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spiderbraidsIn the run up to Nickelodeon's next Winx Club special, I've decided to post a summary of the first special over the next 4 days (one post per segment). Here we go...
7 years ago, 4Kids Entertainment brought Winx Club to the US (and most other English-speaking countries), and, in spite of the many changes 4Kids made to the show, life was good for a while. Then came season 3, with its 8:00 am start time, multiple gaps between new episodes, and less-than-stellar writing. While Europe enjoyed not just a 4th season, but also two CG movies, America was stuck in early morning reruns for a good 3 years. Then last September, came the news that Nick had brought up the rights to Winx, and the fandom rejoiced.
For the next several months, little tidbits of information came trickling out, mostly regarding voice actors (Molly "Alexis Castle" Quinn as Bloom? I'll... reserve judgment). Most importantly though, it was revealed that Rainbow was condensing the first 2 seasons into a series of one-hour specials, animated in S4 style. This was received with some trepidation, considering the last time a Nick property tried to do something like that, the results were... rather disappointing. On the one hand, this show doesn't have that other show's intricate plotting, on the other hand, they have twice as many episodes to fit in two hours (which, in this case, is more like 90 minutes)... So let's see how they fare, shall we?
Okay, so we have a new theme song. It's actually a bouncier, shortened, and re-lyricized version of the S4 theme song used elsewhere. Two comments: 1. The vocoder effects make it really hard to understand the last two lines of the song, and I'm not alone on this, and 2. No "Don't touch the hair": always a plus :-)
Now into the actual episode. We get a nice pan through Gardenia to a block of three houses, fading to a drawing of the block and a drawing of a fairy, and then a shot of a drawing desk. We hear a mother calling for her daughter Bloom to wake up as we pan past a book on fairies to a bunny sleeping in a basket. So basically, Nick will be sticking to the original script, well, as much as possible with the time they've got anyway.
So mom wakes Bloom up, and Bloom's first reaction is that she's late for school and frantically bathes and changes into, well, the outfit she originally wore in S2, before realizing that it's summer vacation. She goes back to bed as they have a convo about the book she was up late reading last night: "Fairies, Myth or Reality?" (Bloom: "It's not silly okay?") before mom then suggests that she could work in her shop.
Downstairs, her father is reading the paper, as Bloom tells him that she doesn't want to work in mom's shop, and she'd rather go somewhere fun with her friends. Dad: "When you're older, you can go wherever you want." Bloom: "How old is older? I'm already 16!" Dad: "Only 16. You're still my little girl." This leads into an image of a much younger Bloom. Dad then brings up that they'll go vacation at a beach in a few weeks, prompting Bloom to say: "I don't want to go to the same old beach. I want something special." Mom: "Something special huh?" Dad: "For that, you need wheels." Bloom rushes out the front door...
...to find only a bike with a basket in front. Dad: "Nice huh?" Bloom: "Uh... well... yeah... Thanks." Dad: "See Vanessa, she's speechless." Vanessa: "I can see that, but I think she was expecting something else." Dad: "A 10-speed?" Vanessa: "A car, Mike." Mike: "Wha... she's still dreaming about being a fairy!" Vanessa: "She's 16. She's growing up." Seems like these specials aren't immune from script changes: Vanessa originally said that Bloom wanted a scooter, and Mike thought they were expensive. However, the whole deal with Bloom getting a bike? Not in the 4Kids version.
Bloom bikes through town, and instead of an encounter with Mitzi and her scooter, we head straight to the park, where Bloom leaves Kiko to his own devices and eats an apple. Kiko soon comes back running and screaming, and drags Bloom to a clearing in the middle of the forest...
...where an orange-dressed fairy wielding a large scepter (that looks different than before) is fighting off a bunch of monsters, and an ogre, using magic spells. She introduces herself to the ogre (and us): "My name is Stella, fairy of the shining sun. So back off!" Considering that virtually all of her attacks are sun-based, I don't blame them for leaving out the moon part. Anyways, ogre gives Stella a severe body check. Ogre: "Little fairy! I know who you are!" Ogre has his ghouls take the scepter to him: "Not so sunny now, are you?" :-D Bloom: "Let.. her... go!" Ogre sends his ghouls to get her, and Bloom suddenly puts out a energy shield, amazing both her and the ogre. We have a nice amusing bit with Kiko punching around and suddenly fainting upon seeing a ghoul, which Bloom then hits with a stick :-)
Ogre grabs Bloom: "Bad move little girl!" Bloom: "Let go!" Bloom releases a red dragon knocking over the ogre, and the dragon flies off into the sky. (Hint hint.) Stella: "Wow, you really packed quite a punch." Stella takes back her scepter, as the ogre says: "I'll see you again fairy!" before teleporting off. Stella doesn't even get another word out before she faints and and her sparkly outfit turns into a different, more conservative orange dress. Bloom: "Oh no, she fainted. Let's get her home Kiko."
Dark purple smoky place. "Knut, you useless ogre. You failed!" Knut: "I'm sorry your scarinesses, I really tried. But there was this super powerful fairy." "Really, super powerful? Tell me more." The original script had Knut's ghouls rip off a part of Bloom's pants and then giving it to a hunting troll (and Knut being chided for not wearing his glasses :-)), but between Bloom's S2 outfit not having pants to rip and the lack of time, we're moving on...
We're back at Bloom's at night. Mike: "Bloom, I don't get it. Tell me one more time?" After her explanation: "Bloom, that's nuts. I think we should call the police and take her to the hospital." Stella: "No, please don't do that." Vanessa: "Her color's better. How do you feel?" Stella: "I'm alright. Thanks for helping me." Bloom: "Oh, no problem. You're safe here. These are my parents, I'm Bloom." Stella introduces herself to Mike and Vanessa, before mentioning the Magic Dimension and adding that she's Princess of Solaria. Mike: "This girl needs help. She's delirious. I'm calling the police." Stella changes the phone into a cabbage and a carrot: "Believe me now?" Stella continues to explain how Bloom saved her, with Bloom adding: "I don't know what I did." Stella: "A fairy doesn't need to know how, she just does it, that's all." (Nice green eyeshadow, Stella.) Bloom: "Me... a fairy?" Stella: "I'd say so. I mean, if you throw up energy shields like a fairy and you beat down monsters like a fairy, you must be a fairy." Mike: "This is just nuts! Fairies! Nuts!"
Meanwhile, at an abandoned power plant, Knut shows up with some ghouls and a hunting troll, who goes off to sniff out those fairies. We get a "push" transition to Bloom's room, where Stella comes in and looks at Bloom's drawings. Stella: "I'm being kind of nosy aren't I?" :-) Bloom: "Huh, no, it's okay Stella. It's just that this day has been kind of insane. I wish I could believe I'm a fairy..." Stella: "Believe it. When you were able to, you were able to call up your powers. You always had them, you just didn't know it. All you have to do is concentrate." And as she's saying this, she turns the writing tools next to Bloom's computer into a giant pencil, and then has Bloom try to revert them to their original state. When that's a no go, Stella does it herself while adding: "You just need training... and the best place to get it is the Alfea College for Fairies. That's where I go, and you should go there too." While the original script had Stella showing off the college with a temporary postcard portal thingy, here she just tells Bloom: "It's in the Magic Dimension, home of all magical creatures, including fairies... like you."
Outside, Knut and gang have arrived at Bloom's. Meanwhile, downstairs, Vanessa tells mike: "It isn't ridiculous. Stella is not a normal kid. You've seen it, and you know it! She's magical, and maybe Bloom is too." Kiko sees Knut and gang arriving at the back door and rushes off to Mike. Mike: "C'mon now Kiko, we're really busy." Kiko points to the back door. Mike: "Hey, what's going on back there?" The troll crashes through the back door, giving Bloom's parents quite a scare. Knut: "Now, where are those little fairies?" Stella: "Looking for moi? Because I'm right here you blimp."
Instead of transforming for battle again and kicking the troll as before, she casts a "Light of Solaria" spell at the troll. Stella has Bloom split up their opposition. Bloom: "Ghouls, let's take this outside!" Knut: "Did you just call me a blimp?" Stella: "Well, if the shoe fits..." Nice to see that Stella still has a bit of her 4Kids personality in her :-D While Stella's busy fighting the bigger monsters, Bloom is facing the ghouls ("Yikes"), and (in a bit not used by 4Kids) a pot appears to walk by the ghouls. Bloom picks it up expecting to see Kiko, but Kiko's wedged himself in the pot so that he doesn't fall out (Bloom: "Double yikes"). Anyways, Stella gets thrown out the window. Original script had Knut flying out the door to smush the ghouls, thus taking care of Bloom's problem, but here it's being completely ignored. Stella tells Bloom: "Don't worry, I've got everything under control. You'll see."
The troll inflicts some damage on the doorway as he comes out for the girls, but then his neck gets whipped. We see a bunch of good-looking guys in blue and white outfits and capes. Bespectacled guy with gun: "We got him" Blonde with shield: "Now, let's send him to jail where he belongs." Purple hair guy with whip: "Relax, I've got him completely secured." Brown hair with sword: "I'm totally relaxed. It's you I'm worried about." Whip guy gets flung over to Stella and Bloom. Blonde has bespectacled guy stand behind him while his blue shield takes a beating, and the brown hair guy slashes a hole straight through Bloom's patio. Bespectacled kid fires his gun to clear the area further, and get the troll to fall down in the resulting ditch. Purple hair: "Pardon me ladies... I've got work to do." Purple hair makes short work of a bunch of ghouls with his sword, before Knut comes in punching him in the face. Bloom and Stella knock Knut over with a spell. Stella: "And that's how you get rid of an ogre" :-D Bloom: "Wow, I really can do it." Stella: "Totally! Told ya so." Knut sees the guys in capes and the ditch in the patio, and decides to teleport off again with two ghouls. Stella: "Finally, he was getting on my nerves."
With the monsters out of the way, Stella decides to introduce Bloom to the "Specialists". Riven is the purple hair guy, Brandon is the brown hair guy with the sword (with a bit more energy flourish on the sword than before), Timmy is the bespectacled guy, and Prince Sky is the blonde. Timmy puts a big ring around the troll's neck before taking him along with the other Specialists through a portal back to the Magic Dimension. Bloom looks at them in awe, and with that, we come to the end of the first segment.
Well, as expected, Rainbow has had to remove less important aspects of the plot to fit the story into the given run time. The most significant changes they've made in this segment are changing Stella's scepter (which might be a problem since she does use it a few times in S3, which they're apparently only redubbing, not remaking), and dropping the Brandon and Sky identity switch, which I never felt was an important plot point anyway... Voices seem okay to me, though Stella's seems quite fitting. So far, so good.
Next: We meet the other fairies.
7 years ago, 4Kids Entertainment brought Winx Club to the US (and most other English-speaking countries), and, in spite of the many changes 4Kids made to the show, life was good for a while. Then came season 3, with its 8:00 am start time, multiple gaps between new episodes, and less-than-stellar writing. While Europe enjoyed not just a 4th season, but also two CG movies, America was stuck in early morning reruns for a good 3 years. Then last September, came the news that Nick had brought up the rights to Winx, and the fandom rejoiced.
For the next several months, little tidbits of information came trickling out, mostly regarding voice actors (Molly "Alexis Castle" Quinn as Bloom? I'll... reserve judgment). Most importantly though, it was revealed that Rainbow was condensing the first 2 seasons into a series of one-hour specials, animated in S4 style. This was received with some trepidation, considering the last time a Nick property tried to do something like that, the results were... rather disappointing. On the one hand, this show doesn't have that other show's intricate plotting, on the other hand, they have twice as many episodes to fit in two hours (which, in this case, is more like 90 minutes)... So let's see how they fare, shall we?
Okay, so we have a new theme song. It's actually a bouncier, shortened, and re-lyricized version of the S4 theme song used elsewhere. Two comments: 1. The vocoder effects make it really hard to understand the last two lines of the song, and I'm not alone on this, and 2. No "Don't touch the hair": always a plus :-)
Now into the actual episode. We get a nice pan through Gardenia to a block of three houses, fading to a drawing of the block and a drawing of a fairy, and then a shot of a drawing desk. We hear a mother calling for her daughter Bloom to wake up as we pan past a book on fairies to a bunny sleeping in a basket. So basically, Nick will be sticking to the original script, well, as much as possible with the time they've got anyway.
So mom wakes Bloom up, and Bloom's first reaction is that she's late for school and frantically bathes and changes into, well, the outfit she originally wore in S2, before realizing that it's summer vacation. She goes back to bed as they have a convo about the book she was up late reading last night: "Fairies, Myth or Reality?" (Bloom: "It's not silly okay?") before mom then suggests that she could work in her shop.
Downstairs, her father is reading the paper, as Bloom tells him that she doesn't want to work in mom's shop, and she'd rather go somewhere fun with her friends. Dad: "When you're older, you can go wherever you want." Bloom: "How old is older? I'm already 16!" Dad: "Only 16. You're still my little girl." This leads into an image of a much younger Bloom. Dad then brings up that they'll go vacation at a beach in a few weeks, prompting Bloom to say: "I don't want to go to the same old beach. I want something special." Mom: "Something special huh?" Dad: "For that, you need wheels." Bloom rushes out the front door...
...to find only a bike with a basket in front. Dad: "Nice huh?" Bloom: "Uh... well... yeah... Thanks." Dad: "See Vanessa, she's speechless." Vanessa: "I can see that, but I think she was expecting something else." Dad: "A 10-speed?" Vanessa: "A car, Mike." Mike: "Wha... she's still dreaming about being a fairy!" Vanessa: "She's 16. She's growing up." Seems like these specials aren't immune from script changes: Vanessa originally said that Bloom wanted a scooter, and Mike thought they were expensive. However, the whole deal with Bloom getting a bike? Not in the 4Kids version.
Bloom bikes through town, and instead of an encounter with Mitzi and her scooter, we head straight to the park, where Bloom leaves Kiko to his own devices and eats an apple. Kiko soon comes back running and screaming, and drags Bloom to a clearing in the middle of the forest...
...where an orange-dressed fairy wielding a large scepter (that looks different than before) is fighting off a bunch of monsters, and an ogre, using magic spells. She introduces herself to the ogre (and us): "My name is Stella, fairy of the shining sun. So back off!" Considering that virtually all of her attacks are sun-based, I don't blame them for leaving out the moon part. Anyways, ogre gives Stella a severe body check. Ogre: "Little fairy! I know who you are!" Ogre has his ghouls take the scepter to him: "Not so sunny now, are you?" :-D Bloom: "Let.. her... go!" Ogre sends his ghouls to get her, and Bloom suddenly puts out a energy shield, amazing both her and the ogre. We have a nice amusing bit with Kiko punching around and suddenly fainting upon seeing a ghoul, which Bloom then hits with a stick :-)
Ogre grabs Bloom: "Bad move little girl!" Bloom: "Let go!" Bloom releases a red dragon knocking over the ogre, and the dragon flies off into the sky. (Hint hint.) Stella: "Wow, you really packed quite a punch." Stella takes back her scepter, as the ogre says: "I'll see you again fairy!" before teleporting off. Stella doesn't even get another word out before she faints and and her sparkly outfit turns into a different, more conservative orange dress. Bloom: "Oh no, she fainted. Let's get her home Kiko."
Dark purple smoky place. "Knut, you useless ogre. You failed!" Knut: "I'm sorry your scarinesses, I really tried. But there was this super powerful fairy." "Really, super powerful? Tell me more." The original script had Knut's ghouls rip off a part of Bloom's pants and then giving it to a hunting troll (and Knut being chided for not wearing his glasses :-)), but between Bloom's S2 outfit not having pants to rip and the lack of time, we're moving on...
We're back at Bloom's at night. Mike: "Bloom, I don't get it. Tell me one more time?" After her explanation: "Bloom, that's nuts. I think we should call the police and take her to the hospital." Stella: "No, please don't do that." Vanessa: "Her color's better. How do you feel?" Stella: "I'm alright. Thanks for helping me." Bloom: "Oh, no problem. You're safe here. These are my parents, I'm Bloom." Stella introduces herself to Mike and Vanessa, before mentioning the Magic Dimension and adding that she's Princess of Solaria. Mike: "This girl needs help. She's delirious. I'm calling the police." Stella changes the phone into a cabbage and a carrot: "Believe me now?" Stella continues to explain how Bloom saved her, with Bloom adding: "I don't know what I did." Stella: "A fairy doesn't need to know how, she just does it, that's all." (Nice green eyeshadow, Stella.) Bloom: "Me... a fairy?" Stella: "I'd say so. I mean, if you throw up energy shields like a fairy and you beat down monsters like a fairy, you must be a fairy." Mike: "This is just nuts! Fairies! Nuts!"
Meanwhile, at an abandoned power plant, Knut shows up with some ghouls and a hunting troll, who goes off to sniff out those fairies. We get a "push" transition to Bloom's room, where Stella comes in and looks at Bloom's drawings. Stella: "I'm being kind of nosy aren't I?" :-) Bloom: "Huh, no, it's okay Stella. It's just that this day has been kind of insane. I wish I could believe I'm a fairy..." Stella: "Believe it. When you were able to, you were able to call up your powers. You always had them, you just didn't know it. All you have to do is concentrate." And as she's saying this, she turns the writing tools next to Bloom's computer into a giant pencil, and then has Bloom try to revert them to their original state. When that's a no go, Stella does it herself while adding: "You just need training... and the best place to get it is the Alfea College for Fairies. That's where I go, and you should go there too." While the original script had Stella showing off the college with a temporary postcard portal thingy, here she just tells Bloom: "It's in the Magic Dimension, home of all magical creatures, including fairies... like you."
Outside, Knut and gang have arrived at Bloom's. Meanwhile, downstairs, Vanessa tells mike: "It isn't ridiculous. Stella is not a normal kid. You've seen it, and you know it! She's magical, and maybe Bloom is too." Kiko sees Knut and gang arriving at the back door and rushes off to Mike. Mike: "C'mon now Kiko, we're really busy." Kiko points to the back door. Mike: "Hey, what's going on back there?" The troll crashes through the back door, giving Bloom's parents quite a scare. Knut: "Now, where are those little fairies?" Stella: "Looking for moi? Because I'm right here you blimp."
Instead of transforming for battle again and kicking the troll as before, she casts a "Light of Solaria" spell at the troll. Stella has Bloom split up their opposition. Bloom: "Ghouls, let's take this outside!" Knut: "Did you just call me a blimp?" Stella: "Well, if the shoe fits..." Nice to see that Stella still has a bit of her 4Kids personality in her :-D While Stella's busy fighting the bigger monsters, Bloom is facing the ghouls ("Yikes"), and (in a bit not used by 4Kids) a pot appears to walk by the ghouls. Bloom picks it up expecting to see Kiko, but Kiko's wedged himself in the pot so that he doesn't fall out (Bloom: "Double yikes"). Anyways, Stella gets thrown out the window. Original script had Knut flying out the door to smush the ghouls, thus taking care of Bloom's problem, but here it's being completely ignored. Stella tells Bloom: "Don't worry, I've got everything under control. You'll see."
The troll inflicts some damage on the doorway as he comes out for the girls, but then his neck gets whipped. We see a bunch of good-looking guys in blue and white outfits and capes. Bespectacled guy with gun: "We got him" Blonde with shield: "Now, let's send him to jail where he belongs." Purple hair guy with whip: "Relax, I've got him completely secured." Brown hair with sword: "I'm totally relaxed. It's you I'm worried about." Whip guy gets flung over to Stella and Bloom. Blonde has bespectacled guy stand behind him while his blue shield takes a beating, and the brown hair guy slashes a hole straight through Bloom's patio. Bespectacled kid fires his gun to clear the area further, and get the troll to fall down in the resulting ditch. Purple hair: "Pardon me ladies... I've got work to do." Purple hair makes short work of a bunch of ghouls with his sword, before Knut comes in punching him in the face. Bloom and Stella knock Knut over with a spell. Stella: "And that's how you get rid of an ogre" :-D Bloom: "Wow, I really can do it." Stella: "Totally! Told ya so." Knut sees the guys in capes and the ditch in the patio, and decides to teleport off again with two ghouls. Stella: "Finally, he was getting on my nerves."
With the monsters out of the way, Stella decides to introduce Bloom to the "Specialists". Riven is the purple hair guy, Brandon is the brown hair guy with the sword (with a bit more energy flourish on the sword than before), Timmy is the bespectacled guy, and Prince Sky is the blonde. Timmy puts a big ring around the troll's neck before taking him along with the other Specialists through a portal back to the Magic Dimension. Bloom looks at them in awe, and with that, we come to the end of the first segment.
Well, as expected, Rainbow has had to remove less important aspects of the plot to fit the story into the given run time. The most significant changes they've made in this segment are changing Stella's scepter (which might be a problem since she does use it a few times in S3, which they're apparently only redubbing, not remaking), and dropping the Brandon and Sky identity switch, which I never felt was an important plot point anyway... Voices seem okay to me, though Stella's seems quite fitting. So far, so good.
Next: We meet the other fairies.
