Winx Club returns with season four after a CGI movie and a couple years off. This take covers the 13 episodes that led to the mid-season finale and subsequent hiatus. Now, synopsis in a sentence:
They do not look happy about being back. Flora spent the break on 'Nutra-System' so you think she would be happier seeing that she fits back into her bare midriff outfit.
The Winx Club fairies travel to non-magical Earth in order to find its last fairy before her powers are stolen by the wizards of the black circle who have become powerful by that means and along the way the girls will display a bevy of new outfits -and some selfish behavior, start a cutesy business, battle the black circle and use their new powers to mind control people on Earth.
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Bloom, are you crazy? Keep it covered! You know bad guys can observe through paintings of them.
"I am Gantlos, coolest, cruelest and arguably the most powerful of the black circle wizards. It will take more than a flighty blond princess whose greatest challenge is split ends to beat me..."
Okay, we threw some editorial spin into that synopsis. We admit it. Winx Club is regarded well in the Fortress, as a result we expect it to live up to its potential. After the initial kick off the season quickly devolved into what is least good about young female shows. Faults they had for the most part avoided in previous seasons. They would not regain their footing until episode 8.
Ogron, leader of the black circle wizards. Why is it that the bad guys always have the best tailors?
Season one focused on Bloom gaining her fairy powers. Two on all of them gaining their quickly forgotten Charmix powers. Three was Enchantix. Continuing the tradition the new power up was Believix. It makes use of three wing types -a plot device so far underutilized.
"Hi I'm Roxy, the new girl. Here I am striking a dramatic pose proving to the veteran Winx girls that I got what it takes."
The past power-ups were major plot vehicles needing to be individually and dramatically earned. Season four introduced Believix anti-climatically all at once with only the barest justification -even in Winx logic. Why give up such a valuable plot tool? The “learning about our powers from a book” replacement plot device was weak in comparison.
"Don't knock learning from books." Tecna is the cutest nerd ever (seen here working on Fortress Takes). She may be right about book-learning Believix powers - barring overwhelmingly powerful enemies...
...you know, enemies that make huge craters with their fists.
On the plus side season 4′s art direction was some of Winx’s best. While you may not be able to differentiate a Speedix wing from a Zoomix, the Believix outfits were good looking (with the exception of Musa -sorry, pantaloons are out).
Short straw draws the pantaloons. Musa, you lost.
"We make entrances like this the whole season." Now actual quotes. Ogron upon watching the Winx girls transform again: "Always with this annoying ballet." Gantlos: "I like it, but it gets old."
The art direction also shone in their civilian outfits and especially in the design of Ogron and his black circle wizards. They made solid and overpowering enemies. So when they started resorting to subtle (and lame) half-hour TV plot tricks in order to beat the Winx girls instead of just taking them head on we shook our heads.
"Hahaha! Look how evil and powerful I am. You know what I'm going to do next? Sneak into your cutesy pet business at night and make the fur-balls go bad when they get hungry. Ha ha- wait. That doesn't really sound so dastardly..."
Most of Gantlos' offensive powers were shockwave based. He also had a magical tracking ability -and a cool hat. He really won this season's "cool attributes" dispersion lottery.
We liked the fact that Ogron and his goons had distinct, interesting powers. The Winx girls do too. However until the later episodes they were just flinging colored balls of light and beams. You can call a colored ball of light “fury of the dragon”, morphix, statix or anything-ix -it is still a colored ball of light! Later they finally started to manifest powers along their specialties.
"Fury of the Dragon" our a$$. We have seen Bloom's dragon's fury a few times before, like in the final showdown with Icy in season 1. These were just more colored balls of light.
The boyfriends/specialists continued to get short shrift and only occasionally showed that they are warriors trained to fight magic types.
That's what we're talking about.
Additionally, they were sent on the thankless mission to watch the girl’s backs and were treated rudely and without compassion by their flirty alleged girlfriends -especially Stella.
"Next 'Cheaters': Bloom gets extra close to her ex." Call us old fashioned, but this goes past flirting -especially with an ex-boyfriend showing interest. Duplicity 1, Credibility 0.
We hear ya' dude. In your case it just may not be worth it...
The animation was computer smoothed in episode 1, after that the overall quality lowered, was unclear and garish. Yet some of the still drawings in freeze frame are quite pretty. Some producer must have really stuck it to the staff to get improvement on characterization, story and animation fronts around episode 8.
They got it right with Musa's hair...
On the other hand... Helia's new 'spider-landed-on-my-head' cut (left) replaced his fitting longer locks. Well, like Nancy Kerrigan after her knee was clubbed we can only ask, "Why? Why?"
The fairies’ “dust” powers were a little creepy. They actually seemed to alter the minds of people against their will, though that is not how they spun it. Especially the pawn shop owner.
"The specialists pawned a ring. I gave them money. Now because of your mind-bending spell I am out my money AND the ring. We call that robbery here on Earth. Thanks 'good guys'!"
The producers wisely chose Earth as an interesting new setting, and seemed to have overcome early stumbles. Season 4 could now live up to past potential.
"Remember when there were only 5 of us?" "Yep, those were the days."
If you enjoyed Winx Club’s first three seasons, you owe it to yourself to find and see this movie. I went in looking forward to Secret of the Lost Kingdom (SotLK). One of the reasons was that the main story arc of the series, that is lead character Bloom finding her biological parents, had yet to be resolved. SotLK resolves that and delivers much more in the process.
The story is about a young girl who comes of age to learn she has magic powers and (after a time) is a princess. Her biological parents are believed dead, but her search for them will form the longest arc. She goes off into another realm to learn about her powers and heritage and makes 4 friends who will be her allies throughout the series. Classic elements seen in many old stories and modern fiction.
Three main schools exist for the teaching of youngsters in this dimension. Alfea is where the girl leads go (fairies) and is for “lawful good” magical girls if you will pardon the D&D alignment. The not-so-good magical girls (witches) go to Cloud Tower. They are anything from lawful evil to chaotic good. The mostly non-magical guys go to Red Fountain where they use special weapons and vehicles training to be “heroes”.
