What Winx Club Did and Netflix Ignored: Femine and Strong

After watching the Winx Club Netflix adaptation trailer and deciding to rewatch the original show’s first episode, I realized what bothered me so much about the trailer. It wasn’t exactly the fact that one of my childhood classics had gotten the CW Riverdale treatment, but rather the fact that this very treatment seems to be taking away a central piece of the show. The original animated Winx Club had an undeniable femininity to it, which the live action seems to visually ignore. This is not to say that the show or its components were only meant for women or young girls; even if the show’s primary target audience was young girls, the focus on femininity was more about portraying traditionally feminine traits and aesthetics paired with powerful, independent, and strong characters. Denying the original material’s femininity feels less like a choice to make the show edgier and darker and more like a choice to deny the possibility of femininity and strength existing within the same sphere of content.

The changes and lack of femininity are already so prevalent in the first trailer, that I can’t imagine how the show itself would prove any different. The main examples lie in the wardrobe, the production design, and just the overall tone of girls’ powers. From set pictures to the trailer, the characters are shown wearing pretty ordinary clothing, which is almost a slap in the face to the original iconic costumes. Those costumes high-lighted the characters’ personalities and individuality, being both “traditionally” feminine and diverse. As a young girl, it meant the world to have characters with such different styles, like Stella and Musa or Flora and Tecna, who were all comfortable as different sorts of women, never implying that one was more of a “girl” than the other. The costumes for the adaptation did not have to be a thread by thread copy of their animated counterparts but keeping their essential aesthetic should be crucial. The best example of this I can think of is the Scooby Doo live action films. They did not restrict themselves to the animated costumes, but they clearly took inspiration and care in keeping the characters’ styles.

As far as the production design, the first thing I noticed was that there is no visual representation of the girls being fairies. It’s mentioned at the start of the trailer, but iconic Winx wings are nowhere to be seen. Once again, I suspect the omission comes from the desire to make the series darker and edgier, which somehow translates to less feminine. Other than that, Alfea, the magical school for fairies, is neutral shade of beige while the original was pastel pink with turquoise rooftops. The omission of a traditionally feminine color is another understated attempt at taking away the femininity from an originally feminine show. In addition, it perpetuates the idea that a color with a sort of feminine connotation cannot be part of the aesthetic of a “badass” show, which is just limiting, antiquated, and down-right wrong. Beyond the production design, the school almost seems to have gone co-ed, which is not even taking femininity out of the equation; it’s simply taking the main focus away from the girls. In the original animation, Alfea is an only girls (fairies) school, and while I’m all for co-ed education, in the case of Winx Club, the choice felt like an emphasis on a female narrative. Not to mention the fact that, from a plot standpoint, the three magical schools: Alfea, the Cloud Tower for Witches (all girls as well) and the Red Fountain School for Specialists (all guys), are separated for a reason. However, I understand that the plot is probably being changed for the adaption, which still wouldn’t excuse taking the focus away from the primarily female narrative.

Finally, what should be one of the central focuses of the show: the girls’ powers. The main Winx ladies were well known for having special powers that fit their personalities accordingly. Musa’s passion for music makes her spell sound or music related, while Flora, whose name properly fits her love for botanic and flowers, concentrates on spells around nature, and the list goes on. This was another aspect of the original show’s design that managed to portray and exemplify the fairies’ personalities. Their powers weren’t necessarily feminine, but the extension of each girls’ styles served as a way of matching aesthetics with power. Because each character had relatively feminine styles, all different in their own ways, their spells and powers were another way of representing that and illustrate the idea that stylization does not negate or cancel out strength and power. From the trailer, Netflix seems to be going for a more Avatar: The Last Airbender approach, concentrating on “elements” rather than aspects of the Winx club’s personalities. From the darker, rugged, and “realistic” stylization, the powers unrecognizable from the ones in the original animated show. Instead of seeing femininity take different forms through the different personalities of the fairies, the look of their powers is simply monotone and predictable when thinking back to previous animated show to live action adaptations (looking at you, The Last Airbender).

Other than the frustration at the already visible departures from the original material, I also find myself disillusioned with Netflix’s missed opportunities to improve the animated show. As a fan, even I can admit there’s room to grow. For one, the original was sometimes quick paced and escalated without giving a full plotlines or explanations. The live action was an opportunity to further develop already established characters and story lines, like the friendship between the girls or each Winx’s past. In addition, anyone who has seen the animated show is familiar with the rather unrealistic female bodies presented, and a live action could have been a perfect opportunity to include more body types while still keeping the general clothing styles of different characters. And yet, there seems to be no hope for these changes because the original characters, who could’ve opened the door to new portrayals of femininity by taking the torch from what the animated show established, are simply not there anymore.

Whatever obsession the producers and executives behind adaptations currently have with the Riverdale formula, i.e., mature and for older audiences means dark and unnecessarily sexual, it needs to be stopped. The whole point of “aging up” the series was to appeal to the older Winx Club fans, but all the adaptation is doing is alienating them, and that was just with the first trailer. Longtime fans of the original are just that, fans of the original, and adapting a series in a way that removes one of the show’s main factors, in this case the undeniable and well-portrayed femininity of the show and its characters, is not going to please anybody. Maybe new, and certainly younger, fans will enjoy the show for its assimilation to Riverdale and other dark and edgy adaptations, but they’ll miss out on all that could have been. A live-action portraying femininity as a positive and a trait that coexists with strength, leadership, power, and unity could have been ground-breaking and something completely new for Netflix and the current world of on-screen adaptations. I hope to be proven wrong because I really do believe a show like Winx Club could be monumental right now, but after seeing the first trailer, I’m not getting my hopes up and I’d rather revisit the original show, if only to realize its strength and its great impact on me as a young girl.