August 2nd, 2018 
Jackson Murphy 
Disenchantment, which debuts Aug. 17 on Netflix, is “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening’s new animated series. The show centers around the adventures of an elf, a princess, a demon and is set in and around the fantastical Medieval village of Dreamland. Josh Weinstein, a longtime Groening collaborator, is Disenchantment’s showrunner.
Jackson Murphy: Can you feel that the excitement is building for “Disenchantment”?
Josh Weinstein: Yeah. It’s really cool, actually, because Matt and I have been working on this show for three years. Matt’s had the idea for about eight years, so we’ve been working in silence and secrecy up until a couple months ago when we started releasing stuff. So feeling that there is excitement and buzz is really cool.
JM: Is it really that tough to keep so many things a secret for so long?
JW: Oh my God, yes, because this show has big secrets that are revealed over the course of the first 10 episodes – and over the [total so far] first 20 episodes – and over the course of the series, however long that lasts, there are certain big things that are revealed in secret, so it’s really hard. And I worked on “Gravity Falls”, where we also had the same issues. We didn’t want people to find out what was gonna happen in the big finale, so… we’ve had a lot of actual security to try to keep things contained.
JM: Wow. But getting a 20-episode commitment right out of the gate must’ve been a great feeling for you guys.
JW: Yeah, it’s great, because it really allows to tell these full stories since this series is serialized, so it gives us a lot of freedom and space.
JM: You worked with Matt on “The Simpsons” and “Futurama”. When he first approached you about this new series, did you get chills?
JW: I got very excited. For years, when we were working on “Futurama” and the latest [version of it] on Comedy Central, we were always saying, “Oh – we gotta do something together.” And then I went to “Gravity Falls”. And just as “Gravity Falls” was ending, I got a call that Matt wanted to meet with me. And we met over lunch and he has these notebooks with ideas and drawings and show ideas. And he told me about this show, and I said, “I have to do this.”
JM: And did you feel like you have to do this because you’ve been into the fantasy, medieval, adventure timeframe for a lot of your life?
JW: Yes. It’s interesting because I’ve always been into medieval legends and things like the Holy Grail and that sort of thing. And Matt grew-up reading novels and things like The Lord of the Rings, so it’s kind of a good mix. But I’m so into medieval history that it rings all my bells.
JM: I had the chance to watch the first two episodes. Describe the three main characters on “Disenchantment”.
JW: Even though this show is a medieval fantasy, it’s also really a coming-of-age story because there have been so many fantasy shows and movies, like “Game of Thrones” and “Lord of the Rings” – we felt like if we didn’t do something different… and if we just did a parody show it wouldn’t be worth it… we knew it had to be about something. So it’s a coming-of-age story.
Bean, Elfo and Luci are all supposed to be around 18, 19, 20 years old… even though Luci is a demon, so he might be like 10,000 years old. But he’s still a young demon. It’s all about them coming into the world as adults for the first time – and not listening to what the stupid king says or wizards and legends say. It’s about finding your own place in the world.
JM: And because there have been so many medieval shows and over the years, was it challenging from the design perspective of these characters to make them feel unique and fresh?
JW: Yeah. In fact, I only watched three episodes of “Game of Thrones” and never watched any more. I think Matt hasn’t watched it all. We try to make it our own thing. Obviously the characters spring from Matt’s head and from his hand, so those are totally from his style.
And then for the backgrounds… “Simpsons” and “Futurama” – I love the way they look – but it’s kind of flat. And we wanted this show to be more lush and rich and for the backgrounds to look more like storybooks – really beautiful illustrations. And then it was a challenge to make sure Matt’s style of characters work against those rich backgrounds. So we had to work with the lighting and shading of characters so they feel fully integrated in that world.
JM: I could see the three-dimensional depth in the castles.
JW: And that’s a testament to our animation studio, Rough Draft, who did “Futurama” as well… their beautiful hand-painted things but also 3D. And it’s an interesting combination, because as you saw on some establishing shots, it’s 3D animation, but then once we’re into it it’s standard animation.
JM: Luci the demon is quite a character. Do you find yourself having Angel and Devil voices in your head when it comes to making decisions?
JW: Yes, totally. Luci and Elfo are like the Angel and Devil on Bean’s shoulder – and that together they really make one character in a certain weird way. We’re always in a conflict between being Luci and being Elfo. I wanna be more like Luci, but I end-up being more like Elfo.
JM: “The Simpsons” was a FOX show, Comedy Central for “Futurama”. Why did you decide to with Netflix for “Disenchantment”?
JW: It’s because Netflix gives creators such freedom, and also encouragement. It’s very different from any network that Matt and I have ever worked for before. And because of that, and because they give you complete freedom… we just felt it’s a much more exciting opportunity. And we can give people a full season all at once. So, really, each season of a show is kind of like a mini, epic, 5-hour movie.
JM: That’s a cool way to look at it. I think a lot of people would like epic 5-hour action movies if they’re good.
JW: I don’t know if people can watch it all at once. That might be too exhausting. But it’s designed to be one.. each episode stands on its own, but it’s still one, epic, mini story in the first 10.
JM: And you and Matt are no strangers to spoofing The Mouse House (Disney). You’ve got the various elves at the beginning and their names. You spoof “Snow White” and “The Smurfs” right out of the gate.
JW: Matt’s always been fascinated… ever since he was a kid, he’s been drawing elves. He’s really obsessed with that. And I’m obsessed with, not just Disney, but old time, like the Fleischer Brothers – like the old Popeye cartoons – and those sort of things. So we wanted the world where Elfo comes from to feel like this old-time happy-sappy 1930s cartoon world.
JM: And I love the music from Mark Mothersbaugh. It captures the fantasy, medieval vibe. What were your goals with that going in?
JW: Well, we wanted a couple things. What we have in “Simpsons” and “Futurama” is that we play to drama. You never play a joke like “Wah-Wah” (the trumpet sound) with music. To treat the drama seriously, which Mark Mothersbaugh is great at – he’s scored so many great movies. Also, we wanted the theme song to be unique and not just old timey, English medieval music. We knew, approaching Mark Mothersbaugh, that he’d do something unique and cool.
And it’s also really cool because he’s one of my musical heroes. He’s kind of like the musical equivalent of Matt Groening, in that he’s delightfully funny and weird and talented. He’s been a pleasure to work with.
JM: So you’ve had to keep these secrets for a long time, but you’ve been able to reveal them recently. So Comic-Con must’ve been a joy for you to get to tell everybody about all of this.
JW: Yeah. It was both a thrill, but it also made me really anxious because this was the first time that people would be seeing full clips from the show, as opposed to just little tidbits. And we really didn’t know this: a lot of different types of jokes in the show and we didn’t know how it would play. And the fact that it played really well in front of a huge crowd made us really happy.
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