So I just saw the trailer for the new Winx reboot and . . . prepare for a rant.
So as a kid, I adored Winx. I loved that bright, magical, and futuristic feeling the show had, and mixed in with the deeply impactful emotional bits. Winx had this sci-fi/fantasy aesthetic that was extremely unique, and Netflix saw that and turned it into . . . dark academia???????? And i don’t have any issues about dark academia, or shows with edgier themes, those are the kinds of shows that i like too, but they marketed the reboot as a show for the 20-somethings who liked Winx growing up and still adore it, and then they took everything we loved about it and tossed it in the trash. Yes, the old Winx had heavy drama and lots of dark emotional moments, but the thing that made it so great was how they balanced that with a bright color palette and children’s show/cartoon feel. Winx is not some Riverdale/Chilling Adventures of Sabrina-esque show, and trying to turn it into that isn’t going to fit.
And even if we weren’t complaining about the massive tonal shift, the white-washing in this show is outrageous. They clap themselves on the back for including a character with a larger body shape, while whitewashing two of the main characters. Musa was Asian. She was based off Lucy Liu, an Asian actress. Flora was latina. She was based off Jennifer Lopez, a latina singer. Netflix pats themselves on the back for including a single character with a larger body shape, but they expect us to ignore the blatant white-washing of two main characters? As if. As a kid, Musa was my favorite character in the show, not just because I loved her character, but because they looked like me. Asian representation in children’s cartoons at that time was pretty rare, and when they had some they were extremely stereotypical. Musa was asian, she looked like me, and she wasn’t some crazy genius, she was a girl who loved music and wanted to follow her passion. The episode where she got into a massive fight with her dad about her future? I understood that. And I’m willing to bet that there are dozens of girls that felt the same way about Flora, or related to any one of the problems of any one of the main girls. One of the best things about Winx was the diverse cast, and the magic and futuristic tech mixed in with real-world problems. That was what made it so great. And while I’m not surprised with the more dramatic, edgier direction Netflix is going with the reboot, I can’t say I’m not disappointed.













