Winx Club

Winx Club is an Italian animated television series directed, created, and produced by Iginio Straffi and his company Rainbow S.r.l. in co-production with Rai Fiction. It is part of the larger Winx Club franchise. The series is the first Italian cartoon to be sold in the United States. According to Iginio Straffi's website, "Winx Club is an action and fantasy show combined with comedic elements. In the mystical dimension of Magix, three special schools educate modern fairies, ambitious witches, and supernatural warriors or specialists, and wizards from all over the magical universe. Winx Club is Iginio Straffi's most successful creation besides the other series Straffi created."

Plot
The show features Bloom and her five best friends, Stella, Musa, Tecna, Flora, Aisha (also as known as Layla in some dubs) who call themselves the "Winx Club" and go on many adventures together mainly in the magical universe and on Earth. Throughout the story, they discover new fairy transformations and magical powers, battle against evil and support Bloom as she tries to discover her origins.

Season 1 (2004)
Bloom, a supposedly ordinary girl from planet Earth, discovers her magical abilities when she saves Stella, a fairy princess who persuades Bloom to join Alfea, a high school for fairies in the Magical Dimension where she, Stella, and the three friends she meets, Musa, Tecna, and Flora, form the Winx Club. Later in the series, they encounter and befriend the Specialists: Brandon, Riven, Timmy and Sky, who also become the group's love interests. They also make enemies, including a trio of witches calling themselves the Trix: Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. Together, the Winx go through many adventures and discover many secrets while fighting their enemies and studying at Alfea.

Season 2 (2005)
The Trix are back and have allied with Lord Darkar, an ancient creature of evil who wants to rule the universe. Together with their new member, Aisha, and their new friends the Pixies, the Winx will have to fight this new threat and acquire a new power called Charmix. They also meet Helia, a Specialist who becomes the love interest of Flora.

Season 3 (2007)
The Winx have to face a new enemy, Valtor, who was freed from his prison by the Trix and who took part in the destruction of Domino and shares a dark past with Bloom and her birth parents. The Winx will also have to earn a new transformation called Enchantix to become full-fledged fairies and Aisha meets a young wizard, Nabu, with whom she falls in love.

The events of the third season are followed by those of the first movie, The Secret of the Lost Kingdom.

Season 4 (2009)
Taking place after the events of Secret of the Lost Kingdom, the Winx find about a new threat, the four Wizards of the Black Circle, who caused all magic to disappear from Earth. The Winx go to Earth to fight the Wizards and restore its magic, and to save the last fairy from Earth, Roxy. They will also earn three new powers : Believix, Sophix, and Lovix. Nabu enters into a coma like state.

The events of season 4 are followed by those of the second movie, Magical Adventure

Season 5 (2012–2013)
Taking place after Magical Adventure, a new danger emerges in the form of Tritannus, Aisha's merman cousin who turned into a monster after absorbing toxic pollution and allied with the Trix. Since their Believix power does not work well under the sea and is not strong enough to fight Tritannus and the Trix, the Winx will have to go on a quest to find the power of Sirenix. Before they can find the power of Sirenix, they must first obtain the power of Harmonix, which they gain from their Sirenix Guardians.However Sirenix is cursed and it has something to do with the past of Daphne, Bloom's elder sister. Aisha also meets Roy, a specialist towards whom she is attracted. This season mainly focuses on environmental care. Roxy is a minor character in this season.

The events of season 5 are followed by those of the third movie, The Mystery of the Abyss.

Season 6 (2013–2014)
The Trix are back and they take over Cloud Tower and ally with a young witch named Selina, who owns an evil magic book called the Legendarium which can make the legends become reality. However the Winx, besides Bloom, lose all their powers during a battle against the Trix and Selina and they will have to obtain two new transformations, Bloomix and Mythix. During their quest to steal the Legendarium, the Winx will discover that they face a bigger threat than the Trix in the form of Acheron, an evil wizard imprisoned in the Legendarium and works with Selina. In this season, Selina is revealed to be an old friend of Bloom. Daphne, who is Bloom's sister, and Roxy also play important roles.

Season 7 (2015)
It has been officially announced that a seventh season of Winx Club will be produced, slated for 2015. An official teaser summary of the season states that: "Each fairy will have an animal that has a special talent, necessary for the balance of the Magic Universe. The Winx will discover this, while facing two new dreadful villains and getting new transformations along their journey." On February 13, 2015, a teaser video was released on the official Winx Club YouTube channel. In the teaser, it's stated that a sneak peek trailer will be released on February 27, 2015. The teaser had also shown glimpses of new animals, the main antagonists, new character designs including the first of the two new transformations, "Butterflix". The Trailer description, which was released on February 27, 2015, along with the trailer, teases that the Winx will have two transformations in this season, like the previous seasons.

Cast
Across numerous countries and different adaptions of Winx Club, the show is dubbed with various cast members. These include the original Italian cast and English dubbing from Rai English, 4Kids Entertainment and Nickelodeon. The original Italian cast performs the whole show since the first season in 2004. The Rai English cast dubbed around the same time until the fourth season and the second movie. It then later picked up and dubbed Winx Club: The Mystery of the Abyss. The English cast by 4KidsTV dubbed the first three seasons of the show. Nickelodeon's cast dubbed the third season onwards, in addition to the one hour specials and theatrical cinemas.

List of Episodes

 * *In place of the first two seasons, Nickelodeon aired the one-hour specials to recap both seasons one and two.

Broadcast history
In Italy, the series' country of origin, Winx Club has been broadcast on Rai Due since its premiere on January 28, 2004. In the United States, it was licensed and dubbed into English by 4Kids Entertainment and was broadcast on Fox's programming block 4Kids TV beginning on June 19, 2004, with a preview episode airing on May 22, 2004. 4Kids TV continued its initial run until September 22, 2007, airing all three seasons. Winx Club was added back to the 4Kids TV schedule on April 12, 2008 and was aired up until December 27, 2008. On July 18, 2009, reruns of Winx Club then aired on the CW's programming block CW4Kids until July 17, 2010. Cartoon Network aired Winx Club in 2005 on their afternoon block Miguzi. Another English dub, produced by Cinelume in association with Rai Due, has been broadcast in Singapore and is featured as an alternate English language track on several European DVD releases.

Nickelodeon acquired the rights to the franchise in 2010 and is currently producing an English dub in Los Angeles. Nickelodeon started airing the series with four-one hour specials summarizing seasons one and two. The first special aired on June 27, 2011; the second special, "Revenge of the Trix," was aired on August 2, 2011; the third special, "The Battle for Magix," aired on September 18, 2011; the fourth and final special, "The Shadow Phoenix," aired on October 16, 2011. The third season, entitled "Winx Club: Enchantix", was aired on Nickelodeon from November 14, 2011 to December 26, 2011. The fourth season, "Winx Club: The Power of Believix", aired on Nickelodeon from May 6, 2012 to July 29, 2012. The fifth season, "Winx Club: Beyond Believix", premiered on Nickelodeon on August 26, 2012, and took a short hiatus during Winter 2012; the show returned in February 2013, and the season finale aired in late September 2013. Season 6, entitled "Winx Club: Bloomix," began airing on Nickelodeon on September 29, 2013.On February 26, 2014, Romi Dames, the voice actress of Musa, stated that Nickelodeon will no longer be airing Winx Club after Season 6 via Twitter. In Italy it has begun to air on January 6, 2014.

Change in licensing
In the United States, the license for 4Kids TV expired in the end of 2008. and Rainbow S.r.l. sought out a new partner. On 2 September 2010, Nickelodeon announced through a press release that they will be co-producing seasons 5 and 6 of the series.

The first special's broadcast revealed that Amy Gross is voicing Stella, Alejandra Reynoso is voicing Flora, and Morgan Decker is voicing Tecna. At present, the series has been dubbed into 36 languages worldwide.

The Secret of the Lost Kingdom
On October 8, 2006, Rainbow S.p.A. announced on their official website that a Winx Club film was being produced. The CGI film, titled Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom (Italian: Winx Club - Il segreto del regno perduto), was released theatrically in Italy on November 30, 2007. An English dub of the film was released on November 20, 2008 in Singapore. The film was re-dubbed in English and released in the United States as a TV movie on Nickelodeon on March 11, 2012. This version featured the cast from the Nickelodeon dub of the television series.

The events of the movie follow those of the third season. As Bloom continues in the search for her birth parents along with her friends, she discovers more about her planet and has to fight Mandragora as well as the Ancestral Witches who destroyed her home.

Magical Adventure
On November 9, 2009, it was confirmed that there would be a second Winx Club movie released in 2010. The film, titled Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure (Italian: Winx Club 3D - Magica avventura) was released theatrically in Italy on October 29, 2010. The film was dubbed using the Nickelodeon voice cast and released as a television special in the United States on May 20, 2013. This version was shortened from the original's 87 minute runtime to approximately 45 minutes. This movie was released with 7 episodes from Season 5.

In this film, the Trix, allied to the Ancestral Witches, manage to make almost all the good magic of the universe disappear and the Winx and the Specialists go on a journey to restore it and defeat the witches. Meanwhile Bloom learns more about her kingdom's past and why Sky's father does not want him to marry her.But they are engaged by the end of the movie.

The Mystery of the Abyss
The third Winx Club movie was officially announced when the official Italian Winx Club website allowed the fans to vote for its title in an online poll, with the title Mystery of the Abyss (Il mistero degli abissi) being chosen. The movie was released theatrically in Italy on September 4, 2014. An official teaser trailer was released on April 16, 2014, on the official Winx Club channel on YouTube an official preview was released a short time later. A Rai English dub of the movie was released exclusively on Netflix on October 10, 2014. Despite the entire fifth season being produced in Nickelodeon dub, the following movie was not.

Taking place before the sixth season, the Trix try to activate the might of the Emperor's Throne and inadvertently free the evil nymph and Sirenix fairy, Politea. They kidnap Sky to free Tritannus from Oblivion and acquire a magical pearl from the Coral Wreath that will allow them to obtain the vast and unequaled power of the Emperor's Throne. The Winx will have to go on a Sirenix mission in the endless depths of the Infinite Ocean to stop them and save Sky.

PopPixie
A comedy spin-off series titled PopPixie premiered in Italy on January 10, 2011. This series is based on the pixies from the Winx Club series, and featured characters such as Lockette, Chatta, and Amore, along with new characters. The characters Caramel and Cherie, introduced in PopPixie, later appeared in Winx Club as replacements for Digit and Tune, respectively.

Winx Club WOW: World of Winx
In September 2014 it was announced that a spin-off series titled Winx Club WOW: World of Winx would be co-produced by Rainbow S.r.l. and Netflix. Winx Club WOW will be a two season 13 episodes spin-off that will be on Netflix worldwide, with the first season to air in spring 2016 and the second in autumn 2016. The girls embark on an undercover journey all around the world looking for talented kids in art, sports, music, and science. These kids have their own kind of magic, and the Winx Club fairies are enchanted by them though it doesn't take long before trouble sets in, and a new and dangerous mystery for Bloom and the others to solve.

Video games
Several video games based on the series have been released. The first of these was Winx Club, released in 2005 for the Playstation 2, PC, and Game Boy Advance. Other video games released include Winx Club: The Quest for the Codex (2006), [Winx Club: Join the Club] for the PSP Winx Club: Mission Enchantix (2008), Dance Dance Revolution Winx Club (2009), Winx Club: Believix in You (2010), and Winx Club: Magical Fairy Party'' (2012).

In 2013, Tsumanga Studios released an app for iOS and Android titled Winx Sirenix Power. Other apps based on the series include Winx Fairy School (by Tsumanga Studios) and Winx Club: Rocks the World (by Budge Studios).

A Winx Club video game was announced to be released on the Nintendo 3DS titled "Winx Club: Saving Alfea". The game is published by Little Orbit. "Winx Club: Saving Alfea" will feature the Winx Club fairies in their Bloomix power from the sixth season. It is scheduled for a release in the fall of 2014.