Winx Club

All Music Guide:

Winx Club is an international animated television series that spawned a line of media productions, including a deep catalog of CDs and DVDs. Created in 2004 by Italian animator Iginio Straffi, Winx Club was adapted for a variety of international markets, including an English-language adaptation.

Wikipedia:

Winx Club is an Italian animated television series directed, created, and produced by Iginio Straffi and his company Rainbow S.r.l.. It is part of the larger Winx Club franchise. The series is the first Italian cartoon to be sold in the U.S. According to Iginio Straffi's website, "Winx Club is an action and fantasy show combined with comedic elements. In the mystical dimension of Magix, three special schools educate modern fairies, ambitious witches and supernatural warriors, and wizards from all over the magical universe."

The show features Bloom and her six best friends (Stella, Flora, Tecna, Musa, Layla/Aisha and Roxy) and is situated mainly in the Magical Dimension and on Earth. They call themselves "The Winx Club" and go on countless magical and mystical adventures together. Throughout the story, they discover new, evolved, much stronger fairy transformations and forms; unlock new secrets and even stronger magical abilities; battle against the darkness; and support Bloom as she tries to discover her true past, home world, and birth parents helped by her best and closest friends.

Plot [edit]

There are two different Winx Club plots, listed as follows:

Season 1 [edit]

Bloom, a supposedly ordinary girl from planet Earth, lives a perfectly normal life in the city of Gardenia with her mother, father and her pet rabbit, Kiko, until she stumbles upon Stella, a princess from the planet Solaria, who is in trouble. Coming to Stella's aid, Bloom discovers her dormant magical abilities when she dodges a group of monsters and attacks an ogre. Stella persuades Bloom to join Alfea, a college for fairies in the Magical Dimension. She agrees to go to Alfea and leaves Gardenia and her parents. At Alfea, Bloom forms the "Winx Club", whose members are her four friends and roommates: Stella, and the three friends she meets at Alfea: Musa, Tecna, and Flora. A mythical creature called Daphne keeps appearing in Bloom`s dreams. Later in the series, they encounter and befriend the Specialists: Brandon, Riven, Timmy and Sky, who also become the group's love interests. They also make enemies, including a trio of witches calling themselves the Trix: Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. The Trix are witches from Cloud Tower, a college for witches and dark magic that is roughly equivalent to Alfea, and are in search of the vastly limitless energy and power of the Dragon Fire, which is supposedly in Stella's magic ring. However, they realize that the Dragon Fire is the very source of Bloom's magical strength and powers, which they steal from her. They summon the Army of Decay, which they send to Red Fountain and Alfea. The witches from Cloud Tower and the Red Fountain Heroes join Alfea and together they defeat the Trix. During that time, Bloom figures out that the Dragon Flame was in her the whole time. Bloom also begins to learn the secrets of her home world, Domino; birth parents; magical abilities; and that Daphne is her biological older sister. Bloom is heartbroken by Brandon, who appears to be Prince Sky as he and the real Brandon switched identities, but she ends up forgiving Sky at the end of the season.

Season 2 [edit]

The Trix are sent to Light Haven, a place to turn evil minds pure and good. Bloom, Stella, Flora, Tecna and Musa discover a new fairy, Layla/Aisha, who's the fairy of water/waves and morphix fluids from planet Andros and she becomes the sixth member of the Winx Club. Lord Darkar releases the Trix from Light Haven and increases their powers. Layla/Aisha tells the others about how the pixies are being held as Lord Darkar's prisoners. Layla/Aisha, Bloom, Stella, Brandon and Sky go on a Mission to Lord Darkar's lair, Shadow Haunt, to rescue the pixies Lockette, Amore, Chata, Digit, and Tune. At an opening of the new Red Fountain, Flora meets her love interest, Helia. Along with Layla, Lord Darkar is after four pieces of a magical artifact called Codex, which allows one to enter the realm of Realix and gain the Ultimate Power. Bloom wants to know more about her birth parents, King Oritel and Queen Marion, and her lost kingdom, but Darkar gives her a shadow virus. The virus turns Bloom evil and she begins to torture Timmy. After Lord Darkar realizes that he needs more magical strength and power to open the gateway to Realix, he instructs Avalon to turn Bloom evil once again. That is when he ditches the Trix and accepts Dark Bloom as his main witch. When they get to Realix, he tells Dark Bloom to give him the Ultimate power so he can rule. Dark Bloom has almost completed the spell when the Winx arrive, along with the Specialists, Faragonda, Griffin, and Corta Torta. Sky tells Dark Bloom his true feelings for her, which changes bloom back into her normal self,and she uses the Ultimate power to defeat Darkar once and for all.

Season 3 [edit]

Previously banished to the Omega Dimension, the Trix are able to escape with Valtor, an evil sorcerer partially responsible for the destruction of Bloom's home planet, Domino. They choose to cooperate and plan to invade several areas in the realm of Magix and seek vengeance on those who imprisoned them by stealing their exceptionally strong, powerful, magical and mystical treasures and immeasurable power sources of each realm. With their newly strong and powerful Enchantix powers, Flora, Stella, Layla, Tecna, and Musa are able to use strong, incredible power and can miniaturize themselves. Bloom, however, cannot miniaturize herself due to the fact that her Enchantix is not complete. The Winx begin their third and final year at Alfea, learning about their unique Enchantix transformations, acquired by selflessly sacrificing themselves for someone from their home world (or even everyone from every world, in what ends up being Tecna's case) and showing great courage in doing so. With no one from her home planet to save, Bloom must acquire her Enchantix form and tremendous power on Pyros, the island of dragons. She also learns more about her home world of Domino, as well as the truth about where her birth parents, Oritel and Marion, are. She is the keeper of dragon flame

Season 4 [edit]

Taking place after the events of "Secret of the Lost Kingdom", The Winx Club are back at Alfea, but this time as the teachers. They learn about a new evolved fairy transformation and power called Believix, which can only be accessed when people in a non-magic world (such as Earth) start to truly believe in magic and fairies. Faragonda also teaches them that there are endless infinite stages of fairy evolution and transformation. The Winx Club also bump into the four Wizards of The Black Circle, a group of wizards who have trapped all of the fairies of Earth, and are back to get one they unknowingly left behind. The Winx girls and Specialists have to track the Wizards of the Black Circle to Gardenia, Bloom's Earth hometown, and save the last terrestrial Earth fairy, Roxy the fairy of animals, while trying to get people on Earth to believe in magic once again. Roxy believes in fairies and earns the Winx their Believix. On a trip to Roxy's past the Winx discover Nebula's White Circle, something that helps to defeat the Black Circle but it also controls Roxy. To help the people on earth believe in magic the Winx open a magical pet store with stuffed animals they used their magic on and they open the online store Love & Pets. there are still more episodes left in season 4 which will come out soon

Change in licensing [edit]

In the United States, the license for 4KidsTV expired after 2007, and Rai Due sought out a new partner. On 2 September 2010, Nickelodeon announced through a press release that they will be co-producing seasons 5 and 6 of the series.

In early January 2011, it was announced that Keke Palmer will be playing the voice of Aisha, who is also known as Layla. In late March 2011, Molly Quinn announced she will be voicing Bloom. Josh Keaton announced that he will voice Valtor. Ariana Grande announced on 22 May via Twitter that she will be voicing minor villain Princess Diaspro in the new dub. Romi Dames has also announced that she will voice Musa and Helia will be played by David Faustino. Elizabeth Gillies is playing Daphne and Matt Shively is playing Sky. The first special's broadcast revealed that Amy Gross is voicing Stella, Alejandra Reynoso is voicing Flora, and Morgan Decker is voicing Tecna.

Winx Club's second movie Winx Club 3D Magical Adventure is scheduled to be aired in summer 2013.

Season 5 [edit]

The Winx Club embark on a mission to achieve Sirenix, an ancient transformation, that can be used in the water, on land or in the air, unlike believix which can only be used on land of in the air. It is strong enough to defeat the evil merman Tritannus and the Trix. The Trix's main leader, Icy falls deeply in love with Tritannus, while the two other Trix members-Darcy and Stormy- are frustrated and angry with their romantic relationship. There are two new evolutionary fairy transformations in this season: Harmonix and Sirenix. The ancient Book of Sirenix gave them six Sirenix Boxes that holds guardians inside them to help them gain Sirenix and much, much stronger Harmonix abilities and spells. Before they achieve Sirenix, however, they must find the Gem of Self-Confidence, the Gem of Empathy, and the Gem of Courage; otherwise they would lose all of their magical powers forever.

Unfortunately, there is a dark and evil curse upon Sirenix that left Bloom's older sister, Daphne, a yellow-colored disembodied spirit without a physical body of solid flesh and blood. But there is a Sirenix book that helps them fully gain access to Sirenix, but there is a problem when they open the book. For instance, Tecna opens it and it transforms her into a terrifying robot version of her self, making a mess in the Magic Archive the library in Alfea. When she had used its tremendous power to defend herself. Daphne was the last fairy to achieve Sirenix's ocean/sea-based transformation and enormous power until the Winx Club gain full access to Sirenix and cross the gate into the infinite ocean itself. Finally, the Winx gain Sirenix after activating the source of the power in Lake Roccaluce where Daphne lives due to her connection to Sirenix. But Daphne gets locked up in a prison cell under the mighty Emperor's throne after Tritannus has taken away her Sirenix powers and given them to the Trix-Icy, Darcy and Stormy-as a witch-themed version. Unfortunately, the Trix gain dark Sirenix with the help of Tritannus ( because he took away Daphne's Sirenix with his trident ) and plan to defeat the Winx Club. Tritannus is also son of king Neptune turned into evil form of his merman form. His tail also has purple pollution track but doesn't stay. He refuels by taking in toxic pollution ( oil, gas, trash, garbage, and acid ) with his trident from the help of Icy and her two sisters.

Roxy will not be a main character in this season, but will only be appeared as a minor character. She will just be a student at Alfea. But she will appear in future seasons and episodes; such the sixth season. Upset that he cannot activate the tremendous, boundless and limitless power of the Emperor's Throne, Tritannus must take the mystical seals of the pillars of light, balance and control. Tritannus stole the seal of the Pillar of Light, and Stella restored the pillar by concentrating and thinking of the ones who makes her strong, those being her parents, with that she had unleashed her special Sirenix spell,Light of Sirenix. Tritannus then stole the seal of the Pillar of Balance. He had almost failed when the Winx tried to ambush both him and Icy, but thanks to Stormy and Darcy controlling the Singing Whales to attack the Winx, they we're able to escape. However, they did not thank the other two Trix, much to Darcy and Stormy's dismay. Musa saved the whales by singing to them using her spell Voice of Sirenix. With two seals gone from two pillars, the next is the pillar of control to finally activate the emperor's throne. To prevent Tritannus from activating the throne, the Winx Club decided to destroy the seal of the pillar of control. After finding out that the seal is destroyed, Tritannus plans to steal Politea's(an old and best friend of Daphne's) Sirenix energy and abilities to activate the throne.

However, he is not the only one who is looking for her: Darcy and Stormy are done with Tritannus and want her tremendously powerful Sirenix energy and abilities for themselves, but Bloom is also looking for her to find a way to break the Sirenix curse on both her and Daphne. Darcy and Stormy succeed and leave Icy. Tritannus plans a big attack on the Winx at the Pillar of light. Luckily the Winx are not alone, they get helped by Tressa, Nereus and the selkies. Tritannus kills Nereus with his trident, but is resurrected thanks to Aisha's wish. While distracted Tritannus kidnaps Aisha and brings her to the throne, but is followed by Bloom. Tritannus promises Icy that she will soon be empress, he than steals Aisha's Sirenix abilities to activate the throne. He becomes completely corrupted and overwhelmed by the almighty and limitless power of the Emperor's throne and attacks Icy, but is protected by her sisters. She breaks up with Tritannus. Bloom finds out that the key to defeating Tritannus is destroying his trident, she does this by using her Fire of Sirenix ability. Defeated, Tritannus is sent to an yet unknown location as punishment for his actions. Bloom uses her Sirenix wish to have Daphne's physical body finally restored. The season ends with a concert from the Winx Club on Andros and with Bloom happily dancing with Daphne.

Fairy transformations and forms [edit]

In the first season, everyone is endowed their regular Winx/fairy form. This basic form usually consists of a sparkly cropped top and miniskirt or, in Stella's case, short-shorts. However, some Winx/fairy forms consist of a sparkly dress or jumpsuit, which are clear examples of Flora and Tecna's Winx/fairy forms. Also, they usually, but not always, bear some sort of accessory on their arms such as wristbands, arm warmers or gloves. They also sometimes wear a matching hair ornament such as a tiara and their hair is occasionally tied while in this form. They also don boots or, most often, heeled shoes and sprout a pair of small, membranous, fluttering wings. It should be noted that Winx fairies cannot cover long distances and they are incapable of agile flight (see picture of the characters with their pixies). It is not the strongest and most powerful form, as it only allows a fairy to use basic spells and attacks; but in a special case like Bloom, she can unleash her Dragon Flame which happens to be intense; as seen in the final battle between Bloom and Icy in the first season. Also, Roxy is actually still on this form, even though her transformation bears some visual similarity to Believix.

In the second season, they get their second evolutionary fairy transformation and magical power, Charmix. They earn their Charmix by accomplishing something that helps them to get in touch with their true selves. They still wear their regular Winx/fairy outfits, but now they have a pin on their chest with a small gem and a small purse or waist bag that sits on the hips. However, in Flora's case, she has a shoulder bag and not a waist-bag like the others do. It should also be noted that Charmix does not grant the girls new-and much stronger- abilities and spells; it only greatly strengthens and magnifies the ones they already have to much greater power-levels.

In the third season, they obtain their Enchantix, which is their full-fledged fairy form. In their Enchantix form, the girls have much larger fairy wings that are much more sparkly and elegant, which enable them to fly higher and longer distances and cleave through strong storms, as well out-fly predators and opponents. They also have a fairy dust vial, situated around their neck, usually suspended by a choker that contains and keeps sealed their fairy dust of tremendously powerful healing and spell-breaking properties. Bloom also uses her fairy dust vial to keep the tremendously powerful, magical essence of Pyros stored inside of it, as shown in, The Omega Mission when the Winx and the Specialist's are boarding the ship for flight back to Alfea. An Enchantix typically consists of above-the-elbow translucent gloves and barefoot sandals. They wear a very short dress or a small top with a miniskirt or, for Tecna, mini shorts. Their hair grows longer and is elaborately arranged in loose tresses and high bunches; Tecna has a razored bob and Musa wears extremely long pigtails. A fairy earns her Enchantix by saving someone from her home world, with a great self-sacrifice on her part (excluding Bloom and Tecna- Bloom had willed herself into her Enchantix, and Tecna gave herself up for all of Magix, though that does include her home world of Zenith). It should be noted that one does not actually have to be on one's home world when doing this. Enchantix is said to be 'the maximum or final fairy form that leads a fairy to her infinite energy' in the third season, making a complete, full-fledged fairy out of her, and also allowing her to achieve higher powers such as Believix, which gives her additional abilities, and Sirenix, which is even more powerful than Enchantix. Headmistress Faragonda is said to have already reached her Enchantix level.They also have a movie using Enchantix, which is the Secret Of The Lost Kingdom. It is also believed that Daphne, Bloom's elder sister, went straight from Enchantix to Harmonix and then Sirenix, which unfortunately cost her her physical body entirely.

In the fourth season, all of the Winx Club fairies move on from their Enchantix forms to their Believix, entering a much, much stronger and much more advanced fairy stage with larger wings and additional special abilities, including the ability to make people believe in magic and fairies, hence the name. The form is earned by making a human believe in fairies. All six Winx girls become Believix fairies at the same time by convincing Roxy, the last fairy of Earth, to acknowledge the existence of fairies and subsequently embrace her own being. In their Believix form, they have three new types of wings with special abilities of their own. There is Speedix (much faster wings), Zoomix (short-distance teleportation), and Tracix (visions into the past and, possibly, the future). A Believix outfit usually consists of a cropped top and a miniskirt or pants. The girls wear socks and heels or boots, and their hair is usually tied. They often wear fingerless gloves. Also, Believix powers have two new sub-transformations (the Gifts of Destiny) added: Sophix, which is a nature-themed transformation that grants them abilities that affect nature itself, and Lovix, a wintry-themed transformation that enables them to survive in icy cold climates and gives them ice-based abilities. They also have a movie ( 2nd one ) using Believix. "Magical Adventure" Roxy's larger fairy wings look a lot like Believix wings, leading some to believe that Roxy had acquired her incomplete Believix instead of just her regular Winx/fairy form.

Harmonix is a temporary transformation after Believix and before Sirenix and it is in the fifth season. Harmonix is the third transformation to be received from a magical source, the first and second being Sophix and Lovix. The Winx use this temporary fairy form to complete their quest for gaining Sirenix.The girls' hair is much longer and tied, except for Tecna's hair which is shorter. The Harmonix outfits' consist of a dress with strap that goes on only one shoulder, a belt, a mini-skirt and a kind of cape attached to the skirts which look similar to mermaids' tails. The girls wear a tiara or a small piece of seashells and jewelries on their hair or bare head, and heels made of two ribbons attached around the feet and legs, with two long floating ribbon strips attached to the heels at knee level. Harmonix gives the Winx large multi-layered and transparent colorful wings and some effects. It is a temporary transformation until they reached Sirenix to defeat their enemy Tritannus and his allies, the Trix.

In the fifth season, the Winx Club evolve into Sirenix fairies; an ancient ocean/sea-themed power that enables a fairy to accelerate and use her increasingly strong magic and spells properly underwater. Apart from the other seasons which featured one new transformation, the Winx got their Harmonix transformation and abilities from their six Sirenix guardians, which is temporary and will be used only for the quest to gain access to Sirenix. The wings are much larger as Harmonix fairies smaller compared to Believix & Enchantix, but allows the fairies to accelerate faster underwater. Harmonix was still more powerful than previous transformations, though it does not compare to Sirenix. As Harmonix, the Winx Club fairy outfits all look the same, only with minor changes and shades of colors. Their hair is tied with several hair bands and accessories with the exception of Tecna. All girls are in a mermaid-tail gown (long in the back, short in the front). They wear high-heeled sandals, and two ribbons attached around the feet and legs act as straps. Their hair also changes color in the water different colors, Bloom is dark peach with blue streaks. Stella is a yellowish green with light purple streaks. Aisha is blonde with purple streaks, Musa is purple and pink. Flora is pink hair and light brown streaks. Tecna is very similar to Flora's, but purple and light brown.

When they cross the Infinite Ocean as Sirenix fairies, they got stronger wings, whole new outfits, upgraded powers, and colored hair in the water, also have highlights out of water too. Sirenix outfits all look similar, with only minor details and major color differences to tell them apart. It is currently unknown whether the curse of Sirenix, which left Bloom's sister Daphne in her current state as a disembodied spirit, will affect the Trix or the Winx. In the final episode (one hundred and thirtieth episode of the series), Bloom and Nereus defeated Tritannus, and Bloom had used her Sirenix wish to have her older sister, Daphne, finally restored to her physical body. At last, Bloom and her friends were happy that they finally restored Daphne's full physical body.

Characters [edit]

Broadcast history [edit]

In Italy, where the series was created, it has been broadcast on Rai Due since January 28, 2004. In the United States, it was licensed and dubbed into English by 4Kids Entertainment and was broadcast on Fox's programming block 4Kids TV beginning on June 19, 2004, with a preview episode airing on May 22, 2004. 4Kids TV continued its initial run until September 22, 2007, airing all three seasons. Winx Club was added back to the 4Kids TV schedule on April 12, 2008 and was aired up until December 27, 2008. On July 18, 2009, reruns of Winx Club then aired on the CW's programming block CW4Kids until July 17, 2010. Cartoon Network aired Winx Club in 2005 on their afternoon block Miguzi. Another English dub produced by Cinelume in association with Rai Due has been broadcast in Singapore, season 4 in Australia, and is featured as an alternate English language track on several European DVD releases.

Nickelodeon acquired the rights to the franchise in 2010 and is currently producing a new English dub in Los Angeles. Nickelodeon started airing the series with four-one hour specials summarizing seasons one and two. The first special aired on June 27, 2011, the second one "Revenge of the Trix" was aired on August 2, 2011, the third one "The Battle for Magix" aired on September 18, 2011 and the fourth one "The Shadow Phoenix" aired on October 16, 2011. The third season, "Winx Club: Enchantix", was aired on Nickelodeon from November 14, 2011 to December 26, 2011. The fourth season, "Winx Club: The Power of Believix", aired on Nickelodeon from May 6, 2012 to July 29, 2012. The fifth season, "Winx Club: Beyond Believix", premiered on Nickelodeon on August 26, 2012 and season took short hiatus during winter 2012 and returned in january 2013. Season finale should air in late spring 2013.

Controversy [edit]

Due to the fact that the highly edited 4Kids version of Winx Club was the one that was aired in the United States, some American fans who had previously watched only this version have lately criticised the Nickelodeon dub of Winx Club, which follows the original storyline of Winx Club produced by Rainbow S.r.l., for not following the 4Kids dub, which they misinterpreted as being the original version. Fans of the original version have also complained that the version by 4KidsTV does not follow the original storyline at all. The show is popular among both girls and boys