It was my first year in the U.S as a child when my friend introduced me to a show that would open my eyes to the world of American kids cinema. In our living room, cradling sticky ice cream cones, we sat wide-eyed in front of the TV, completely mesmerized as Winx Club played. I distinctly remember the first Winx film I watched, which was Winx Club: The Mystery of the Abyss. To say that I became obsessed with that franchise is an understatement.
Winx Club, originally an Italian TV show, premiered in 2004. When it found international success, they collaborated with Nickelodeon to bring it to American audiences.
The show revolves around a group of fairy friends, with the main character being Bloom, a fire fairy, who led a cast of 6 other fairies, including Flora, Aisha, Stella, Tecna and Musa, which I could only dream to be a part of. Each fairy belongs to a different realm and reigns over a specific power; for example, Stella is from a kingdom called Solaria, and she is the fairy of the Sun. but it was Flora, the fairy of nature, who captured my heart. Her soft-spoken kindness and her bond with all living things resonated with me deeply.
My friends and I would play out scenes from Winx on the playground, waving our hands and yelling magic spells like fairies. And when I discovered there were eight entire seasons, I binged the show. I’d devour episode after episode, drawn to the friendships, sparkly outfits, and the mushy love stories that were portrayed on the screen.
As the fairies encounter multiple adventures together, they unlock new powers and “transformations,” or different forms of power, which grant them upgraded powers and new outfits.
My friend and my obsession ran so deep that in middle school, we even penned our own completely original 52- page Google Doc story inspired by the Winx franchise. Still, given our obsession with cats at that time (since my friend had just got a pet cat), instead of humans transforming into fairies, they were humans who transformed into magical winged cats with powers. Our story ended somewhere around when a sea monster was attacking the cat fairies. Typical 9-year-old imagination.
Although I’m too old for the Winx franchise now, in 2021, Netflix adapted the series into a live-action show, and I was quick to jump onto that, too. Although the plot was just OK, with some adjustments, such as removing the flying and magic sparkles shooting out of their hands to make it more realistic, the overall vibe of the Netflix show was nothing like the colorful and exciting theme of the animated show.
It had a more suspenseful atmosphere, contrasting the exciting and adventurous original. It faced criticism as some even compared it to a show about witches instead of fairies. The live-action was renewed for a season 2 and then discontinued. Despite the criticism, I watched both seasons, and although it was far from my memories of the Winx Club I grew up with, it still brought me back to those memories.
