{"id":9145,"date":"2025-10-21T16:59:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/?p=9145"},"modified":"2025-10-21T16:59:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:59:44","slug":"winx-club-the-magic-is-back-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/2025\/10\/21\/winx-club-the-magic-is-back-review\/","title":{"rendered":"“Winx Club: The Magic is Back” Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On October 2, 2025, A new reboot of the Winx Club franchise was released. \u201cWinx Club: The Magic is Back\u201d is a new take on the 2004 cartoon. The first half of season one dropped, leaving many fans divided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reboot has a similar premise to that of the original. Bloom is a normal girl from Earth, when on her sixteenth birthday, she discovers she has magical powers. Later that day, she rides her new bike into the park and sees a fight between an ogre and two fairies: Stella and Flora. She then gets caught in the fight, but defends herself with her own magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Winx Club: The Magic is Back (2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Discovering this, she goes back with the fairies to Alfea, a school for fairies and witches in the Magic Dimension. She meets her other three roommates, Musa, Tecna, and Aisha. She also runs into three evil witches, Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. They don\u2019t know what, but they know there\u2019s something magical about Bloom that goes beyond normal fairy magic. The Trix make it their mission to get whatever power she\u2019s holding, and become the most powerful witches in the magic dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stormy, Icy, and Darcy of the Trix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With any reboot, there\u2019s going to be similarities and differences. Primarily, Alfea is now the school for fairies and witches. The witches used to go to Cloud Tower, but it was destroyed in a battle 16 years ago. Another key difference was that In the original show, Aisha joined the Winx in season two. But here, she joins us at the very beginning of the series. It was refreshing to see her at the start, and she didn\u2019t stick out in a negative way.

The reboot has been blowing up on social media for a number of reasons, one being the rumored use of AI. Since we started to see official pictures, fans noticed little instances where generative AI was clearly used. One of the first promotional images stood out for its strange background, as the glass behind the characters seemed warped. Another version of the same image was either AI generated, or simply photoshopped. Aisha had the exact same hair as another AI-generated photo. You could even see the faint appearance of an earring which was not a part of the official outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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First prototype promotional artwork, with a questionably warped background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A second version of the same artwork, where Aisha’s character has the same hair as this AI-generated picture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Winx Club\u2019s company Rainbow has denied the use of AI time and time again, but has continued to do some sketchy things anyways. Last year, Winx Club\u2019s production company Rainbow created another 3D Netflix cartoon called \u201cMermaid Magic\u201d. They posted YouTube Shorts<\/a> introducing each of the characters, but they were eerily narrated by AI models of the cast. I found that incredibly shocking, and just confused as to why. Why would you bother creating that, when you could ask them to narrate some more dialogue for social media posts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One thing that really sparked criticism amongst fans was an AI ad that Target created. Since Winx Club is collaborating with Target to sell dolls of the reboot, they decided to create a small target ad that they posted to TikTok and YouTube. It was a short of the new doll of Stella going into Target and finding their dolls in store. In my opinion, it was just weird and not well done. I have heard that this was more of Target\u2019s doing than Rainbow\u2019s, even though Winx Club posted it on their social media. Either way, I definitely don\u2019t think it helps their reputation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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That aside, the transformation sequences were incredible. They were animated by a different studio, and I’m so glad they were. The 2025 standards of magical girl transformations are high, and they did not disappoint. The effects were dynamic and complex, connecting to each girl’s element. The cinematography was incredible too, I feel like Bloom, Tecna, Musa, and Aisha really stood out in theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aisha’s transformation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


I also really liked the Trix in the reboot. I love that they kept their original witch outfits, and I think it speaks to the timelessness of the original series. I also liked the new characters and villains. With a reboot, there\u2019s going to be some changes, and I was pleasantly surprised with these new characters. I also really enjoyed the music<\/a>. Three songs stand out to me the most: \u201cFrom Now On\u201d<\/a>, \u201cForever Winx\u201d<\/a>, and of course, \u201cStep into the Dark (feat. ili)\u201d<\/a>. We only heard that song once in the series, and in my opinion, it sounds like a perfect opportunity for a Trix transformation sequence. We didn\u2019t get that, but I\u2019m praying for that in the next release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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