Winx Reboot Notes, Episode 1

Yes, I've seen the reboot. Yes, it's hot trash. Here are my notes of episode 1 for your amusement. You have been warned.

- I hate the new intro. Ordinarily, I’d be a fan of reviving “Under the Sign of Winx,” but this cover is trash. The vocals sound uninterested and passionless, like the singer is falling asleep, and the production feels like generic pop. It’s giving Katy Perry’s 143 era.

- I miss both English versions from the Cinelume dub. Personally I prefer Lucia’s version, but what I really miss is that original production with the guitars.

- Also, the sequence itself is LAZY. It’s literally just unaltered clips from the season. In the original, there was effort to spice up clips and add in unique effects and backgrounds, making it feel almost like a video collage.

- The Bloom narration feels so unnecessary and random. Why is it here?

- It feels like the script was AI generated, and the Bloom narration was thrown in last minute to try and make it feel more coherent.

- So no establishing shot of Gardenia. No taking our time to establish where we are or set the tone. Just… jumping straight to Bloom’s bedroom.

- What is Bloom even doing? Homework? And what triggers her hand to ignite?

- Why did Mike just barge in like, “Everything okay?” Is this morning and Bloom hasn’t come downstairs yet, or is it after she gets home from school?

- I hate that we don’t start on Bloom sleeping in cuz she’s on summer break. Not only does it make her being woken up more coherent and relatable, but it also characterizes Bloom as a bit lazy, and wanting to just vibe.

- Here, I have no clue who Bloom is as a character, because she’s just… there.

- I still hate that Kiko is just a plush and a notebook. Like, what the hell? Could we not animate bunnies?

- And also, the fact that Kiko is two pieces of merch. Is he an in-universe mascot that’s branded onto things already?

- Mike’s face looks hideous.

- I hate Vanessa’s model. She looks like she hasn’t slept in weeks, and her purple sleeves make her arms look diseased.

- So the bike is a birthday present. Okay, but… several issues:

- There’s no conversation with Bloom beforehand to characterize her and her parents. We don’t know who these people are, so why do we care about their birthday present for Bloom?

- Bloom is happy about the bike. Hate it. Like, her whole conflict originally was that she wanted to grow up and to not be treated like a kid anymore, and the bike was part of that. Vanessa says after she leaves that she probably wanted a scooter or a car (depending on the version). That, again, characterizes Bloom, while this doesn’t. It just reads as, “isn’t Bloom so perfect?”

- It also destroys Bloom’s motivation of wanting to leave Gardenia and see the world. In the original, she longs to be a fairy and have adventures in faraway places. Here… she wants nothing.

- “It must’ve cost you a fortune!” Gurl, it’s a bike, not a mortgage. Relax.

- The firefly nickname is cute, I will admit.

- Bloom’s hand ignited during the hug with her parents. Again, WHAT TRIGGERS IT???

- The title font is so ugly. I’s just… generic, illegible, overly script font overtop. It looks awful, and the lack of even a fade effect makes it even worse.

- “The strangeness was only beginning.” Who says strangeness???

- So… Stella and Flora are just fighting a random ogre thing in the park (I don’t know if it’s actually an ogre, but ya know)? IN THE OPEN??? Just a few shots ago there were people in the park. How the hell is no one seeing all these terribly bright special effects?!

- Also, Bloom just happens across them after getting off her bike. She doesn’t go to investigate anything, and come across the fight deeper in the woods. Love taking away her agency.

- Bloom doesn’t even decide to get involved here. In the original, she was hiding, and stepped in when Stella was in danger, risking her own life before she even KNEW she had magic. It spoke to her bravery and impulsiveness. Here… the monster spots her and charges.

- Also, why does the monster HAVE THUMBS ON ITS FEET.

- The monster just… randomly breaks the bike? Why? It went out of its way to do that.

- They’re trying to act like it’s a big deal that sets Bloom off, but it’s so laughable. Like gurl who cares? Fuck your family.

- Oh god, even the shot-to-shot continuity is fucked. So Bloom is running from the monster, and it’s sunset. Stella and Flora grab her and fly away. They land in a tree… and in one shot it’s become nightfall. Like, there’s no transition from sunset to nightfall. It’s just straight-up nighttime now. What the fuck???

- “But that monster is probably after your ring, Stella?” Um… why would it be? Does this mean y’all came to Earth and then got attacked?

- Also, the monster not being Knut, an actual character, but just a generic monster that doesn’t talk? Serious downgrade, loss of a great character, and we miss a chance to get clues about who he works for.

- So Stella and Flora came to get Bloom. Several problems:

- Takes away Bloom’s agency. She chose to go out to the park, she chose to investigate, she chose to save Stella, and then she chose to go to Alfea. At each step she is choosing what she does. Here, she’s entirely passive and just whisked away before we even know who the hell she is.

- Why is Flora here? Why is she needed for this? In the original, it just being Stella keeps it simple, and lets us focus on the beginning of her and Bloom’s friendship. They’re besties after all. Here, there is no friendship. It makes Stella and Flora’s arrival feel like an errand.

- Why did we leave the park through a portal? Where did the portal go to? The next shot isn’t them exiting it and de-transforming. It’s presumably the next day (it’s daytime now lol) where Bloom is saying goodbye to her parents and heading to Alfea. What???

- We’ve had no time to get to know any of these characters. Shit is just… happening.

- We don’t even get to see how they go to Alfea. In the original, we learn from Stella that it’s on the planet Magix in the Magical Dimension. We know it’s not on Earth. But here, we have no clue! And without seeing how they get there, it makes it even more confusing!

- Also steals an important moment to establish Stella as the one who’s able to teleport between worlds. Not only does it make her especially useful, but it partially explains why her ring is so important.

- Alfea got butchered. The original castle was so unique! Unashamedly pink and girly, but also with lots of rounded architecture that looked organic. Like it could only have been made with magic!

- Here, Alfea is sad millennial mom beige, with lots of harsh lines and pointy bits. It looks less unique, and more like a generic fantasy school castle.

- This reveal of Alfea feels so underwhelming. It’s too soon. We don’t even know about it because Stella didn’t get the chance to tell us about it beforehand. We’re just… here now.

- So, last scene Bloom left with Stella and Flora to go to Alfea. The next scene, Bloom is saying hi to them like she just arrived on her own, and like these two were waiting for her ahead of time? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

- So… Stella is the Fairy of the Sun and Moon again. Okay, cool, but in all the promo leading up to this, she was still the “Fairy of the Shining Sun.”

- Iginio, this won’t win you points.

- And Bloom’s already assigned to a dorm. Okay then.

- The Varanda drama was so good though! It was a brief conflict, but it tested Bloom’s trustworthiness, and also made it clear that her being from Earth was a big deal, and deeply unexpected. Here, everyone’s like, “Oh, you’re from Earth? The non-magical world? Okay cool, who cares?”

- I hate the new dorm. I’ve really come to loathe open-concept homes. The original dorm was more closed, and more cozy. An entrance, a designated lounge, and a little table with some desks in the back hallway leading to the balcony. Far warmer, and far more homey.

- This big, wide open room feels both barren and too small, because it means there’s no separated spaces for the girls to exist in without getting in each other’s way.

- “Aisha. Fairy of Waves. You’ll see my name on the food in the fridge.” Glitch backflips away.

- The way this has been haunting my Discord server.

- The animation is dreadful. There’s no attention to momentum or physics… or just how the human body works. You’d have to lean forward to build momentum before a backflip, NOT JUST… PROPEL YOURSELF BACKWARDS.

- Love Stella standing awkwardly like an NPC waiting for the player to talk to her in the foreground.

- ALSO WHERE IS THE FRIDGE.

- Why did we even meet Musa, Tecna, and Aisha. This is their only scene in the episode.

- Why are we rushing through all of this to meet ALL the Winx, get to Alfea, meet Faragonda and Griffin, meet the Trix, meet Damien, and meet the Specialists… AND ALSO GO BACK TO GARDENIA?! WHY ALL THIS IN JUST ONE EPISODE?!

- Robin feels like such a random, unnecessary addition. Why does Faragonda need an assistant?

- Also, while I love that we have female specialists now, I know we’re not getting male fairies. Male witches in the form of warlocks, sure, but Rainbow and Iginio are too queerphobic to ever let a boy don fairy wings and a glittery outfit. Cowards.

- The way I hate Faragonda’s accent. It gives generically British fantasy professor.

- Stella talking to Faragonda looks disgusting. Her left eye makes her look like she’s having a stroke, and her face looks like that of a Martian who’s been hit with a frying pan.

- So Faragonda detected a potential fairy on Earth, and Stella and Flora just went on their own to go find her… why?! There’s no reason for it. No ulterior motive or goal, aside from a joke about Stella blowing up the potion lab.

- Also, this makes it seem as though the year was already happening before Bloom arrived. How the hell did she already have a dorm set with the other girls at Alfea?!

- I don’t hate Griffin’s design, but I hate Cloudtower being destroyed. They keep saying it was destroyed in “a great war between light and dark 16 years ago,” which is giving it was part of the Fall of Domino. But they never go into specifics as to what the war was really about, or who was involved, aside from random names here and there.

- Like, Griffin ran Cloudtower. Was she on the side of the Ancestral Witches, and then changed her ways to help run Alfea with Faragonda? Or did the Ancestral Witches destroy Cloudtower? They never say.

- Bloom bumping into Icy is… so bad. You’re in a wide, open space and Icy was clearly visible. There was no turning of corners. You’d have to intentionally go out of your way to bump into her.

- This long, awkward moment of trying to show off their clashing powers is so bad. So, so very bad.

- “I sensed it when she bumped into me.” GURL WE SAW IT, YOU DON’T NEED TO TELL US.

- And instantly, Icy’s obsession with Bloom begins, and it’s sadly ungay. I hate it here.

- I do love Icy’s lacey sleeves though.

- So, did Darcy and Stormy use their magic to cause the fire, or was that actually the fairy who did that?

- Stormy looks good in purple, but it throws off the color balancing of the Trix, cuz now we have one blue, two purples. It’s half the Bloomix forms being in blue all over again.

- The pointy-hat witch statue is giving AI Elphaba. Witches in the Winx universe don’t wear pointy hats or use brooms. That’s literally the point of them putting a new spin on fairies and witches!

- Bloom helping Stella and Flora clean up is technically an active choice, but it’s one that makes her feel too perfect. Like she’s just so sweet and goodhearted, don’t you care about her? The answer is no, I do not. CAN SHE GET A FLAW PLEASE?!

- “Icy, Stormy, and Darcy.” Bitch, the order is Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. Get it right you ignorant sluts.

- Flora’s like, “Not all witches are bad,” yet the show clearly disagrees. All the witches we’ve met are either mean (be they Griffin or background witches), or evil like the Trix.

- When Bloom thinks she might be a witch next episode, the girls don’t comfort her like, “Fairy or witch we’ll accept you.” They just reinforce that she’s definitely a fairy. And she is! Like the show agrees she was right to be afraid to be a witch.

- I would’ve vastly preferred Bloom actually being a witch and learning to accept herself.

- How the hell did Griffin not notice the Trix destroying the statue?! You can hear the crash, but you don’t hear all the thunder or see all the glowy blue lights?

- Why exactly does Griffin hate Bloom? It’s giving she’s just mean. Almost as if the show doesn’t like witches.

- Why are we focusing so much on these three being punished? Shouldn’t we be taking our time to establish Bloom as a main character before we do five-million things?

- Damien looks like an AI-generated fanfic OC from a completely different show.

- The way everyone called him being Bloom’s secret twin brother. God I hate it here.

- “I feel like I’ve met him before.” Stella growling is me at this writing.

- Damien feels like an actually fleshed out character immediately than anybody else. He’s guarded, untrusting, and has something mysterious to his character, meanwhile Bloom is about as interesting as a dried-up puddle.

- The sheep form of the changelings are cute, but also look very much AI generated. Something about them feels wrong.

- They’re giving rip-off Spyro creatures.

- I wanna like the idea of Icy feigning kindness to manipulate Bloom, but this just makes Bloom look so stupid. They want her to come off as trusting and kind so that we feel bad for her being manipulated, but I don’t. This just makes me hate her more.

- Cue “What does this green button do?” from Dumb Ways to Die, and then the sheep maul her.

- The fact Bloom didn’t think to ask Damien, Flora, or Stella about the creatures or why they have collars. In the words of Lois Griffin, “Fuckin’ idiot.”

- Love the changelings shifting form offscreen so we don’t have to animate the process. Y’all spent years with this in development, and you still couldn’t actually make this look good.

- Even the composition of shots look bad to try and hide the lack of animation.

- The specialists IMMEDIATELY show up, what the fuck? ENOUGH WITH THE INTRODUCTIONS.

- How the hell did they just instantly show up in their ship all suited up?!

- They also all look awful. Brandon looks like James Charles with two black eyes.

- Bloom’s been at Alfea for three days already? What the fuck is going on?!

- The specialists’ weapons literally just appear in one frame. There’s no actual animation to their formation. This is so embarrassing.

- Still hate the transformation sequences. And also the outfits.

- Stella’s scepter looks like a plastic wand.

- Stella’s Solar Flare spell… did nothing? Was that supposed to have blinded the monsters?

- Flora’s vines look so weak and pathetic, I can barely see them onscreen.

- Already we’re back in Gardenia at Bloom’s high school… was she already going here? Was school in session? Was it not summer? How do Mike and Vanessa explain her absence exactly?

- Mitzi showed up as if we’re supposed to already know who she is.

- This is a running theme with this episode. You’re expected to already be familiar with and care about this world and these characters, which… NO?! You’re supposed to reintroduce us to these new versions of the characters, both for existing fans to get to know these new versions, and for newbies to get acquainted without being thrown into the deep end.

- The way this bathroom has changed so many times over the years, and has looked ugly every time.

- So Mitzi doesn’t hear all the spells and see all the flashing lights from inside the stall? What?

- The animation of Bloom using the broom to lock the stall door was so bad. So, so bad.

- Stella… fixed all of this? Her magic can do that? Her powers are light, so I’d normally assume she can only make illusions, but… this?! What the fuck are our powers supposed to even be???

- “They’re headed for a super busy area!” Note the lack of literally anyone in this area.

- “How are we gonna stop them?” “I heard the Trix open the portal.” “Let’s also open the portal!” WHY DID WE NEED TO KNOW THE TRIX DID THIS TO MAKE A PORTAL OURSELVES? STELLA, YOU LITERALLY MADE ONE LIKE 20 MINUTES AGO.

- Bloom’s only impressive accent — putting the collar on the changeling. And she did it by ninja leaping onto its back. She built no actual momentum to pull off the jump.

- So instead of having Aisha to be the black best friend to have no character beyond comforting Bloom like we had in Fate, we now have Flora being the Latina best friend existing solely to comfort Bloom. Great.

- Where the hell are the Trix? What is this… lounge with the lime-green fireplace?!

- Okay, I genuinely like the ending song “From Now On.” It’s the only song in the reboot that hasn’t made me want to earn Self-Defenestratix.

- So this was co-produced with RAI Kids. You can tell.

- TLDR, RAI is short for Radiotelevisione Italiana, and it’s Italy’s public broadcasting company. They’ve always worked with Rainbow in producing Winx Club. I learned a bit about the history of their collaboration recently.

- Originally, Winx aired on Rai 2, which was meant for “youthful audiences” (i.e. teens). Then halfway through season 6, Winx moved to Rai Gulp, and it finally moved to Rai YoYo for season 8.

- Basically, RAI Kids is the production company that’s a subsidiary for RAI as a whole. It’s meant for the production of children’s shows. We’re talking toddlers. Rai YoYo is essentially the Italian Nick Jr. (except it’s publicly owned).

- For the record, Iginio always said he had to tone down the show for younger viewers to meet Rai Yoyo’s requirements. He chose to go that route though. No one forced he or Rainbow’s hands to move Winx away from Rai 2 and Rai Gulp, as far as I’m aware.

- Gurl this was a flop. I wish to unsee this.