bean is killed and the now Immortal Dagmar is imprisoned for eternity by her husband, Satan's son (as he does this using magic, presumably only Dreamland's has been ended). In a side plot, God is killed by a minor character (who throws a brick that shatters his lightbulb head) but Luci – who, to his chagrin, has gone to heaven – screws on one of his replacement light bulbs: God, grateful, offers Luci a wish: he chooses to revive Mora. Bean refuses the throne of Dreamland and departs with Mora. All ends happily.
A character of growing importance throughout the series is Miri (Tom), or "Mop Girl", a cleaner at the castle who hopes to become a wizard, displaying intelligence and competence; by part five she is part of the main team and is the rebellion's leader in Bean's absence. Revealed to be half-elf, she eventually becomes Queen of Dreamland with Elfo as her consort (theirs is an unconvincing romance). There is also an sf subplot that barely connects to the main events: a Steamland industrialist has built a Spaceship and plans to travel to the Moon with Bean, going to Dreamland to kidnap her: though foiled in this, he and the rocket do fly to the Moon. There is also Time Travel by crystal ball as Elfo goes to find out who killed him earlier in the series: needless to say, it was his time-travelling self (see Clichés; Time Paradoxes). God having a replaceable lightbulb for a head might suggest he was created, though this is probably simply a reference to "God is light" (John 1:5). Bean's desire to destroy magic as the cause of misery echoes Star Butterfly's motives in Star vs the Forces of Evil (2015-2019), though here it seems to lack the latter show's metaphorical intent.
After creating two of the greatest cartoon shows of all time – The Simpsons (1989-current), for its first nine seasons at least, and Futurama (1999-2003; 2010-2013; 2023-current) – Matt Groening's third was eagerly anticipated. Despite many of the cast and crew being veterans of the earlier shows, Disenchantment has been a disappointment: a drab Fantasy series, with a moderately interesting plot, weak Humour, some poor narrative execution and mostly bland characters. Bean herself is the main plus point, likable and – rarely for a female teenaged protagonist in animation – not portrayed as being particularly attractive, nor initially having any interest in romantic attachments, though in part three she falls for a mermaid. The introduction of Steamland seemed to suggest a possible meditation on the scientific and magical world-views (see Sociology); this was undeveloped, though Bean did become a supporter of science over magic. [SP]
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