A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk Into a Bar

Last updated
"A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk Into a Bar"
Disenchantment episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 1
Directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill
Written by Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein
Production code1DNT01
Original release dateAugust 17, 2018
Episode chronology
 Previous
Next 
"For Whom the Pig Oinks"
Disenchantment (season 1)
List of episodes

"A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk Into a Bar" is the series premiere episode of Netflix's original streaming television series Disenchantment . The episode was directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill [1] and written by Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein. [1] It was released on Netflix on August 17, 2018, along with the rest of the series. [2]

Contents

The production code is 1DNT01, and the episode stars Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, and Nat Faxon [3] as the title characters, Princess Bean, puny elf Elfo, and demon Luci. [3]

Plot

On the morning of Princess Bean's wedding day, she escapes to a bar to play cards with the other attendants. She takes the money, then escapes the bar as the others try to rob her. Upon exiting the building, she is stopped by Odval, the advisor of King Zøg, Bean's father. Odval takes her back to the castle for handmaiden Bunty to get her ready for her "big day." The procession from Bentwood, a neighboring kingdom, arrives, and introduces Guysbert, the eldest child of King Lorenzo I and Queen Bunny, whom Bean is set to wed. Zøg and Queen Oona of Dreamland, Bean's hometown and the setting of the show, are there to greet Guysbert's parents. Meanwhile, in Elfwood, the land of the elves, Elfo is not happy with his boring job at a pre-packaged candy assortment assembly line, and wishes for something more. When King Rulo declares that Elfo cannot date his girlfriend Kissy anymore, he leaves Elfwood, an act that has only ever been done by legendary elf Leavo before. Elfo adventures through the forest and eventually comes to Dreamland.

Back in the castle, Bean finds a strange gift among the pile of wedding presents. In it is Luci, a "personal demon," as he calls himself. Bean tries to get rid of Luci, but finally accepts him when he promises to help her get out of her wedding. Elsewhere, two mysterious figures watch Bean as she meets Luci. While wandering the castle playing pranks on Zøg, Bean runs into Oona, her step-mother who married Zøg for a political alliance much like Bean is about to do with Guysbert. The two talk until the wedding commences. Elfo meets two humble farmers who give him food and drink on his way to the castle. Bean turns Guysbert down, and, subsequently, he ends up impaled on a decorative throne of swords. Lorenzo I and Bunny converse with Zøg and Oona and eventually they decide to have Bean wed Guysbert's younger brother, Merkimer. Elfo arrives just in time to help Bean escape, and the two (along with Luci) enter the Enchanted Forest. Zøg sends Sir Pendergast, Turbish, and Mertz to go and find Bean and Elfo. Meanwhile, Bean, Elfo and Luci are instructed by a fairy to go visit the Wishmaster, a being who lives up on top of a mountain who can grant wishes to those who seek him. When the trio arrive at the top of the mountain, though, they realize that he is actually the Washmaster, who washes people's clothes, and that Merkimer and the Dreamland knights are headed their way. [4]

Production

The episode, along with all other ten episodes in part one, was released on Netflix on August 17, 2018. [2]

Reception

Ars Technica praised the episode. The A.V. Club wrote that the show "got off to a rocky start" and "plays like an extended first act rather than a discrete episode." [5] [6] Media company Den of Geek thought the episode just wasn't as funny as expected. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Groening</span> American cartoonist (born 1954)

Matthew Abram Groening is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is best known as the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell (1977–2012) and the television series The Simpsons (1989–present), Futurama, and Disenchantment (2018–2023). The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom.

Dwayne Carey-Hill is an American animation director who is currently Supervising Director of the Netflix series, Disenchantment. Prior to Disenchantment, he was a director on Futurama, Comedy Central series Drawn Together, Trumpy's Rhapsody, Tarantula, Clash-O-Rama!, and Coffin Dodgers. He also worked for Sit Down, Shut Up, an animated remake of the 2003 Australian show of the same name. He was director on the animated TV series of Napoleon Dynamite. Additionally, he directed Futurama: Bender's Big Score and Futurama: Bender's Game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nat Faxon</span> American actor (born 1975)

Nathaniel Faxon is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. A frequent presence on comedic films and TV series, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing The Descendants (2011) and starred in the Fox comedy series Ben and Kate (2012–2013), the FX comedy series Married (2014–2015) and voices Elfo in the Netflix adult animated television series Disenchantment (2018–2023). He also co-wrote and co-directed The Way, Way Back (2013) and Downhill (2020) with writing partner Jim Rash.

"The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 95th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 29, 2010. In the episode, Fry attempts to make it on time to a birthday dinner date for Leela. He is sidetracked by Professor Farnsworth and Bender, who force him to test out the Professor's time machine, which only goes forward in time. After overshooting and thus going forward to the year 10,000 AD, they must keep traveling forward in time until a backwards time machine has been invented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric André</span> American comedian and actor (born 1983)

Eric Samuel André is an American comedian, actor, TV show host, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known as the creator, host, and co-writer of the Adult Swim surreal comedy series The Eric Andre Show (2012–present). His other notable roles include Mike on the FXX comedy series Man Seeking Woman (2015–2017) and the voice of Azizi in the remake of The Lion King (2019). He also performs music under the stage name Blarf.

<i>Broad City</i> American comedy TV series

Broad City is an American television sitcom created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It was developed from their independent web series of the same name, which was produced between 2009 and 2011. The sitcom, like the web series, is based on Glazer and Jacobson's real-life friendship, and their attempt to "make it" in New York. The sitcom premiered on Comedy Central on January 22, 2014, and aired for five seasons, ending on March 28, 2019. The show received critical acclaim throughout its run and has been ranked among the best television shows of the 2010s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbi Jacobson</span> American comedian and actress

Abbi Jacobson is an American comedian, writer, actress, illustrator and producer. She co-created and co-starred in the Comedy Central series Broad City (2014–2019) with Ilana Glazer, based on the web series of the same name. Her other roles include voicing Katie Mitchell in The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021), Nya in The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017), and Princess Bean in the series Disenchantment (2018–2023), in addition to appearing in the live-action films Person to Person (2017) and 6 Balloons (2018). She is a writer and co-creator of the Amazon Prime series A League of Their Own (2022), in which she also stars as Carson Shaw, a baseball player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilana Glazer</span> American comedian

Ilana Glazer is an American stand-up comedian, director, producer, writer, and actress. She co-created and co-starred, with Abbi Jacobson, in the Comedy Central series Broad City, which is based on the web series of the same name. She was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for the series. Glazer also starred in the 2017 film Rough Night and released her debut stand-up comedy special, The Planet Is Burning, in January 2020. In 2022, she won the Tony Award for Best Musical for serving as a producer for the Broadway show A Strange Loop.

<i>True and the Rainbow Kingdom</i> Animated TV show

True and the Rainbow Kingdom is an animated children's web series produced by Home Plate Entertainment and Guru Studio in collaboration with American artist duo FriendsWithYou and Pharrell Williams' I Am Other. Based on the artwork by FriendsWithYou, it aired on CBC Television in Canada and Netflix in the United States and internationally.

<i>6 Balloons</i> 2018 American film

6 Balloons is a 2018 American drama film written and directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan and starring Abbi Jacobson, Dave Franco, Charlotte Carel, Madeline Carel, Dawan Owens, Jen Tullock, Maya Erskine, Tim Matheson and Jane Kaczmarek.

<i>Ashes of Love</i> (TV series) Chinese television series

Ashes of Love is a 2018 Chinese television series based on the novel Heavy Sweetness, Ash-like Frost (2009) by Dian Xian. It stars Yang Zi as Jin Mi and Deng Lun as Xu Feng in the lead roles. The series premiered on Jiangsu TV starting August 2, 2018.

<i>Disenchantment</i> (TV series) Animated fantasy sitcom created by Matt Groening

Disenchantment is an American animated fantasy sitcom created by Matt Groening for Netflix. The series is Groening's first production to appear exclusively on a streaming service; he previously created The Simpsons and Futurama for Fox. Set in the medieval fantasy kingdom of Dreamland, the series follows the story of Bean, a rebellious and alcoholic princess, her naïve elf companion Elfo, and her destructive "personal demon" Luci. Disenchantment stars the voices of Abbi Jacobson, Eric André, Nat Faxon, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Matt Berry, David Herman, Maurice LaMarche, Lucy Montgomery and Billy West.

<i>The Princess Switch</i> 2018 American Christmas romantic comedy film by Mike Rohl

The Princess Switch is a 2018 American Christmas romantic comedy film directed by Mike Rohl from a screenplay by Robin Bernheim and Megan Metzger. The film stars Vanessa Hudgens, Sam Palladio, and Nick Sagar.

<i>A League of Their Own</i> (2022 TV series) American television series

A League of Their Own is an American comedy drama television series co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, who also stars. It is an adaptation of the 1992 film of the same name with new characters and storylines, about the formation of a World War II-era women's professional baseball team. Chanté Adams, D'Arcy Carden, Roberta Colindrez, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Molly Ephraim, Melanie Field, and Priscilla Delgado also star. The series premiered with 8 episodes on August 12, 2022. The series was renewed in March 2023 for a four-episode final season, but in August 2023, Amazon announced that the second season would be scrapped due to delays caused by the WGA strike.

<i>Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle</i> Japanese manga series

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kagiji Kumanomata. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine since May 2016, with its chapters collected in twenty-six tankōbon volumes as of November 2023. An anime television series adaptation produced by Doga Kobo aired from October to December 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Bean</span> Fictional character from Disenchantment

Tiabeanie Mariabeanie de la Rochambeau Grunkwitz, also known as Princess Bean, is the main character of the adult animated fantasy television series Disenchantment, voiced by Abbi Jacobson. Bean is the daughter of King Zøg and Queen Dagmar of Dreamland, where she was born, and is the step daughter of Zøg's second wife, Oona. She often refers to herself as "Drunkowitz" when drunk. Bean has a bad relationship with both her parents and at one point had a romantic relationship with Elfo, another main character from the series.

Netflix has contributed substantially to LGBTQ representation in animation throughout the 2010s and 2020s. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, and transgender characters have appeared in various animated series, and some animated films on the streaming platform. GLAAD described Netflix as a company taking "impressive strides in viewership and impact," when it came to LGBTQ representation. Examples of original Netflix animated series with a large presence of LGBTQ characters include Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. In January 2021, GLAAD specifically highlighted the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power series finale which confirmed "its lead two characters, Catra and Adora, were queer and in love," and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts which starred Benson, a gay character, and his love interest, Troy.

References

  1. 1 2 Carey-Hill, Dwayne (2018-08-17), A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk Into a Bar (Animation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy), Abbi Jacobson, Eric André, Nat Faxon, John DiMaggio, The ULULU Company, retrieved 2020-11-23
  2. 1 2 Meena, Divya (2020-10-12). "Disenchantment Season 3 Release Date, Cast, Will New Season Air in 2020 or 2021?". The Cinemaholic. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  3. 1 2 Schneider, Michael (2018-07-29). "'Disenchantment': Meet The Characters Voiced by Abbi Jacobson and Others in Matt Groening's Netflix Dreamland". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  4. "Disenchantment – Season 1 premiere – 'A Princess, an Elf and a Demon Walk into a Bar'". Show Snob. 2018-08-19. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  5. Machkovech, Sam (2018-08-17). "Disenchantment review: Groening's new Netflix toon is off to a bloody good start". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  6. "Matt Groening's new Netflix series Disenchantment gets off to a rocky start". The A.V. Club. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  7. "Disenchantment Episode 1 Review: A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk into a Bar". Den of Geek. 2018-08-17. Retrieved 2020-11-25.