Review: Winx Club - The Magic Is Back (Part 3)

The first season of the Winx Club reboot was released in batches, and today, the third and final episode batch dropped on Netflix. These seven episodes bring Damien's story to a close and introduce some new shocking revelations about the Trix. Winx Club came out 22 years ago and has been rebooted and reimagined so many times since then that I think fans are tired of seeing the same story rehashed in slightly different ways. This reimagining changes a few things from the original, but not to the same extent as Fate: The Winx Saga, making it most appropriate for newer fans of the show who aren't as familiar with the original series.

If I had to pin down a theme for the final batch of episodes from the Winx reboot, it would be family. These new episodes introduce us to Flora's parents, contain some not-so-shocking revelations about Bloom's roots, and resolve Damien's emotional trauma from being raised by the villain, Vexius. It also introduces a shocking twist about the childhood of the Trix, which I thought was a nice touch. With all the varying childhood experiences of the characters, the reboot demonstrates that there are many different ways to grow up.

There are a handful of throwbacks to the original series in this batch, particularly the episode "The Princess Ball," which has the exact same name as an episode of the original show. I personally preferred the gowns that the girls wore to the ball in the 2D version over Stella's scandalous stylings for the reboot. This episode also contained another cameo from Daphne, which felt out of place because she pops up when Bloom is thinking about her family and then conveniently disappears when Bloom asks her too many questions. I thought her final appearance in the series was a lot stronger and wish they had just kept it to that.

There were also a few weird moments that made things awkward. The flashback scenes in these episodes veer from the show's standard CGI animation style to something that looks like it's trying to mimic traditional animation but gives off a look of being very AI-generated. This style might be off-putting to long-time viewers of the show, especially after adjusting to the new standard look. There's also a weird music video dream sequence at the end featuring a Swedish pop singer named Zara Larsson, whom I've never heard of before. In the video, she joins the Winx girls and turns into a fairy without any explanation whatsoever, and disrupts the flow of the story. A few more familiar faces return at the end of the season, but we don't get much time with them before everything wraps up.

Overall, this was a satisfying conclusion to Damien's arc but falls a little flat for the rest of the girls. Bloom's story has been retold so many times that it's tiresome to have to see it all over again. Some of the new revelations with the Trix were interesting, but I wish the characters introduced at the very end of the season were brough in a little earlier so we could get more story from them. The music video was completely unnecessary, and I hope this show won't be doing more pointless promotions like that in the future. What are your thoughts on the now complete first season of Winx Club: The Magic Is Back? Let me know in the comments!