How Many Episodes Are In Winx Club Season 1

[Lyric Maro]

WinxClub is an Italian-American[a] animated series co-produced by Rainbow SpA and Nickelodeon, which are both part of Paramount Global. The show was created by Iginio Straffi, who also worked on Club 57. Both shows were produced by Rainbow SpA.

From the beginning of the show's development, Iginio Straffi planned an overarching plot that would conclude after three seasons.[1] A feature-length film followed the third season, intended to wrap up the series' plot as the fairies graduate from Alfea College.[1][2] In 2008, Straffi made the decision to extend the original series with a fourth season, citing its increasing popularity.[1] During the production of the fourth season, the American company Viacom (owner of Nickelodeon) engaged in a "long courtship"[3] with the Rainbow studio. Viacom became a co-owner of Rainbow to produce their own episodes of Winx Club.[4]

In 2010, Viacom announced that "Nickelodeon is teaming up with the original creator to present an all-new Winx Club."[5] Viacom's Nickelodeon Animation Studio started production on a revived series, in which the Winx are once again students at Alfea, as they were before their graduation in the original show. The Nickelodeon revival began with four television specials that summarize the first two seasons of the original series.[6] After the specials, Viacom's brand-new fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons were broadcast on Nickelodeon networks worldwide ahead of the Italian broadcasts.[b]

Winx Club employs a serial format, with each episode contributing to the overall storyline. Episodes are written with two stories in mind: the longer narrative arc that lasts for tens of episodes and a subplot which concludes at the end of the 22-minute runtime.[7] This episode structure was modeled on those of teen dramas and American comics.[8]

When Iginio Straffi began developing Winx Club at the Rainbow studio, he outlined the plot to last three seasons (78 episodes).[1] In 2007, Straffi explained that "the Winx saga was planned in detail from the beginning. And it will not last forever."[10] The third season follows the fairies' last year at Alfea College, during which they earn their final fairy form, Enchantix. In 2008, Iginio Straffi chose to continue the story for a fourth season. During the fourth season's development, Viacom began discussions to become a co-owner of the Rainbow studio[11] and produce a revival series, which began with a retelling of the first two original seasons.[6]

The pilot episode for the series, then under the working title Magic Bloom,[12] featured the original five Winx members in attires similar to those of traditional European fairies.[13] It was produced over a period of twelve months[10] and was test-screened in 2002.[13] Upon its completion, Straffi was unsatisfied with the pilot and doubted that it would succeed if aired.[14] In a 2016 interview, Straffi recalled that it "looked like just another Japanese-style cartoon ... but nothing like [the modern] Winx."[14] Straffi's team heavily reworked the pilot's visual style[13] before starting work on a full season, leaving the original pilot unaired. Portions of the pilot were presented at the Lucca Comics & Games convention in 2018.[12]

After Viacom became a co-owner of the Rainbow studio in 2011,[15] new seasons of Winx Club entered production at Viacom's Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Rainbow.[4][16] In this revamped series, the Winx are once again students at Alfea, as they were before their graduation in the original show. The revival began with four specials that retell the original first and second seasons.[6] Nickelodeon's American writers aimed to make the series multicultural and appealing toward viewers from different countries.[17] In 2019, Straffi commented on his near-decade of collaboration with Nickelodeon, saying that "the know-how of Rainbow and the know-how of Nickelodeon are very complementary; the sensibilities of the Americans, with our European touch."[18]

On 8 October 2006, a Winx Club CGI film was announced on Rainbow's website. The Secret of the Lost Kingdom was released in Italy on 30 November 2007.[49] Its television premiere was on 11 March 2012 on Nickelodeon in the United States.[50] The plot takes place after the events of the first three seasons.[51]

In 2007, production began on a sequel to The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, before the fourth season had been written.[52] It was released in Italy on 29 October 2010.[53] Its television premiere was on 20 May 2013, on Nickelodeon in the United States.[54]

In late 2010, it was announced that Viacom (the owner of Nickelodeon and eventual co-owner of Rainbow) would provide the resources necessary to produce a new Winx film.[55] The movie follows the events of the fifth season and was released in Italy on 4 September 2014.[56] The film made its television premiere on Nickelodeon Germany on 8 August 2015.[57]

Winx Club is an animated fantasy series created by Iginio Straffi. It is co-produced by Rainbow, RAI, and Nickelodeon. The series has also spawned three feature-length movies and multiple spin-offs, including a live-action adaptation aimed at young adults.

In 2010, Winx Club was revamped when Nickelodeon began co-developing new seasons of the series. Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, became a co-owner of Rainbow the following year. Straffi has continued to work with Nickelodeon on both Winx Club and new shows. Almost a decade after their collaboration started, Straffi commented in a 2019 interview: "the know-how of Rainbow and the know-how of Nickelodeon are very complementary."

The pilot episode for Winx Club was finished in 2001, originally called Magic Bloom. The first sketches for the pilot were drawn by Iginio Straffi himself in 1999. When the pilot episode was screened for test audiences, Straffi found that they did not like its medieval-inspired look. He asked for help from fashion designers to redesign the characters.

In this first draft of Winx Club, the girls were to be younger. Bloom, Stella, and Tecna's appearances were kept relatively unchanged, but Flora's and Musa's appearances were much different. Flora originally had lilac hair and glasses, while Musa had green hair and elf ears. All of the characters' fairy forms were different as well.

Winx Club was created by the Italian comic book artist Iginio Straffi. The show's animation studio, Rainbow, was founded by Straffi. In 2011, the American company Viacom became a co-owner of Rainbow. Viacom is also the owner of Nickelodeon, which co-developed the specials, and seasons 5, 6, and 7 of the show.

From the beginning of the show's development, Straffi planned to only produce three seasons. He outlined the show's overarching story to conclude with the 78th episode. However, he had to change his plans after the show became internationally popular around 2007. Profits from the Winx Club series were singlehandedly financing the company's other projects. Straffi was compelled to continue the show to keep Rainbow afloat; in a later interview, he stated that "without the Winx, Rainbow probably wouldn't exist right now."[1]

Starting with the fifth season, Straffi changed the show's target demographic to a younger audience. Some fans have incorrectly blamed Viacom (co-owner of Rainbow since 2011) for this decision, when it was actually Straffi who chose to aim the show at younger children. Reflecting on this, Straffi said in 2019: "Nowadays, it's very difficult to get a 10-year-old to watch cartoons. They all go for the live-action... When your [new] target is 4-to-8, your story cannot have the same level of complexity as the beginning seasons of the Winx... The fans of the previous Winx Club say on social media that the new seasons are childish, but they don't know that we had to do that."[2]

Moreover, since the fifth season, Straffi has taken a step back from focusing on Winx Club as much as he did in its early years; when asked if he was bored of the show, he replied, "Let's just say I've moved onto other projects."[3] At Rainbow's request, Nickelodeon assembled a team of prolific crew members to work on the show in 2010. The Nickelodeon staff had ample experience in writing for the audience that Straffi was looking for; Winx Club writers like Janice Burgess, Adam Peltzman, and Jeff Borkin had worked in Nickelodeon's preschool division for many years.

For the new seasons' music, Nickelodeon's lyricist McPaul Smith and composer Peter Zizzo collaborated with the Italian team. Zizzo, a Grammy Award winner, was the composer and writer for many individual songs including We Are Believix and The Way of Sirenix. Viacom also cast new American voice actors to record their brand-new episodes at the Atlas Oceanic studio, near Hollywood. Ariana Grande (Diaspro), Cymphonique Miller (Krystal), Daniella Monet (Mitzi), Elizabeth Gillies (Daphne), Keke Palmer (Aisha), and Matt Shively (Sky) lent their voices to the characters. This marked the first time that English audio tracks were used to animate the show's characters, rather than the Italian voices.

In 2014, Rainbow went through a period of financial issues. Their high-budget animated film Gladiators of Rome lost tens of millions at the box office, and Viacom Italy was devalued by millions as a direct result of their stake in Rainbow. This led to budget cuts for the seventh season of Winx Club, which had been announced by Rainbow and Nickelodeon in April 2014. The 3D computer-generated segments and Hollywood voice actors, both of which were highlights in the previous two seasons, were deemed too costly to keep using. The season eventually premiered in June 2015 on Nickelodeon Asia. This would be the last season to be animated with the characters' original designs, as well as the last season of the main series until almost half a decade later, in 2019.

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