TCA 2018: Matt Groening’s ‘Disenchantment’ draws from ‘Broad City’ and ‘The Eric Andre Show’ for Netflix
At last weekend’s Comic-Con International: San Diego, the panel for Netflix’s “Disenchantment” primarily focused on the show’s connection with “The Simpsons” and “Futurama.”
During its presentation at the TCA summer press tour Sunday afternoon, the show’s creators looked at its ties to more modern comedy heroes.
While both of the show’s lead voice actors on hand for the panel — Abbi Jacobson (“Broad City”) and Eric Andre (Adult Swim’s “The Eric Andre Show”) — acknowledged the influence of “The Simpsons” on their work (“These are like my comedy fathers,” said Andre), executive producer Josh Weinstein returned the favor by comparing it to his growing up loving “Scooby-Doo.” “They’ve evolved past us,” he said. “They’re actually funnier than we are.”
“These guys let me go to the moon and back on every take and every line,” agreed Andre. “I get to be as completely insane as I want to.”
While the promotional run-up to the show at Comic-Con was shadowed somewhat by the ongoing conversation surrounding the stereotypical nature of Apu, a character on “The Simpsons,” the topic was not raised by journalists at Sunday’s session.
However, the significance of the 19-year-old Princess Bean from “Disenchantment” being among the few lead female characters in animation or otherwise wasn’t lost on Jacobson.
“You mean have I noticed in every day life? I have noticed a little bit,” she joked. “I would’ve auditioned for anything with Matt’s name on it, I didn’t know how great this was going to be. It is such an anti-stereotypical princess from what we are used to seeing.”
Groening nodded to Jacobson for helping make Bean’s character that much stronger.
“There’s also a feminist component to ‘Broad City’ that is so strong and vivid in that show, and we tried to do that in ‘Disenchantment,’” he said. “As pro-women as Josh and I are, Abbi definitely kicked up the lines we wrote for her an extra notch and made them even better.”
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