“Winx Club” Guide for 4Kids Fans
Winx Club‘s move from 4Kids TV to Nickelodeon has spawned a lot of confusion. Some American fans thought 4Kids’s version was the original and and have accused Nickelodeon of making too many “changes.” The truth: Winx Club is an Italian show created by director Iginio Straffi and his company Rainbow S.p.A. To cater to the American audience, 4Kids made several changes—new music, scene edits, name changes, etc., but the series never reached the same level of popularity as in the rest the world. In 2010, Mr. Straffi ended his contact with 4Kids and partnered with Nickelodeon. He is now working with them to revive Winx in America.
A COUPLE THINGS TO KNOW:
- Besides the 4Kids and Nickelodeon dubs, there has been another English dub made by the Canadian company Cinelume. This version, sometimes called the “RAI English” dub, was generally more faithful to the original. (Whether this dub will continue is not yet known.)
- 4Kids called season three “the series finale” because it was the last season they had licensed from Rainbow. However, season four has already aired outside the United States. It’s set to premiere on Nickelodeon in 2012. (Nickelodeon was not involved in creating the fourth season, but they will co-produce seasons five and six.)
This “guide” lists some of the changes 4Kids made. Click on the categories below. Also, check out the Song Guide to compare the 4Kids songs to the original ones.
CHARACTERS
ITEMS
MAGIC
REALMS
Nickelodeon does not OWN the show, as such. Winx Club is still a product of the Rainbow S.P.A. company, and they can revoke Nick’s rights to air the show at any time as well. Nick and Rainbow might have entered into a partnership and Nick might be co-producing the coming seasons, but that does NOT mean that Nick owns the show. Rainbow can cancel their partnership at any time. Rainbow still owns the show, full and proper, and they have the authority to give Cinelume the rights to keep dubbing the show.
I highly doubt Cinelume’s rights will be revoked. As I recall, Cinelume’s version is among the most shown versions of Winx Club in the world.
That was just a word error. My mistake. I meant “the rights to the show,” not the show itself.
As for the Cinelume version, Nickelodeon has the TV rights in several countries, including Canada and Australia, which might make having the Cinelume version useless. As it is, Australia used to get the 4Kids dub until they lost the rights. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was just one English dub from now on.
As far as I know, Nick doesn’t own the broadcasting rights in Singapore, which is where the Cinelume dub was mostly broadcast, I think. I really hope they do seasons 5 and 6 in Cinelume.
Anyways, this is a nice little guide. It does peeve me off looking on Nick’s Winx forum and seeing everyone complaining that they’re changing so much when, in reality, all that’s changed are the voices, the animation and a few lines.
Thanks!
It’s a work in progress, as you can see. Feel free to help out because I’m sure I’ll miss some stuff. For example, I forgot 4Kids never called the Trix by that name until I saw someone complain about that on YouTube.
Yeah, Nickelodeon doesn’t own the rights in Singapore. That could make a difference. I think the channel that shows Winx there is called Okto.
Weren’t they also refered to as the Trix a few times in the 4Kids version?
I think they just called them The Three Witches or the Senior Witches. “Trix” is trademarked, after all—you know, the cereal.
LOL yeah Trix are 4Kids…
I guess some of the fans should be saying: 4Kids Tricked us!
oh i love winx and i’m fan 4kids and i know
If you need any assistance, with this let me know. I’m kind of curious if there’s still a Welsh dub. I know they did at least the 1st season in Wales and Musa’s name had to be changed to Martha since Musa sounds like Mws which means stale or stinking.
I liked some of the 4Kids voices better than the Cinelume ones. For one thing the English Cinelume Sky sounded like a young Michael Jackson and Bloom was too whiney. Of course I don’t care for either character so maybe that’s just bias on my part. Princess Amentia (called Queen Amentia in the 4Kids adaption even though she had 2 very alive parents) sounded too much like a 2 pack a day smoker.
I’m on the fence as to who had the better lines. Who can forget the “stop your witching’ line from 4Kids Icy and Darcy asking someone to tell her when they got to Alfea because her feet were killing her when she had the map? Of course Cinelume’s Stella had a great one in Riven’s Betrayal when she asked Bloom if she’d combed her hair with an egg beater. And Diaspro telling the Patchamen that she ‘Wasn’t afraid of their justice because she was rich?
Of course most fans could’ve probably done without the Wangsterfication of Musa. Yikes! I know I could’ve. I was beyond relieved when I found the original version of Winx Club and only looked back for a few interesting lines. And the fact that I prefer Whisperian Crystals to Vaccuums.
One thing is for sure: 4kids was never the original version. And i’m learning alot about 4kids doing alot of changes from the original version but Iginio Straiff should realize that he still was making money because of 4kids. I understand if their version was not what he thought it should be but he should know that he is losing a lot of fans and ratings for giving the rights to Nick and making ‘em do a very fast version of the show. It’s not even all that interesting to me anymore. it’s not the same winx club I was soo deep in when I was like 9 or 10.
Yeah except 4Kids was breeching their contract with RAI and Straffi. So he wasn’t making as much money as he could’ve or should’ve made with them. Plus 4Kids was going bankrupt by breaking contracts with companies and making edits they weren’t supposed to do.
You know what I think? I think they could have just worked with 4kids if that was the case. Honestly, Nick isn’t the right company to make the Winx CLUB interesting . if i change the channel onto it , i just get sooo mad. Nope ! I’m gonna watch Canada’s version .
Very nice blog
I hope Nick and Straffi are able to reintroduce the Winx to the USA, because fans have missed out on A LOT, as 4Kids was pretty much losing rights to their imports. It is bothersome how a series is known international and praised, yet the USA and at times Canada, miss out or get left behind.
As someone else stated and as some others have also. I LOVED 4Kids voice actresses for Winx (as well as their other dubs), the voices were very distinctive and you can just listen to an episode without even watching it. People can rage on 4Kids for edits and unnecessary changes, but their voice actors are tops -in my opinion, and they put a lot of work into the characters they voice. Another thing about 4Kids, they seemed to be the only company willing to give female intended shows a chance, while other companies and networks just literally unisex a show or disregarded their female viewership.
Good luck with your guide ‘The Oblivious Prattler’, I am looking forward to it, as I am not that huge on following Winx Club, but I love the artwork and continuation of magical girl series outside of Japan.
wondering if anyone can help me find the lines for all Winx Club episodes?
wondering if anyone can help me find the lines for all Winx Club episodes?
(they are not all on the wikia)
What do you mean by lines?
script
winx i love you!!!! <3<3<3<3
does anyone know where i can find all the scripts for winx club episodes (the wikia bdoes not have them all)
I started watching Winx Club with the 4Kids version first without knowing there were other versions. Once I started to into the series, I started to look into it more and found out that it originally came from Italy. I haven’t seen the original Italian version, but I have seen the Cinelume, 4Kids, and Nickelodeon version.
I have to say that I cannot stand the 4Kids version now. If anyone has seen Sailor Moon back in the day when it was being dubbed in English, its the same situation with the 4Kids Version of Winx Club. 4Kids was on the verge of butchering Winx Club, the way that Sailor Moon was butchered when I was a child. There are scenes that are skipped and changed. The script had changes to it that sometimes didn’t coincide with what the scene was showing. Some of the voice actors were horrible. Musa and Techna had the most annoying voices ever, Techna sounded like she was trying to fake a British accent, it was horrible.
The Nickelodeon and Cinelume versions seemed more natural with their scenes and voices. They’re probably as close to the original version as can be.
they should keep thw winx for 4kids and get rid of nicks winx club they changed layla to aishia and in my opinnion rai engish is the origanl version in canada but 4 kids winx club is the original version for the united states
1. her name changed because that is what it is in the original italian version
2. i agree i dislike the nick version, rainbow should give publishing writes back to 4kids
3. does anyone know where i can find all the scripts for winx club episodes (the wikia bdoes not have them all)
4. neither does the http://winxclub4kids.wikia.com website
That was ok
I know all about this.First i saw nick’s version,then i looked winx club up online and i found out everything about it.[literally]and also my name is namira and winx club 4kids is horrable and nick and rai are alot ALOT alike ecsept for the script.
I heard rainbow said that winx club will keep making new episodes untill 2014
I grew up with 4Kids, and the voices were excellent. Even though they changed and edited a lot of things, they made the show into their own. Straffi should have given 4Kids another chance…4Kids made the Winx seem magical, but now it seems so dull…Boring…
I personally think 4Kids focused more on the teenage life side of the show than the magic. That’s why I prefer the RAI English and Nick versions. I feel more of the magic and fantasy from them. But that’s just me.
I agree with you! And all the things that they made the characters say… OMG, seriously, I don’t know a single teen who talks like that. It’s just embarrassing.
Not to mention everyone on the 4Kids version was constantly strategizing out loud while fighting, and I’m sitting here going “THIS ISN’T FIRE EMBLEM! JUST BLAST THE DANG MONSTER WITH YOUR MAGIC AND MOVE ON!”
Winx Club was always magical, bright and the music really spicing it up…But that was 4Kids..Now it’s so annoying to listen to you just wanna tear your ears off..They should be picking their voice actors carefully so the voice actually FITS the character and their personality…I’ve never seen a show in my whole life that has been neglected like this…Spongebob is better!!
Personally I think the voices fit the characters just fine. Except for Flora. I would’ve rather heard a softer voice coming from her, but some people like her new voice so… I’m not complaining.