Winx Season Four & Movie Two Musings
Well, it's not a toy/doll update like I said in the last post, but having just finished watching Season Four and the second Winx Club Movie, I really wanted to get down my thoughts while they were somewhat fresh.
It's hard to believe that I'm coming up on my forth anniversary as a fan of Winx. I started watching the show in August 2007 when Season 3 started airing with the 4Kids dub, and I quickly caught up with the first two seasons. That basically sealed the 4Kids cast in my mind as the "real" cast, and their retelling became my favorite version. Winx is a strange property with its worldwide distribution - I've seen four (possibly five if the version of Movie 2 I watched was really different) separate dubs of the show. 4Kids, RAI English, Nickelodeon and the Italian versions all have their good and bad points, but when you've seen something one way for so long, it can become hard to accept another dub.
Season three is the last one to have a 4Kids produced dub, however, so anything beyond that requires getting used to something new anyway.
The impetus to watch my RAI English version of Season 4 came about after watching the first Nickelodeon special. It condensed the first half of Season 1 with new animation and the newest dub. (And it's actually a pretty good dub. Time will tell, but it just might sneak in behind 4Kids as my second-favorite.) These specials will summarize seasons 1 and 2, and then Nick will pick up with Seasons 3 and 4 in full. But I just couldn't wait that long to see Season 4 after catching Winx fever again, and my unwatched episodes started calling.
Actually, when Season 4 came out, nobody thought that Winx would ever make a US comeback, so I've seen the first half of Season 4 in Italian with subtitles. Those subs seemed to dry up after a period of time and I was never able to finish. So to find all the episodes with the RAI English was a great boon.
But enough backstory - thoughts on Season Four! Obviously, spoilers to follow.
I find myself really torn. On one hand, after so long without any Winx, it was so fun to see everyone back in action again. On the other hand, I always felt that the first movie was such a poignant conclusion to the series, and really brought Bloom's journey to an elegant closure, tying up many of the loose ends hanging since Season One.
Season Four differs so much in tone from the first three. In all of those, we had the foundation of Magix and the three schools to anchor the story. Since S4 takes place largely on Earth, there is only infrequent contact with the magical dimension. I believe this was detrimental to the series, and was somewhat used to let go of continuity elements as it suited the writers.
Specifically, I really took issue with the decision by the Winx to stay on Earth at the end of the series to run Love & Pet and focus on their rock band. Really? You're guardian fairies of your planets in the magical dimension with awesome powers, but you'd rather run a pet shop and sing. And then they acted like it had been their dream all along, and saying things like "We won't give up on our dreams!" It was just so OOC. You can't convince me Stella would be happy with that. She's a princess - styling pets for the rest of her life couldn't possibly be her first choice.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of much character development. Winx has a huge cast, and I know that it has to be tricky to balance all the characters at this point. But it felt so often that lots of the characters got really neglected this season. Tecna and Timmy really stand out as prime examples. Nothing really interesting happened to their storyline, and their relationship appeared to revert to season two levels of awkwardness. Flora developed attitude, but nothing really happened to her. Which was too bad, because the introduction of Diana - another nature fairy - had so much wasted potential in that arena.
And when there was character development, it seemed so out of character. Like Layla - I can buy that her love for Nabu "softened" her a little, but she pretty much lost all spark and edge until she flipped out near the end of the series (also the point she became the most interesting, IMO). And how many times are we going to have to watch Musa and Riven have their squabbles and differences? It's like the same thing every season. However, Riven's budding friendship with Nabu and Helia was a high point; first time I think he's really ever expressed himself to others.
The Specialists, on the whole, were not well used. Their appearances were pretty much confined to working at the Frutti Music Bar and pairing off/hugging the Winx when they all walked into a room. Oh, and saying they need to support their girlfriends and their dreams (but apparently not have any thoughts or dreams of their own?) I'm actually glad they decided to leave Earth at the end of the season.
Breakdown by couple.
1. Bloom and Sky - oddly, Bloom and Sky come off as the most adult in this season. I think Sky being the new kind of Eraklyon and Bloom having finally recovered Sparx in the first movie really brought their maturity up a notch. Bloom also served as a mentor to Roxy this season, positioning her as a voice of wisdom and maturity.
2. Stella and Brandon - I'm going to say it: I hated what they did to my favorite characters in the first half of the season. They've been through far worse than Mitzi kissing Brandon for Stella to go so crazy.
3. Flora and Helia - there was pretty much nothing here except Helia's new haircut. They always talked about how strange the people of earth were and staying here afterward for no apparent reason. Helia has more development with Riven than with Flora.
4. Musa and Riven - at least this season their argument actually led to their breakup and re-evaluation of their relationship. Musa wanting to be a star on Earth seemed odd, too. Like why would it be important to be a singer on such a non-magical planet?
5. Tecna and TImmy - nothing, again. Not even a new haircut.
6. Layla and Nabu - sigh. Nabu gets developed then killed. Layla goes really starry-eyed over everything. And they also made plans to stay on Earth together...while what happens to Tides?
There was an awful lot of quick judgmental reactions and mistrust between the couples this season for characters who've been through three years of adventures together.
The ever-growing number of transformations became tiring. I liked Believix (beautiful designs!) despite the fact that it spits in the face of continuity concerning Enchantix. But seriously, Sophix and Lovix were pointless - or at least having whole new outfits for them was. And having to sit through the Zoomix, Speedix, and Tracix wing transformations got old as well. I pray S5 and beyond tone it down.
Some things that came out of the fourth season that I really liked were the new characters. Roxy was overall a good addition to the cast, and I hope she at least appears occasionally in Seasons 5 & 6. The Wizards of the Black Circle are the best villains since the S1 Trix. And I absolutely loved the earth fairies: Morgana, Nebula, Sibylla, Aurora, and Diana finally showed some morally gray characters, and that not all fairies are good. In fact, my favorite parts of the series were the dealings with the Major Fairies. And of course I really liked the Frutti Music Bar Crew: Klaus, Andy, the band, and Jason Queen added some flavor to the non-magical people. It was also nice that Mike, Vanessa, and Mitzi were back.
But if found it odd that Bloom never contacts her family on Sparx after the events of the first movie.
The Pets. Oh, the pets. All the irritating parts of the Pixies without any of the humor or charm. You can only watch them getting into trouble and abusing Kiko so many times. Heh, well, the episode where they all could talk and only asked for food was pretty funny. Also, the "Love and Pet" theme song will hang around your head for DAYS.
Looking back it seems like I hated Season Four, which really wasn't the case! It had the best animation of any of the four seasons, and some good character moments interspersed throughout, but I think so many OOC moments and the Earth setting made it really jarring. Still though, it was very nostalgic to see the Winx back together, and it's at least as good as Season Three.
Moving on to movie two, I felt much more positive. In some ways, it seemed like this movie bypassed the events of season four aside from having the Winx in their Believix costumes. Lots of time in the magical dimension on Magix, Sparx and Eraklyon, no Roxy, Nabu still alive (and he, Sky, and Helia with their original haircuts) made me question the timeline. Now I have no idea how much reciprocity there is between what happens in the movies and what happens in the show. There should be some stat clarification on that.
It was absolutely amazing to see the Trix back in action, the Specialists looking competent, and Bloom's interactions with her two families (including more Daphne, who always looks spectacular in the CGI films). The amount of interesting backstory added between Sparx and Eraklyon was great as well. Bloom meeting the different princes was hilarious, and her maids were pretty funny as well. The movies always seem to be a Bloom-centric story, which I think helps them from getting out of control.
Whew, that got long! Now that Winx is back on US airwaves and having watched these two things, I'm definitely back in Winx Fever mode! August 1st and the next Nickelodeon special can't come fast enough!
It's hard to believe that I'm coming up on my forth anniversary as a fan of Winx. I started watching the show in August 2007 when Season 3 started airing with the 4Kids dub, and I quickly caught up with the first two seasons. That basically sealed the 4Kids cast in my mind as the "real" cast, and their retelling became my favorite version. Winx is a strange property with its worldwide distribution - I've seen four (possibly five if the version of Movie 2 I watched was really different) separate dubs of the show. 4Kids, RAI English, Nickelodeon and the Italian versions all have their good and bad points, but when you've seen something one way for so long, it can become hard to accept another dub.
Season three is the last one to have a 4Kids produced dub, however, so anything beyond that requires getting used to something new anyway.
The impetus to watch my RAI English version of Season 4 came about after watching the first Nickelodeon special. It condensed the first half of Season 1 with new animation and the newest dub. (And it's actually a pretty good dub. Time will tell, but it just might sneak in behind 4Kids as my second-favorite.) These specials will summarize seasons 1 and 2, and then Nick will pick up with Seasons 3 and 4 in full. But I just couldn't wait that long to see Season 4 after catching Winx fever again, and my unwatched episodes started calling.
Actually, when Season 4 came out, nobody thought that Winx would ever make a US comeback, so I've seen the first half of Season 4 in Italian with subtitles. Those subs seemed to dry up after a period of time and I was never able to finish. So to find all the episodes with the RAI English was a great boon.
But enough backstory - thoughts on Season Four! Obviously, spoilers to follow.
I find myself really torn. On one hand, after so long without any Winx, it was so fun to see everyone back in action again. On the other hand, I always felt that the first movie was such a poignant conclusion to the series, and really brought Bloom's journey to an elegant closure, tying up many of the loose ends hanging since Season One.
Season Four differs so much in tone from the first three. In all of those, we had the foundation of Magix and the three schools to anchor the story. Since S4 takes place largely on Earth, there is only infrequent contact with the magical dimension. I believe this was detrimental to the series, and was somewhat used to let go of continuity elements as it suited the writers.
Specifically, I really took issue with the decision by the Winx to stay on Earth at the end of the series to run Love & Pet and focus on their rock band. Really? You're guardian fairies of your planets in the magical dimension with awesome powers, but you'd rather run a pet shop and sing. And then they acted like it had been their dream all along, and saying things like "We won't give up on our dreams!" It was just so OOC. You can't convince me Stella would be happy with that. She's a princess - styling pets for the rest of her life couldn't possibly be her first choice.
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of much character development. Winx has a huge cast, and I know that it has to be tricky to balance all the characters at this point. But it felt so often that lots of the characters got really neglected this season. Tecna and Timmy really stand out as prime examples. Nothing really interesting happened to their storyline, and their relationship appeared to revert to season two levels of awkwardness. Flora developed attitude, but nothing really happened to her. Which was too bad, because the introduction of Diana - another nature fairy - had so much wasted potential in that arena.
And when there was character development, it seemed so out of character. Like Layla - I can buy that her love for Nabu "softened" her a little, but she pretty much lost all spark and edge until she flipped out near the end of the series (also the point she became the most interesting, IMO). And how many times are we going to have to watch Musa and Riven have their squabbles and differences? It's like the same thing every season. However, Riven's budding friendship with Nabu and Helia was a high point; first time I think he's really ever expressed himself to others.
The Specialists, on the whole, were not well used. Their appearances were pretty much confined to working at the Frutti Music Bar and pairing off/hugging the Winx when they all walked into a room. Oh, and saying they need to support their girlfriends and their dreams (but apparently not have any thoughts or dreams of their own?) I'm actually glad they decided to leave Earth at the end of the season.
Breakdown by couple.
1. Bloom and Sky - oddly, Bloom and Sky come off as the most adult in this season. I think Sky being the new kind of Eraklyon and Bloom having finally recovered Sparx in the first movie really brought their maturity up a notch. Bloom also served as a mentor to Roxy this season, positioning her as a voice of wisdom and maturity.
2. Stella and Brandon - I'm going to say it: I hated what they did to my favorite characters in the first half of the season. They've been through far worse than Mitzi kissing Brandon for Stella to go so crazy.
3. Flora and Helia - there was pretty much nothing here except Helia's new haircut. They always talked about how strange the people of earth were and staying here afterward for no apparent reason. Helia has more development with Riven than with Flora.
4. Musa and Riven - at least this season their argument actually led to their breakup and re-evaluation of their relationship. Musa wanting to be a star on Earth seemed odd, too. Like why would it be important to be a singer on such a non-magical planet?
5. Tecna and TImmy - nothing, again. Not even a new haircut.
6. Layla and Nabu - sigh. Nabu gets developed then killed. Layla goes really starry-eyed over everything. And they also made plans to stay on Earth together...while what happens to Tides?
There was an awful lot of quick judgmental reactions and mistrust between the couples this season for characters who've been through three years of adventures together.
The ever-growing number of transformations became tiring. I liked Believix (beautiful designs!) despite the fact that it spits in the face of continuity concerning Enchantix. But seriously, Sophix and Lovix were pointless - or at least having whole new outfits for them was. And having to sit through the Zoomix, Speedix, and Tracix wing transformations got old as well. I pray S5 and beyond tone it down.
Some things that came out of the fourth season that I really liked were the new characters. Roxy was overall a good addition to the cast, and I hope she at least appears occasionally in Seasons 5 & 6. The Wizards of the Black Circle are the best villains since the S1 Trix. And I absolutely loved the earth fairies: Morgana, Nebula, Sibylla, Aurora, and Diana finally showed some morally gray characters, and that not all fairies are good. In fact, my favorite parts of the series were the dealings with the Major Fairies. And of course I really liked the Frutti Music Bar Crew: Klaus, Andy, the band, and Jason Queen added some flavor to the non-magical people. It was also nice that Mike, Vanessa, and Mitzi were back.
But if found it odd that Bloom never contacts her family on Sparx after the events of the first movie.
The Pets. Oh, the pets. All the irritating parts of the Pixies without any of the humor or charm. You can only watch them getting into trouble and abusing Kiko so many times. Heh, well, the episode where they all could talk and only asked for food was pretty funny. Also, the "Love and Pet" theme song will hang around your head for DAYS.
Looking back it seems like I hated Season Four, which really wasn't the case! It had the best animation of any of the four seasons, and some good character moments interspersed throughout, but I think so many OOC moments and the Earth setting made it really jarring. Still though, it was very nostalgic to see the Winx back together, and it's at least as good as Season Three.
Moving on to movie two, I felt much more positive. In some ways, it seemed like this movie bypassed the events of season four aside from having the Winx in their Believix costumes. Lots of time in the magical dimension on Magix, Sparx and Eraklyon, no Roxy, Nabu still alive (and he, Sky, and Helia with their original haircuts) made me question the timeline. Now I have no idea how much reciprocity there is between what happens in the movies and what happens in the show. There should be some stat clarification on that.
It was absolutely amazing to see the Trix back in action, the Specialists looking competent, and Bloom's interactions with her two families (including more Daphne, who always looks spectacular in the CGI films). The amount of interesting backstory added between Sparx and Eraklyon was great as well. Bloom meeting the different princes was hilarious, and her maids were pretty funny as well. The movies always seem to be a Bloom-centric story, which I think helps them from getting out of control.
Whew, that got long! Now that Winx is back on US airwaves and having watched these two things, I'm definitely back in Winx Fever mode! August 1st and the next Nickelodeon special can't come fast enough!