Main Topic for Season 9: News, Official and Concept Art Options

[Zhanneel]

What do we know about Winx Club Season 9 so far? It looks like Iginio Straffi is pushing S9 off this “new animated series” until 2023. And from recent interviews it is likely to be a full reboot of the series with a retooling of the original Magic Winx transformation. Censorship will also be in play due to a global relaunch of the series. From concept art it appears the show will be entirely CGI. Straffi also mentions that regarding age demographics “we will return to the original target”. That remains to be seen exactly what age range he is referring to.

The working title is “Winx Club Shorts”. Instead of 26 episodes, the series will be further broken down into 52 episodes, 13 minutes each. Similar to the format of PopPixies.

(See below for some references.)

Taken from a news article regarding new title:
Italian: "Una nona stagione è in lavorazione con il titolo provvisorio di Winx Club Shorts. "
English: "A ninth season is in the works with the working title of Winx Club Shorts."

Taken from an interview with Straffi (translated with Google Translate):
“The first series had a target between 8 and 12 years. Over time, the growing offer of fiction has attracted children over the age of ten, relegating cartoons to the youngest and forcing us to adapt to a 4-9 year-old target. But in the new cartoon series, which we are preparing, we will return to the original target.”

“However, there is not much we can do about sexuality. In some countries we cut scenes where Bloom and Sky hug, let alone the rest. In the cartoon everything must be very candid, without sexual references. In the live action series we can do more.”

Pictures from the 2021 Brand Licensing show in Europe: (courtesy of "WinxClubRus" and "Luci e Ombre"):

First leaked image:


Later retooled transformations of Bloom and Stella




Retooled transformations of Flora


A nice comparison thanks to @Winxmagicfairies on IG


New title "Winx Club Shorts"


Another title in the works


Younger and CGI version of the Winx Club group


Box art on dolls

[Zhanneel]

Now for my own thoughts on this.

Design-wise:

Parts of it I like, and parts I don't. I don't like that Straffi caved to less women-friendly countries and is on a tare to cover all midriffs and bare skin patches. I do like the new take on "Magic Winx" transformation, if they are indeed going CGI. There is quality in the design. Different than the 3D movies, but nice.


Story-wise:

I believe this new retooling of Winx Club will have far less serious plots and will be more fast-paced, focusing on witty banter and comical situations. It’s hard to say exactly what Straffi is doing with this new series, but I believe it will be similar to the recent My Little Pony Shorts cartoon and will be aimed at short attention spans. Not my style at all. It’s also hard for me to invest in short episodes, especially if they are too fast-paced or an excuse for nonstop witty banter. To me that feels extremely dumbed down.

It also appears that this will be a full reboot. I highly doubt the story will continue from where Season 8 left off. Though, they did leave Icy's story off in a weird way, so who knows... I am more interested in a continuation of the story, not ANOTHER reboot.

I'm also not okay with the censorship of "romantic" gestures. There has never been any problem with the hugs or kisses seen in Seasons 1-3, and I'm not going to start now because a handful of countries say that's inappropriate. It's a globalization thing, I get it. But it's still kowtowing. Straffi should continue to keep and enhance on his original design, and let the other countries censor where they want.

Winx has always been deep to me. Even though the show has its fair share of comic relief and lighthearted-ness, it also has a foundation based on serious story telling. Drama that stretches over many episodes, magical journeys of self-discovery, emotional highs and lows, life-threatening scenarios, sorrow and loss, but also redemption. This cartoon was once able to bridge an assortment of age, gender, and genre groups together due to its amazing story-telling. Something I think Straffi accidentally fell into during Seasons 1-3. At that point, the show was rebooted and fell into the trap of globalization and standardized story-telling. Season 4 was okay, but I could tell the story was just not working in the end. Season 5 and on continued to spiral downhill.

And then Season 8 burst out of nowhere, and actually was a bit of fresh air for me. Even though the show was redesigned and “dumbed down” for a younger age group, I ended up enjoying the story and even the new Cosmix transformation. It was the first season since Season 3 that had a tinge of what the original series was about. Not my favorite season by any means, but fun in its own way. The return of Valtor was definitely highly favorable to me. Again, I’m not saying this season was “all that”, but it had heart and wasn’t rote like season 5-7.

And with that, I rest until new information of S9 comes to the surface.

[mightymarty2]

Well the designs are classic with a higher quality animation do not look bad at all

I am not sure are the shortness of the episodes not sure that works. Winx tended to start/end with 2 episodes 1 story, that would be 4 on this format....too much to build momentum for the season in my opinion.
The censorship is completely unnecessary, I know its a sign of the modern world but hugs are hardly hidden to behind closed doors, kids will see it on a day to day basis in the real world no reason a cartoon cannot have it. Espcially if aiming for just before teen as the target age market.

[Zhanneel]

I see what you mean. The momentum does seem to go in two episode increments. I'm not sure how they're going to keep people tuned in if they keep breaking it up with 13 minutes segments over a few weeks.

You hit on a point that I was really questioning regarding censorship and target age group. If it's true that Straffi is targeting teens again, then it does not make sense at all to remove all romantic gestures. 😐

[mightymarty2]

It doesn't but they seem to scared to put off any country that they could end up costing themselves viewers in less conservative countries, an interesting balancing act

[Zhanneel]

Oh absolutely, I see that too. At the sacrifice of other more open countries, he will change their style to suit the few who desire censorship. I'm sure Straffi figured that it is better to appease a few countries to stay global, even if it upsets the other fans. I'm sure he assumes all fans will still watch the cartoon regardless.

It's true, I will stick around to see what the new season is like, but I doubt it will be what I want to see in Winx.

Reboot shows seem to be the "in thing" right now, but it's not sitting well with me. I prefer new original content as opposed to constantly reinventing the wheel. So many movies and TV shows today are just reboots and copies. It's sad to me.

[mightymarty2]

True, there do seem a lot of reboots or re-releases at the moment. It did seem to start pre pandemic (it seemed like the success of the jungle book started it). I suppose it is less risky than something new and people are playing safe due to the pandemic

[Zhanneel]

"Safe" is a good word for all of these reboots. 😑