Sabrina: The Animated Series
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Sabrina, she'll-a bewitch ya!
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Sabrina: The Animated Series is an American animated television series. It was developed for TV by Savage Steve Holland and produced by DiC Entertainment.
Why It'll Bewitch Ya (In a Good Way)
- This show remains faithful to both the sitcom and the comics, combining them together to make the best of both worlds.
- Many characters from both the comics and sitcom return here, and they are all still their usual likeable selves.
- Sabrina herself is still a lovable main protagonist: she is fun-going, cares deeply for her friends and family and has a quick wit and sense of humor.
- Zelda and Hilda, despite being de-aged into teenagers (but are still in their 600's like usual), retain their fun nature and are hilarious comic relief characters.
- Salem Saberhagen retains his sarcastic and jerky personality that made his depiction in the sitcom funny, and also possesses a limited range of magic unlike most incarnations.
- Harvey Kinkle has been made more ditzy and cute than in previous depictions, and his relationship with Sabrina is very strong and sweet.
- Enchantra, the Queen of Witches who speaks in a Cockney accent and appears in a few episodes, is an entertaining and deep character who, despite being somewhat arrogant and bossy, ultimately means well, cares about others and has an appealing design.
- The new characters created specifically for the show are good additions to the cast:
- Uncle Quigley, the adult guardian of Spellman House and Diana's older brother, is a good straight man/voice of reason to most of his family and teaches Sabrina that magic doesn't solve everything in life.
- Chloe Flan, Sabrina's best friend, is hilarious and cracks out many funny one-liners courtesy of her actress Cree Summer. She, alongside Uncle Quigley, is also the only non-magic person who knows Sabrina is a witch.
- Gem Stone, despite being similar to Libby Chessler from the sitcom - who in turn was based on Amy Reinhardt from the comics (both the 1997 and 2003 series ones) - makes a good rival for Sabrina, and even has nice moments in episodes such as Stone Broke and Witchmas Carole's ending.
- Pi McDonald, Harvey's best friend, is a fan-favorite character who, despite having limited screen time, is beloved for his intelligence and quirky dialogue.
- The Spookie Jar, a demonic creature inside a purple jar, is intimidating and arrogant yet often means well, and is where Sabrina gets most of her spells from.
- Tim the Witch Smeller makes for an intimidating antagonist in the episodes he appears in, especially for such a lighthearted show.
- Many of the one-off characters, such as Scheherazade, Alvin, Norma Alphalinear, etc., are excellent ways to incorporate the episodes' morals into the plot.
- Great voice acting, including:
- Emily Hart makes for a good younger version of Sabrina, particularly in comparison to her portrayal of Cousin Amanda in the sitcom
- Melissa Joan Hart's portrayal of the aunties is nothing short of a laugh riot and makes the characters who they are. It's always nice to see her argue with herself as two different characters.
- Nick Bakay's reprisal of Salem would definitely impress fans of the sitcom, and although he isn't as funny here, he is still a great character otherwise.
- Cree Summer makes a great match for Chloe, with a spot-on performance and hilarious dialogue.
- Bill Switzer also does an excellent job with Harvey and incorporated several elements of him into the character, such as skateboarding. His performance here is second only to his performance as Presley Carnovan in Mummies Alive!
- Chantal Strand not only does splendidly as Gem, but also Pi and Bernard.
- Kathleen Barr (Wheezie in Dragon Tales, Kevin and Marie Kanker in Ed, Edd n Eddy), who voices multiple characters (including Enchantra, Scheherazade and Frau Strudel/Rainbow), matches her voices for them well.
- Good animation, with a nice color scheme that matches several Disney movies, but... (see BQ #5)
- The theme song by Irish girl group B*Witched is very catchy and fun to listen to.
- Spawned an excellent TV movie, Sabrina: Friends Forever, which has a different cast than this series.
- Starting in December 1999, the comics also spanned a reboot that incorporated this show into them, which also introduces us to Llandra Da Silva (who will replace Chloe in the 2003-2009 comics/manga).
Bad Qualities
- The show was advertised as a spin-off of the sitcom and borrowed certain elements from it; in reality, however, the show is set in the original comics' continuity.
- It only lasted one season; this is likely due to DiC being owned by Disney at the time, and the latter company still had its "65-episode" rule for syndicated reasons.
- Its follow up series isn't as good as the original, and it's made by the infamous Les Studios Tex. That said, the 2013 reboot is considered miles worse.
- There are some bad episodes, such as Anywhere But Here.
- While the animation is good, it still suffers from many errors - as is to be expected for a DiC cartoon - and can even go off-model at times.
- Besides that, it also suffers from several audio errors.
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