How do you go from being an animated Nickelodeon series to a dark fantasy Netflix streaming hit? Know your audience and strike that timeless chord.
During my last year of university, I discovered Winx Club . Despite being about to embark on true adulthood, my roommate and I found ourselves enamored with this irritatingly sparkly animated show about a group of fairies who fight dark forces. Originally an Italian production, it found a home with North American audiences for eight seasons, first through Rainbow (ViacomCBS) and later, Nickelodeon. The details are a little head-spinning, so I won’t bore you with the studio politics, and instead focus on why we’re profiling animation this week.Like Power Rangers, Captain Planet, and more before them, the Winx girls (which vary depending on if it’s the OG series or Nick reboot) — Bloom (fire), Stella (sun), Flora (nature), Tecna (technology), Musa (music), and Aisha (waves) — have distinct personalities, powers and characteristics, and they join forces against common enemies. While this boxes them into specific powers and characterizations that, at times, border on the stereotypical; unlike their predecessors, Winx was one of the only female-dominant cartoons — especially of the action variety — when it debuted back in 2004. Designed by creator Iginio Straffi in the manga style, the Winx attend Alfea College for Fairies in the Magic Dimension, which consists of different worlds and magical schools; creating an opportunity for the clash of ideals, cultures, and school rivalries, along with actual magical battles. While these girls do hang out (and eventually date) the boys from the Red Fountain school, they are often the ones doing the saving. They are far from damsels in distress, even if they do care about things like fashion.
It’s a tale as old as time: good vs. evil. And Winx doesn’t shy away from clearly defining these ideals by pitting the Winx’s school for fairies against the school for witches; like an "Oxford-Cambridge rivalry in a magical dimension" stated the show’s creator, Straffi. Since Winx is a cartoon meant for kids, this crystal-clear set-up makes sense, as well as feeling like a throwback to the original era of animated classics (read: Disney) when that concept felt more defined in Saturday morning cartoons. What sets Winx apart is the characters are on the brink of adulthood; they’re away from home (for the first time) at college and experiencing everything that goes along with that, making it a distinctly coming-of-age story. While they’re fighting ogres and bitchy adversaries, they’re also discovering their inner powers — literally and figuratively. It resonates with their counterpart audience age group in that way, while showing the younger generation what’s possible in terms of — wait for it — girl power!
Other themes that resonated for me in Winx were discussions of morality, inclusion, and the concept of family. “Family” has so very many connotations: nuclear, extended and found, among others, and each one is a beautiful construct. Our family, whatever that looks like, helps shape us as young people and Winx explored that through the relationships these girls forged with each other as the found family they created for themselves, away from the “safety” of home. It’s through these relationships that they’re able to discover who they really are — and flourish.
Thus Winx ticked all the boxes as a family-friendly animated series: The main character of Bloom (originally voiced by Italian actress Letizia Ciampa and Molly C. Quinn (Castle) in the re-make) was childlike, just coming into her own with a nostalgic sense of naivete and insecurity that is about to be tested again and again as she and her friends embark on their journey to discovering their purpose (and into adulthood). An excellent formula that’s instantly relatable for a sizable portion of the audience, making it worth a second look for screenwriters foraying into the animated world. And probably why Netflix took a second look, too.
The day I turned on Netflix and Fate: The Winx Saga splashed across my screen, I counted down the days to watch the live-action re-make. Of course they made a live-action re-make, it’s 2021. From The Vampire Diaries creator Brian Young, Fate deals with everything the original animated series did: coming-of-age stuff and life-threatening monsters all set in the Otherworld at a magical boarding school… but darker. Clearly, this was meant for me — literally — as the grown-up version of the Winx Club’s original audience. Genius, Hollywood. All the points. Bloom is still Bloom (played by Abigail Cowen): rebellious, unaware of the power that she holds as she embarks on discovering herself. This is where the series shines and why it made the crossover, because characters who are in the throes of discovering that their uniqueness is what makes them awesome will always be relatable. And who isn’t in need of a new supernatural saga to binge?!
Winx Club spawned several animated spin-offs and aired in more than 150 countries before returning to television as the live-action re-make, with some of the original behind-the-scenes personnel involved. While no show is perfect in its depictions and stories, I appreciate Winx Club for combining my love of myth with the action-adventure genre, giving me something girls didn’t really have on television at the time. While later seasons skewed increasingly toward a younger audience and I lost interest as I grew increasingly older, I’m thrilled a new generation gets to experience Bloom’s story — at least a version of it.