Winx Club (2011 revival)
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Winx Club is an animated series created by Iginio Straffi. The show's first four seasons are agreed to be good by most, and they were produced in Italy. The show was revived in 2011 for more seasons, now produced with Nickelodeon/Viacom from the United States. There co-production ended after season 6.
While the original four seasons were well-received (2004-2009) the same can't be said about the seasons 5-8 (2011-2019) which got negative-to-panned reception.
Why These Seasons Aren't Magical
Overall
- For starters, the revival was absolutely unnecessary as the original series already ended on a high note with the last episode being "Ice and Fire". Additionally, the revival came out only 2 years after the original series already ended, (3 if not counting the shorts from 2011).
- The animation has changed from traditional to lazy and awful flash animation that looks just as bad as the last three seasons of Johnny Test (2005) in comparison. The characters' movements look restrained and stilted, and the lip syncing, at times, doesn't line up with what they're saying. The animation got EVEN WORSE in the eight season.
- The main characters have been flanderized and seem to have most of their character development drained away; the biggest offenders being Bloom, Stella - her childishness went up to eleven, with her throwing actual tantrums over not getting her way, and Tecna - her personality went back to season 1 levels, thus leaving her character unfinished.
- Some dialogue in the Nickelodeon dubs of Seasons 5 & 6 is awkward at best and absolutely ridiculous at worst, as it was desperately trying to be more suitable for younger audiences.
- Each season's premise got more and more juvenile as they went on.
- The humor also got more juvenile in these seasons.
- The voice acting in this revival ranges from okay (the Winx) to horrible, with the worst offender being Twinkly from Season 8.
- Many of the new characters such as Roy, the Selkies, and the Lumens (which includes the aforementioned Twinkly) are bland and underdeveloped.
- Nex was also another unnecessary and forced addition to the main cast, being a total jerk. His romance with Aisha is very poorly developed.
- Gradually with each season the Winx are seen returning more and more to being students in Alfea, which doesn't make sense since they graduated after getting Enchantix in season 3 and even tried to work as teachers in Alfea at the beginning of season 4.
- Roxy (who was the main focus of season 4) has been reduced to just a supporting character who rarely appears or is seen fighting in this fairy form. Roxy practically disappears in season 8, and most likely would not appear in the reboot.
- Characters like Mirta and Lucy never returned.
- Diaspro continues to make pointless appearances as a antagonist for Bloom and Sky, having already been virtually defeated in season 3.
- The love relationship between Musa and Riven continues to go from bad to worse.
- Most transformation sequences from this revival is pretty bland and has barely any efforts unlike the first four seasons.
- The Nick special that recaps the first two seasons (while okay) skip a lot of solid character development, and stories especially from the fourth special which is pretty mediocre as it only recaps the first eight episodes and the last 4 episodes of the second season.
- This revival simply lacks the charm that made the previous seasons memorable and great.
- The last two seasons are incredibly rushed, lasting only two months each.
- The outfits have generally been less revealing and more sensible, including older outfits in new promotional materials. It is heavily disliked because of the bowdlerization and think that the show has lost the unique edge it once had. Part of this can be chalked up to different attitudes about revealing clothing in the many countries the show is broadcast in.
- The third movie is derided for claims of it not having much plot and for having a boring villain Politea who didn't add much to the story.
- To glitter on the ground, the 2021 live-action series Fate: The Winx Saga got even worse compared to it.
Season 5 (2012-2013)
- Before the official announcement, Iginio Straffi had previously mentioned that a fifth season of the show was planned. At the Licensing Expo 2010 and in a March 2010 interview with Straffi, it was detailed that the season would focus on the "further adventures of the seven magical fairies" as they gained a brand-new ability to choose between fairy forms. This plot was scrapped after the combined Rainbow/Viacom decided to retool the season into a full relaunch of the show.
- Several continuity errors that ignore events that previous seasons established. The most notable is the retconning of Daphine's death. The pet shop Love & Pet, which was one of the main focuses of season 4, also disappeared without any explanation with the Winx not working anymore and their Fairy Pets disappearing from the plot.
- Several shots use ugly looking CGI (this carried on into the third movie and season six as well).
- The actual 2D animation has been hit with a slight decline; though season four was the first season to be Flash animated, it still looked very beautiful and had expressive animation. Here, it looks very rigid and odd. Seasons six and seven follow a similar pattern which would get even worse by season eight.
- The Trix somehow make a return and take up way too much screen time than they should.
- An utterly pathetic villain by the name of Tritannus, who basically spends most of the season doing a prolonged temper tantrum.
- The blatant environmental themes that feel out of place.
- The Selkies are unnecessary additions being basically Pixies rip-offs as little mermaids. Their designs are also lazy, since all are practically identical only differing in the color palette which leaves many people unable to differentiate each one.
Season 6 (2013-2014)
- This season has even more continuity errors ignoring events that previous seasons established.
- Selina and Eldora were fairies who had lived on Earth since long before Bloom discovered her powers in the first season. How did the Wizards of the Black Circle (the main villains of season 4) never locate them?
- The Pixies return this season after being absent since season 4, however Digit and Tune have been inexplicably replaced by Caramel and Cherie (characters originating from PopPixie) as Tecna and Musa's bonded Pixies. Something that doesn't make sense mainly because Digit had powers that matched Tecna (powers to control technology), while Caramel is just a Pixie who makes sweets.
- It is mentioned that if someone stays for a long time within the Legendarium universe that person would be trapped in the book, however the other Pixies were trapped in the Legendarium since the second episode of the season remaining in the book until the end of the season.
- Selina feels like an unnecessary addition to the main cast, so much so that she was forgotten in the following seasons.
- Stella notably begins to be flanderized this season by becoming more immature and often using magic to change her friends' clothes, as if her friends could not have more freedom to choose their clothes on their own.
- Musa and Riven relationship also became even more flanderized to the point of breaking up. Riven leaves the group at the end of this season.
- Certain scenes like the final battle with Alcheron felt quite rushed, Bloom just locked him in a chest without much effort.
Season 7 (2015)
- An overly saccharine premise and easily the most sugar coated of all of them.
- Three words: THE. BUTTERFLIX. DANCE. The show's worst transformation sequence; generic outfits, repeated and oddly edited stock footage, and a god-awful song. Not to mention the full version of the transformation sequence drags on for too long.
- This season wastes Roxy's potential, since the season is focused on Fairy Animals and Roxy is the Fairy of Animals.
- The personality of Winx's Fairy Animals are just annoying or unlikable, for example: Shiny is obsessed with Brandon, Amarok is a silly "dog" who always makes a mess, Critty is a snobbish and rude cat, Squonk is a crying baby.
- The designs of most Fairy Animals look like rejected Pokémon.
- The Pixies once again had their roles reduced in the plot.
- Kalshara is a shameful rip-off of Cheetara from Thundercats, with the same powers as Beast Boy.
- Kalshara and Brafilius are the two most incompetent villains who have appeared in the entire series, mainly because they don't even try to fight Winx.
- Plotholes: Some of the Fairy Animals that the Winx obtain are found in past times (Squonk for example is found in prehistory) and being taken to the present time. In doing so they would most likely be causing butterfly effects by altering the timeline after removing a living being from the past.
Season 8 (2019)
- The low quality animation hits its peak here; not only is the animation much more obviously Flash animated, but the Winx now look younger when now, they should at least be in their late teens/early adult.
- More glaring retcons like the sudden return of Valtor, who died back in season three, and the Trix's backstories, particularly Icy and the attempt to make her likeable that falls flat on its face.
- The Winx acts more childish and out of character such as Aisha being the sassy black stereotype.
- Aisha and Flora were once again whitewashed, causing a big controversy.
- Orion’s character design is a complete rip-off of a character from Shardbound, an indie game. No seriously, we’re not joking here.
Redeeming Qualities
- Unlike most seasonal rots, there is actually a perfect explanation for it courtesy of Straffi himself: In the last ten years, the animation audience has skewed younger. Nowadays, it's very difficult to get a 10-year-old to watch cartoons... The fans of the previous Winx Club say on social media that the new seasons are childish, but they don't know that we had to do that.
- Thankfully Nickelodeon is no longer in production with Rainbow since it's 7th season due to budget cuts.
- The other things has slightly improved with improved sound effects, high-quality graphics, and multicolored backgrounds, much like the 2011 Nick specials.
- The character designs still look cool and cute, mainly from seasons 5-7.
- The awful CGI animation was discarded by season seven (which was due to budget cuts at Rainbow following the bombing of their movie Gladiators of Rome); since then, the background designs have improved.
- Some creative concepts such as the planets the Lumens live in.
- Many of the songs including the openings, endings and songs of the transformations are memorable and catchy.
- The new villains, Tritannus (in his monster form), Selina, Kalshara and Brafilius, as well as the new characters like human Daphne, Nex, Thoren, and Krystal have really good designs. The same can go for the new Fairy Form designs like Harmonix and Bloomix.
- Despite the horrible voice acting, there are some that is actually good, mainly from the Atlas Oceanic Sound and Picture era (which dubbed the 2011 specials covering seasons 1 and 2, redubbed all of seasons 3 and 4, and recorded the original tracks for seasons 5 and 6).
- Nex’s jerkiness was toned down after he won the Love Triangle in season 6, although he is still widely hated by the fanbase.
- There are still several good episodes.
- Season 9 has potential to be good since it's going to be a retelling of the first three seasons in a modern way.
- Iginio Straffi mentioned that both Roxy and Nabu will return in the reboot, with Roxy having a main role and being the 7th winx.
- Despite short-lived, the next show World of Winx is an improvement over these seasons.
- Despite the terrible animation, the transition to high-definition widescreen is actually good.
Reception
The seasons revival of Winx Club was met with enormous negative reviews from audiences, critics and fans, with many criticizing them for reverting the main characters back to Alfea when they had just graduated in Secret of the Lost Kingdom, important continuity plots being retconned, Bloom, Stella, and Tecna’s characters being flanderized, lame villains such as Tritannus, aborting several arcs such as the return of Nabu, Roxy character development in season 5, Bloom‘s engagement being ignored and forgotten, as well having too many Ass Pull instances and childish plots in seasons 7 & 8. These got a ton of backlash from the fandom’s older audience who grew up watching the original series and they happen to much prefer the classic series and there is a good reason why the 2011 revivals are still hated to this day.
Trivia
- There is also a 9th season coming in 2025 and it is currently unknown how well it will be received by fans.
Videos
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