Netflix, Are You Kidding Me Right Now with This Winx Reboot?

It's official. Hollywood is dead. If the Mulan remake wasn't bad enough, even our non-Disney childhood favorites are being turned into gritty soulless live-action shadows of their former selves. Remember when things like this used to be a joke? Those days are over. Now we have hyper-realistic Riverdale spinoffs that aren't actually realistic because they feature teenagers with superpowers. They are just realistic enough that all of the whimsical fantasy elements that we loved as kids are now gone, but not so realistic that they are beyond things like vampires, werewolves, or seances. What sort of world are we living in when a show about faery princesses does not even portray its fairies with wings? I suppose you can argue that maybe they didn't want to reveal the wings in the trailer, but isn't that the entire point of Winx Club? See for yourself. Does this look the Winx you remember?

So yeah, this is Fate: The Winx Saga, which is coming to Netflix on January 22, 2021. It's about as similar to Winx Club as Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. At least this trailer gave me a good laugh. They took all the angsty teen supernatural tropes and slapped a Winx label onto it, thinking that no one would notice that it looks nothing like Winx. Some sources claim that this adaptation is intended for those who grew up watching the cartoon. I don't know about you, but I can't imagine anyone who enjoyed the Winx Club cartoon enjoying this trailer. In fact, I can hardly imagine anyone enjoying it at all. Not only did they rip apart all of the fairy tale princess elements that made Winx Club what it was, but they didn't even keep the same characters! Flora and Tecna, two of my favorite Winx fairies, have been replaced by a new character named Terra. None of the actors look anything like how I would have pictured these characters in real life. They got the hair colors right, but they all have the same deadpan expressions as any other generic CW show (even though this is made for Netflix).

Is there anything about this trailer that resembles the original Winx? Yes, but not a lot. It looks like they will be keeping Bloom's backstory. In the cartoon, she is adopted after her parents found her as a baby in the middle of a catastrophe and grew up wondering where she really came from. After being haunted by stunning visions of her birth sister, Daphne, she eventually discovers that she is a princess from the lost planet of Domino. In this trailer, she states that she deserves to know what she is, which was exactly why she attended Alfea College for Fairies in the original show. However, the cartoon portrayed the girls using their powers after they transformed into glittery winged fairies, and this shows them doing basic CGI magic tricks like conjuring fireballs between their fingers while looking anything but sparkly. I was expecting some bad CGI to come out of a live-action remake, but not this lazy witchcraft coven garbage.

I know that some people will read this and say that if I don't like it, I don't have to watch it, but the problem isn't the fact that it exists. It's the fact that this is considered normal by today's standards. Disney, Netflix, and the mainstream media obviously think that this is what people want to see, or they wouldn't keep dishing it out. We may never see a comeback of the magical carefree worlds of our childhood because they are all being dampened into dark, gritty reimaginings featuring angsty teens. Speaking of which, did anyone else find the shot of Bloom and Prince Sky from the trailer kind of creepy? I liked their relationship in the show because Sky was worried Bloom wouldn't be interested in him if she knew he was a prince, so he kept it a secret and needed to make it up to her later when she learned that he was lying. Here we see them staring each other down in confusion like they're both aliens. Then again, one of them actually is, but she isn't supposed to know that yet. I think they were going for sexual tension, but I didn't get that impression at all.

I can't even with the mainstream media right now. Three great animated princess shows ended in 2020, and this is what they're following up with for 2021. Granted, all three of those shows were spinoffs or reboots, but they were still way more magical and princessy than this looks. I heard that there would be a live-action Winx reboot some time ago, and I spent the subsequent year blissfully ignoring any news about it because I knew that no matter what they did with it, it would turn out awful. However, I was hoping for something charming with hilariously bad CGI like Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, not Chilling Adventures of Bloom. Stick a fork in me because I'm done!

Comments

PrincessContent said…
So much cringe…

I can bet my money on that this will be one of those shows Netflix cancels before it gets three seasons…

Will My Little Pony be the next magical, sparkly cartoon turned dark and gritty, or what? Imagine that horror!
Lisa Dawn said…
Would you believe it got picked up for a second season in advance? I have a feeling they're going to regret that decision.

I'm sure somewhere on the internet, there was a fan that created a dark and gritty parody of My Little Pony. I'm not sure if I would dare to look for it, though.
PrincessContent said…
Wait what? It’s already been picked up for a second season?! Oh god yes they will regret that…

I’ve come across some gritty parodies of My Little Pony over the years but that is a completely different experience then what I think seeing a serious reboot with a real budget would be. The point of those types of parodies is to show how bizarre these shows would be if they where gritty. That’s the whole joke.

I remember that the pilot episode for the very first Pony cartoon had its dark and scary moments but I would not call them gritty. I would put them on the same level as the scary moments in Disney’s Snow White. “Early-Animation-Fairytale-Darkness” is the term I would call it.
Lisa Dawn said…
Yeah, it says here that it was picked up for an early renewal: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/ozark-warrior-nun-and-fate-the-winx-saga-reportedly-renewed-at-netflix/

That was one of the points that I wanted to emphasize in this post. About a decade or so ago, it became a trend to create dark parody trailers of childhood favorites. Some people found them funny, but others actually wanted to know what they would be like if they were real. Now they don't have to wonder anymore. Some people do argue that the original My Little Pony movie was extremely dark. I've seen some of the original series but could never get into it as much as I did with Friendship Is Magic.
jem said…
Oh boy I don't know where to start with what I hate from this adaption, they had take a fantasy world full of details with lots of story to spand but instead they made a generic teen drama show. I hope they are happy....
https://bloomvalyria.tumblr.com/post/637127750924320768/oh-my-god-its-tv-ma-im-losing-my-mind

If this tumblr post is true, the show will be rated TV-MA.
Lisa Dawn said…
Well, it is on "anything goes" Netflix...
Anonymous said…
I’ve been watching winx for years, it was my absolute childhood favourite... I had all the original films and toys and to see this reboot of the original... it just makes me so sad, I don’t understand why they have to pick it up and ruin it? Go ruin W.I.T.C.H or something :) But then again if people who created the vampire diaries are doing this I’m not surprised the cast is awful seeing as they casted Nina Dobrev
Lisa Dawn said…
Believe it out not, it's made by the same people who created the original Winx!
Anonymous said…
I'm finding this sad and amusing at the same time, because of my history with Winx and how people reacted.
I was literally bullied in school because I was over 10 and liked Winx Club (that people my age was calling "cringy" and "childlish") instead of, let's say, Twilight, Degrassi or even H2O: Jyst Add water (because it's live action, not a cartoon!). It was one of many reasons kids were picking on me and I was homeschooled for some time.
It's very weird to me now seeing this massive reaction to Fate: The Winx Saga being people calling it too gritty and not like Winx Club and asking for sparkles. I agree, of course, but it feels very weird, 15 years ago being made fun of because I liked faries and cartoons and percsonally prefered them over "dark" things and now, probably because of pandemic, people are demanding those lighter things
Lisa Dawn said…
I'm sorry you had that experience. I was picked on in school for having these interests as well. I think there must have always been a silent minority of young ladies who grew up with the Disney Princesses and loved fantasy. If not, it wouldn't have been so popular! Unfortunately, it's more difficult to find people who share your interests in a smaller local community than it is on the internet. That's why I'm glad I can share my blog with other princess fans like you. Have a lovely day!
Unknown said…
I never watched the cartoon but I have read several pages about it. I watched the Netflix show and I ezally liked it. I think it had a food story and it kept me interested through out each episode.
Unknown said…
as a guy who has liked Winx club since I was a child the gritty reboot just seems like a quick cash grab made for the whole "dark and gritty reboots are in" thing, we've had going for a bit. i like dark things like slasher films and stuff but even then I like some light in my darkness and that used to be winx club.
Anonymous said…
okey like wtf?!Fairies by deffinition have wings if u are using magic but have no wings YOU ARE A WIZARD NOT A FAIRY ! THis is just so stupid.

They also turned innocent Flora into some " Don't fuck with me or I will rip your balls out" -,- ( sorry for a languege).

They also took away any sort of magic ( i mean they magical weapons and ships) that boys had...

The world witch was supposed to be another magical planet looks plain and boring like u were on Earth the whole time great JUST Great!

It looks like "he Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" had a child with "chilling adventures of sabrina", Heck maybe Sabrina will go into school for witches here...unless it doesn't exist in this reboot since I didn't see it in trailer but who knows...

It seems like they just took names and throw ther reast in a trash :c .

And I do agree that the main problem is that people behind it think that this is what we want, maybe some do but if ur gooing to make a reboot of amazing fantasy story at least keep the magic in it instead of making it like every other show..

Like while watching this I got vibes of all of this shows: he Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Teen wolf, chilling adventures of sabrina.

They Could make an edit to those shows and you would think it's the sam euniverse :/.
Lisa Dawn said…
Wait, you mean it's not the same universe? lol jk :-P

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