spiderbraids

Next morning. Mike is sweeping up a broken vase, from the damage caused by the monsters the previous evening. Stella: "Let me help you. I can fix everything with a little magic." As in the original, she just appears in her regular casuals (in this case, a light aqua green dress) with no explanation. Mike: "Thanks Stella. but I think I'll do it the traditional way." Vanessa: "Bloom is ready." Bloom is carrying a suitcase with her. Mike: "You sure about this sweetie?" Bloom: "Yes dad. I've got to learn to use my powers... to be a fairy." Mike: "I know... but we don't know anything about Alfea College. So... we're coming with you." Bloom: "Really? Well, okay." Mike comes back out with jacket: "Believe me, you're not going to a magical dimension until we check it out." Bloom: "Stella, can we all go?" Stella: "Of course. I can bring everybody." As with her scepter, her ring has also been changed to match the new design.

Anyways, Stella brings them to a meadow near Alfea. Mike: "Holy guacamole, it really does exist! Wow, I've never seen anything like it." Vanessa: "Bloom... that must be Alfea College." Mike: "So let's go. I'd like to get a closer look at (BUMP!) Hey, it's like there's an invisible wall! I can't get through!" Bloom walks past the invisible wall: "Really? Where is it? I can't feel anything. And it's not stopping Kiko." Sure enough, it doesn't (huh, they're actually pointing it out). Bloom: "Stella, did you do that?" Stella points out the magical barrier keeping non-magical creatures out of Alfea, so it's time for Bloom to say goodbye to her parents. Mike: "Do your best, Bloom. And remember, whatever happens, you can always come home. Kiko... keep an eye on her." Stella: "Don't worry, she's in good hands." Bloom promises to come back home for a visit ASAP. Stella uses her ring of Solaria to send them home, before taking Bloom through the barrier.

Stella: "Here we are, Alfea College." Bloom: "This place is unbelievable." Stella sees a bespectacled brown haired woman in a blue shirt: "Uh-oh, trouble. It's Griselda." Griselda: "Who are you, and where do you think you're going young lady?" Old lady with earrings in purple shirt: "I see you've found our newest student Bloom. She'll be part of our new freshman class." Griz: "She's not on my list Headmistress Faragonda!" FG: "But she's on my list Griselda. So welcome Bloom, and welcome all, to Alfea!" So besides not making Stella a repeater, Rainbow has also decided to bypass Stella passing Bloom off as Varanda...

FG: "Here we are. So this will be your new home for the next few years, as you study to master your powers, and become fairies. It will be hard work, but I know that everyone here can do it. I look forward to getting to know each of you, and your abilities. You have entered... the realm of magic. You will find wonderful things, but you will also encounter dangers. I advise you to" Stella: "Stay away from the witches of Cloud Tower. Now she's gonna say it." Sure enough, she does. Griz: "So girls, you're free until tomorrow morning. You can go to your rooms." FG: Good luck everybody, I'll see you all tomorrow. Oh, and classes start at 8 o'clock sharp. Do be punctual."

Hallways. Stella: "Faragonda is the best, but Griselda? Ugh" :-D Bloom asks about Cloud Tower, and Stella gives Bloom (and us) an explanation about the schools in the Magic Dimension, even mentioning their principals, and since we don't have time to give Red Fountain and Cloud Tower a proper first visit as in the original, her explanation is accompanied with clips of each school, similar to how 4Kids did it. Stella over shot of three witches: "Some of those witches are really mean." Short version: RF is where the Specialists go and CT is for witches.

Dorm. Conveniently, Stella and Bloom are in the same apartment. Stella has her own room, while Bloom finds that she's sharing hers with a plant, whose roots she accidentally steps on, causing it to emit a high-pitched screech. "Sorry!" Pink shirt girl with brown hair: "No, don't be sorry. I'm Flora. I think we're roommates. And this is my talking plant. It's a magical creature." Bloom starts stepping back out of the room to leave them on their own, right into a girl with a purple shirt and purple hair: "Walking backwards is irrational. I'm Tecna." Flo and Stella introduce themselves to Tecna, and Tecna adds: "Hey, I think I have a roommate. Is it one of you?" Girl with aqua green dress and dark blue pigtails: "It's me. I'm Musa." Stella: "Hey, anybody hungry? We can go to Magix City for dinner." Flora: "Cool, we can get to know each other." Bloom: "Anyone for pizza?" Musa: "Pizza?" Flo: "What's pizza?" Bloom: "You know... pizza."

As we've bypassed the whole Varanda thing, we skip straight to showing the bus heading to Magix City, while Bloom v/o's: "When we get to Magix, I need to call home to let my parents know I'm okay." We get a nifty "time-lapse" of the buildings in Magix City lighting up at night. We then get a shot of a square in the town. Oh, and we're skipping Knut seeing Stella and friends and phoning the witches, and Bloom finding her cell phone is obsolete in Magix while eating dinner.

At a phone booth, Bloom talks to Vanessa over the phone about her arrival at Alfea. She notices Knut walking past, so she ends the conversation and takes out her phone card. Bloom sneaks behind Knut, who she sees spying on her friends at a fountain. Knut then moves on to an alley where she meets three witches. White haired witch in dark blue outfit: "Well, did you find her?" Knut: "No your nastiness, but I saw that other fairy." Bloom hides behind a bunch of garbage cans. ~~Dark brown~~Olive green haired witch in dark purple outfit has lightning coming out of her head: "Sisters, we're being watched." We also see another witch with a storm-cloud styled hairdo and a dark red outfit. "But I'll take care of it." Purple outfit witch clones herself, with Knut providing cover, before leaving her clone behind and outing Bloom from behind the garbage: "Surprise." White haired witch gets rid of the clone: "So, did you get our little joke? Look behind you." Purple outfit witch: "Hey there..." Bloom extends her arm out and casts a spell: "I'm a fairy, get back!"

Because of the condensing treatment, Rainbow decides to give the witches' names in a rather odd fashion. White haired witch: "Oh please, you call (awkward pause as she's shown not talking) that magic? Icy says, this is magic." Icy makes ice appear in front of Bloom. Purple outfit witch: "And Darcy says this is magic!" Darcy obliterates the ice and knocks Bloom back. Storm-cloud hair witch: "And Stormy says, this is magic!" Stormy whips Bloom up on to a ledge with a tornado. We cut back to the others wondering what's taking Bloom so long, then back to the alley. Icy: "I don't want to leave you hanging. Come on down..." Icy throws Bloom into a bunch of boxes... "and chillax!" Seriously Nick, you're taking dialog cues from 4Kids Musa? In this particular context, though, it actually does make sense, as Icy freezes Bloom in a large ice sculpture. Icy drags her fingernails on the ice: "So you're a fairy? Well... we're the Trix."

Stella: "Hey! Leave our friend alone!" Icy: "Seriously??? Knut, attack." Stella: "Oh boy." The girls jump out of the way, and decide to transform by crossing their wrists and saying: "Magic Charmix!" (More on that choice of name later.) The transformations are rather elaborately animated, and are more reminiscent of S4 than the original S1 versions, and we get a list of what their powers are. We already know Stella, Flora is the pink-clad Fairy of Nature, Musa is the cherry red-clad Fairy of Music, and Tecna is the light purple-clad (and helmet-wearing!) Fairy of Technology (even doing a cartwheel during her transformation :-) ). Tecna pelts Knut with a Static Sphere locking him inside a floating sphere, followed by Musa giving him a Sonic Blast from two speakers. Flora finishes with Super Pollen to tie him up in a rope of ivy and fling him into the distance.

Icy sends a bunch of sharp icicles the girls' way: "Silly fairies, you asked for it!" Tecna creates a Firewall to shield the girls from the icicles. Stormy disables Tec's shield with a bolt of lightning. Icy: "And I will finish them off." As Icy revs up her ice attack, Stella summons her scepter and gets the girls (including Bloom) out of the way of Icy's attack, much to her disappointment, as we come to the end of the 2nd segment.

It appears that Rainbow has decided to make Tecna's watchword "rational" rather than "logical". Somehow it seems so... irrational ;-) A major bone of contention though, is Rainbow calling the first transformation "Magic Charmix". On one hand, since the girls haven't called themselves the Winx yet, they obviously couldn't call it "Magic Winx". But Charmix is an enhancement to the original fairy form from S2, and this has raised concerns that they'll drop that enhancement from the condensed version. In any case, the name just seems a bit off...

Voice-wise, after years of hearing Tec speaking either in a rather sterile fashion (original) or with a British accent (4Kids), this new Tec voice will take some time getting used to. Everyone else seems okay. FG in particular sounds quite similar to the original RAI version.

Next: Clean-up time. Wait, clean-up time??