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Disenchantment070 | W W W. S C I FI N OW.CO.U K
down to having friends who help you fi nd
your way. So, really, this show is more like
American Graffi ti, movies like that, even
more so than it’s like The Lord Of The Rings,
even though it’s got those magical fantastical
elements. Bean is based on a number of
friends, both female and male, that I had
when I was like that at that age. There’s a
little bit of me in her, and some of my close
female friends. I remember distinctly us
being that age and never really knowing
what we were going to do in the world, and
fi nding it kind of frustrating.”
Instead of just ripping the Mickey out of
properties like The Lord Of The Rings, the
show is set to satirise its medieval setting
as well as actual myths and legends, and
Weinstein reckons fans of the genre will
appreciate it.
“It’s really funny and it’s got great
storytelling and great characters,” he
says. “The Simpsons referenced a hundred
different things and had ten different styles
of humour, but it all worked together
because the characters and the world were
well fl eshed out. We’re hoping the same for
this. Because we don’t just reference history.
We’re not just parodying Game Of Thrones,
The Hobbit or anything. It’s its own world
with its own stories. Everything sort of
comes from that. It’s also because this is a
serialised show, and we’ve never done that
before. It’s pretty rare in animation. We’ve
planned out these deep-running character
arcs that come to fruition at the end of every
season, but also over multiple seasons. So
we’ve planned character arcs for our main
characters over a number of years, should we
be lucky that the show continues.”
With only ten episodes to work with so
far, as opposed to the 20-plus episodes per
season The Simpsons and Futurama grew
used to, the writers had to be brutal when it
came to deciding what stayed and what hit
the trash. “We really have to fi gure out at
episode ten or episode 20, where we want the
characters to be and what will be the most
satisfying for fans watching ten episodes,
watching Bean’s story unfold, where we want
her to end up in episode ten,” Weinstein
says. “It’s a very different way of thinking
than for The Simpsons or Futurama, where
you really just write individual episodes that
then stand on their own.
“In fact, early on we had a slightly
different way where Bean was going for the
second season, and we decided it was way
too big. It didn’t allow interesting growth
and development for her, Elfo and Luci, so
we restyled that way back. And then there
were also stories that we wanted to tell, but
they didn’t fi t with the overarching arc for
these characters, so we had to save those. So
yes, you have to be brutal, and think what
works for the characters for this story. But
we also wanted each episode to stand on its
GROENING’S
WORLD
Where you’ve seen
the other names in
the credits before...BILLY WEST
Occupation: Actor
Shows: Futurama
As the voice of Fry, Dr Zoidberg
and Professor Farnsworth, West
has been a Futurama staple, and
3/7 of its core cast, since the start.DAVID HERMAN
Occupation: Actor
Shows: Futurama
He has loaned his voice to a variety
of Futurama characters, including
Scruffy, Larry and Mayor C Randall
Poopenmeyer to name a few.“We’re not just
parodying The Hobbit.
It’s its own world with
its own stories”
Josh Weinstein