“Fate: The Winx Saga” review

With this new live action version of “The Winx Club”, there is a lot to unpack

Fia Franz-Knight, Staff Reporter
Originally published March 18, 2021

The plot has barely anything to do with the original cartoon; they added fully new creatures and characters and got rid of some very important ones from the original show. Why they did this I can not tell you, but I can inform you of all the changes they made.

While the cartoon had bright colors and interesting individual styles, the new Netflix show has dark colors and dull clothes. Not only were these clothes dull, but they also do not fit the age group the characters are supposed to portray. It adds even more to their aged look. The way the clothes are styled is also disgusting; they look straight out of a 2015 Old Navy but less suited to each actor’s person. 

While in most of these teen shows they cast 20 year olds as 16 year olds, “Winx” brings a new meaning to this: most of the characters look to be in their 30’s and some of them actually are. 

Another aspect of the strange casting is the whitewashing of what was once a fairly diverse show. Two of the main characters, originally both POC, were recast as white women. This is problematic. The film industry is constantly overshadowing POC voices in favor of white voices so,especially for something like a remake, it is very important to continue the representation the cartoon had. 

The classic wings associated with the fairies in the cartoon are not seen at all during the show. The fun transformations classic to the cartoon are nowhere to be found until the last episode in which Bloom transforms, but her outfit stays the same clothes she was in before, and the wings appear to be a literal fire pit coming out of her back. To say the least, I was confused. Why do this transformation at all?

The characters in the cartoon show are lively and fun, but this version takes away all of the creative aspects and assigns each character one personality trait. For example, Terra’s personality trait is that she has anxiety, Bloom’s is that she is not like the other fairies— she’s special. Beyond these one dimensional traits there’s really no character and nowhere for growth, change or development.

You might think that if you separate it from the original this show is good, you would be lying to yourself. As a casual watcher of many teen shows this show strives to be CW but falls short with its overuse of basic tropes, boring flat characters and forced plot. Don’t watch this— it was a waste of the time that I seem to have so much of these days.