Sabrina's Secret Life

Sabrina's Secret Life
"Who's makin' magic, makin' magic, makin' magic?" Not when it's by the same studio behind The Wacky World of Tex Avery, this show isn't.
Genre: Action Science fiction Dramedy Suspense Running Time: 22 minutes Country: France United States Release Date: November 10, 2003 – February 3, 2004 Network(s): Syndication (DIC Kids Network) TF1 Distributed by: DIC Entertainment Starring: Britt McKillip Maurice LaMarche Alexandra Collins Christopher Gaze Jane Mortifee Michael Heyward Moneca Stori Shannon Chan-Kent Tifanie Chaney Vanesa Tomasino Seasons: 1 Episodes: 26

Sabrina's Secret Life (Known in French as Le Secret de Sabrina) is an animated television series, and a sequel to Sabrina: The Animated Series and the 2002 animated television movie Sabrina: Friends Forever!. It was co-produced by Les Studios Tex in France, and DIC Entertainment in the United States, and aired for one season from 2003-2004.

Sypnopsis

Sabrina is now a 14-year-old and is attending Greendale High. Still a half-witch, she now attends secret witch-training classes as well with her rival Cassandra, who, unlike Sabrina, is a full witch.

Bad Qualities

1. Although the series takes place after the events of Sabrina: The Animated Series and Sabrina: Friends Forever!, it doesn't feel like it does, because the events of either production are mentioned in this series.
   • Nicole Candler, the secondary protagonist from Sabrina: Friends Forever!, is effectively retconned out of the franchise and is not seen or mentioned whatsoever.
   • Characters made for Sabrina, The Animated Series, including Chloe Flan, Gem Stone, Pi, Uncle Quigley, the Spookie Jar, and Tim the Witch Smeller, are never mentioned here, and apart from Uncle Quigley (who inherited a castle in Issue #35 of the Sabrina: The Animated Series comics), nothing is said about their removal either.
2. The characters that did return from the original series/comics suffered from heavy Flanderization:
   • Sabrina Spellman herself suffered the worst out of everyone. In Sabrina: The Animated Series she was portrayed as a good-hearted witch with the occasional sign of selfishness, in Secret Life, she lost almost all of her good traits in favor of being extremely whiny, self-centered, and bratty, solely so she can learn more morals. In fact, this is pretty much all she does in this series.
     • The first two episodes in broadcast order - "At the Hop" and "School Spirit" - showcase Sabrina's Flanderization very well. In the former, Sabrina accuses Maritza of "stealing Harvey" without hearing the real reason and decides to team up with her own rival Cassandra to get her revenge on her. What sort of person would this mean to their best friend? In the latter, Sabrina constantly whines and cries about being "the second best" to Cassandra which shows she can't stand losing whatsoever.
     • The worst part is, the characterization of Sabrina from the comics released during this time is still likable.
   • Harvey Kinkle was turned from an acute, ditsy, and friendly boy into a completely exaggerated brain-dead moron.
   • Hilda and Zelda were turned from funny comic relief sisters into one-dimensional housewives. The sad part is, both aunties are still likable.
   • Salem, despite still being likable for the most part, turned from a sarcastic, lovable jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold character into a wise, hypocritical warlock who most of the time provides quite useless help.
   • For unknown reasons, Enchantra looks nothing like she did in the original series, although she does act much nicer in this show and is still likable despite these changes.
3. The new characters suffer from heavy flaws, as much as the returnees.
   • Cassandra can, at times, be worse than Gem Stone. She completely bullies Sabrina for being half-witch all throughout the series and shows absolutely no remorse for her whatsoever except on some occasions. She has also been a Karma Houdini at times, letting Sabrina suffer with the episodic moral while getting off scot-free.
   • Maritza is pretty one-dimensional and has no traits other than being Sabrina's best friend and doesn't know her secret of being half-witch, unlike Chloe Flan. Another sad part is, she's one of the more tolerable characters.
   • Cassandra's friends Margaux and Tiffany are also quite wooden, only having "Queen Bee" traits. This is a stark contrast from the previous series' Calista Ultrabrilliante, who was nice to Sabrina on several occasions despite being one of Gem's friends alongside the other cheerleaders.
4. The animation, while faithful to Sabrina, The Animated Series and Sabrina: Friends Forever, looks far cheaper with rough edges and choppy movement. Character designs are also frequently reused from the previous two productions as well for the new characters.
   • Maritza is a reskin of Chloe Flan.
   • Cassandra is a reskin of Portia, who is herself a reskin of one of Gem Stone's friends.
   • Margaux and Tiffany are also reskins of two of Gem Stone's friends.
5. The theme song, while catchy, is also quite repetitive as it mainly repeats the words "Who's Makin' Magic?" over and over.
   • The way the vocals can sound pretty awful.
6. The whole show feels like a lousy cash-in on the Sabrina the Teenage Witch franchise than anything and also steals quite a lot of concepts from the Harry Potter franchise, the movie series of which was still in production at the time of this show's original broadcast.
   • Sabrina attending a secret school and having to use a wand to cast spells makes the character feel way too similar to Harry Potter himself attending Hogwarts.
7. For whatever reason, Sabrina's magic is a lot weaker, and nothing is said about why it is, either.
8. The show's morals are outright forced into the viewer because the show appeals to strict FCC E/I criteria, which is the very reason for the previously-mentioned Flanderization to begin with.
   • Many of the morals are also very bad. For example: In "School Spirit," Sabrina cries about losing to Cassandra while Salem comments that her crying always worked on him. Crying never solves ANY problem!
9. While most of the voice acting is passable, Britt McKillip's Sabrina voice can get on viewers' nerves, especially in scenes when she whines or cries.

Good Qualities

1. It remains as faithful as possible to the previous two productions, and fans of both may enjoy this series otherwise. It also happens to remain faithful to the original Archie Comics as well when compared to its 2013 series.
2. While the animation is cheap-looking like with other shows produced by Les Studios Tex, the art style remains faithful to the previous two Sabrina productions. The same goes for the character designs.
3. As previously mentioned, with the exception of Britt McKillip as Sabrina, most of the voice acting is decent, including Maurice LaMarche for Salem and Tifanie Cristun as Cassandra.
4. There are still some likeable characters, such as Zelda, Hilda, Salem, Enchantra and Maritza.
   • Speaking of Salem and Maritza, it's easy to feel sorry for them due to Sabrina's jerky tendencies and having to put up with her antics all the time.
5. The villains are creative, being based on the problems Sabrina suffers with, like Rumors or Jealousy.
6. The Sabrina, the Teenage Witch comics released during the same year as this show (2003) are much better than SSL, and even feature the characters returning to their original selves with a new art style.

Reception

TBA

Trivia

• This was the final series to be produced by Les Studios Tex, as they ceased operations around the time the show ended.

Videos

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Comments

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