Disenchantment 2018

So I finished Part One and had a few hours to think about it. The show is definitely interesting. It’s not perfect but I see it setting-up to something bigger in Part Two. The first few episode are a bit off, not horrible or unwatchable but, does have some questionable pacing, lack of music, and some of the more direct jokes aren’t as funny as I would like them. A lot of the “good” jokes seem to be sprinkled in the background or hidden inside of other dialog, I wouldn’t be surprised picking-up on new jokes on a second re-watch. That said episodes 1-5 would be a 5-6/10. Normally a weaker opening to a series would lean me more towards dropping, however...

The reason I say the show is interesting is that the trailer and promo material advertises the show as a comedy first with some adventure on the side, however, it’s very much a slice of life series with hints of adventure down the line in Part Two. I wasn’t expecting this and I actually like this angle more. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Part Two was exclusively adventure focused. Most of the episodes in Part One are about the daily life of the disobedient princess and falling into situations, all the while adding a LOT of world building. Part One seems very focused on familiarizing you with the world, people, concepts, etc... While this is taking place we get short cutaways to an unknown group of wizards/sorceress monitoring the situation in Dreamland, the main location in Part One, suggesting something bigger going on.

I wont spoil anything at the end of Part One but the world building and hints towards a grandeur story definitely make this series interesting and I want to learn more. Obviously these are just promises for the moment but the care put into the world and the slower pace at the start to familiarize the characters gives me hope that this series will offer more. For now it’s a 6/10, good but until we see the rest I wouldn’t put much into the rating.

Also the 2D animation is very good. CGI blending is better than most shows and a surprising amount of the scenes have a lot of animation in areas you wouldn't expect it. Casual walks in the city treat you to scenes with plenty of bystanders moving and interacting with each others in 2D (some are 3D). Lots of other shows would offer stills & pans so this gives this show's world a lot of life.

MY THOUGHTS ON DISENCHANTMENT:

-WARNING: Spoilers Below-

I am SO disappointed in this! I really had high expectations and hopes going into this, a Netflix Cartoon Comedy created by the great Matt Groening? What isn't there to love! Well in this case - everything. I really thought this would be incredible but of course not, I'm starting to think the more I expect from shows the less they deliver... Maybe I'm just bad luck?

Firstly I will say the designing of this show was very beautiful, all characters were drawn lovely. Unfortunately that can only go so far, I mean even s**t can be drawn well. After the first episode I thought "well that was awful but let's continue" the reason I continued is because I tend to have a 5 episode rule, give a show five episodes and if it doesn't impress by then then I just give up.

After I hit episode five I disliked the show and removed it from my continue watching. It just got worse and worse and there wasn't anything that kept me wanting to watch the show, the characters were irritating, the writing was boring, the jokes weren't funny and the pacing was awful. Looking back I really wish they did better with this but unfortunately some shows aren't for everyone.

Overall this was yet another disappointing cartoon for me, I really wish they did better but you can't please everyone, this could be someone's favourite show and here's me hating on it, I suppose that's the beauty of humans aye? We all love different things. I personally wouldn't recommend it but who knows, I've seen a lot of good written about this but to me It wasn't worth the time I spent watching it.

Overall rating: 2/10