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| − | ''Winx Club'' is a phenomenon in Europe, and has even graced the USA twice: first, running from 2004-2009 (dubbed by 4Kids) and a second time, this time around, dubbed by Nickelodeon (2010-present.) While it still hasn't made quite the mark in America that it has in Europe, it's still a considerable success. However, before it became the smash-hit it is today, it went through several test stages, only fragments of which have been released. |
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| + | |image1 = Musabloomstella.jpg |
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| + | |current_status = {{{status|<span style="color:orange;">'''Partially Found'''</span>}}} |
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| + | |title1 = Magic Bloom}}''Winx Club'' became a hit after premiering in 2004. The show quickly attracted the interest of the American company Viacom, which now co-owns the ''Winx Club'' animation studio (Rainbow S.p.A.) alongside the cartoon's creator, Iginio Straffi. Viacom's [[:Category:Lost Nickelodeon|Nickelodeon]] started co-producing the show in 2011 and it became even more popular, ranking as Nickelodeon UK's second-highest-rated show. Before ''Winx Club'' even aired, however, Mr. Straffi spent several years developing the show. These testing stages resulted in the production of a short pilot episode, of which only small pieces have seen the light of day. |
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| − | ==Magic Bloom (1999)== |
+ | ==Magic Bloom (1999-2001)== |
| + | A proof of concept titled '''''Magic Bloom''''' was animated from around 1999 to 2001. In this stage, the main characters were younger teenagers and the character designs resembled those of classic European fairies. 20 seconds of footage were released as part of a video interview with Iginio Straffi, in which he briefly discusses the circumstances surrounding the pilot's production.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuw9Jb7H1wc&t=920 2013 interview with Iginio Straffi.] Retrieved 12 Mar '19.</ref> |
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| + | Sometime around early 2002, Rainbow held a test screening of the pilot in order to gauge audience reaction. According to a 2003 article, the ~120 test viewers "loved the series' concept, but found its look less than enchanting."<ref name="kidscreen">[http://kidscreen.com/2003/09/01/fashion-20030901/ Rainbow, Scholastic Ent. turn to style specialists for design innovations.] Retrieved 12 Mar '19.</ref> Iginio Straffi himself was unsatisfied with the pilot, recalling in 2016 that the end product "looked like just another Japanese-style cartoon ... nothing like [the modern] ''Winx''."<ref>[https://movieplayer.it/articoli/rainbow-lintervista-a-iginio-straffi-sullanimazione-in-italia_15112/ 2016 MoviePlayer interview with Iginio Straffi.] Retrieved 12 Mar '19.</ref> Despite already gaining the support of broadcasters and investing over €100,000 in the pilot, Straffi scrapped the entire animation and started retooling the series. He hired an array of new designers to change the pilot's "dull" designs and color palette, and the series was being prepped for distribution in 2003.<ref name="kidscreen"/> |
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| − | The first known incarnation of the series was title ''Magic Bloom'' and was made circa 1999 as a proof of concept. In this stage, the main characters were aged 13-14 instead of 15-16, as they are in the series proper. There are rumors that the characters had different names, but there is no source for this information. Most notably, the series was, at this stage, made for a much younger audience in mind, and the character designs hadn't been finalized. The initial character designs and 20 seconds of footage have both been leaked onto the internet; the source of these are unknown. |
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| + | A promotional clip of the pilot was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.<ref>http://www.renudo.net/andrea.asp</ref> |
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| − | Additionally, there are claims that 15 episodes were produced under this moniker and aired on Cartoon Network in 1999, and the episodes were later destroyed after it couldn't retain ratings, after which it was retooled into ''Winx Club''. On top of being completely unsourced, there are no records of ''Magic Bloom'' appearing on Cartoon Network at any point in time, no one has come forward with recordings of the series, and funding 15 episodes of an animated series is ''expensive, ''so it's very unlikely that a then-small company, such as Rainbow sp.A, would fund an entire series run and then dump it because of bad ratings. |
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| + | The original character design sheets from ''Magic Bloom'' (source unidentified) have been uploaded to the Internet. Additionally, some shorter pieces of footage have been released to the public (seen in a promotional DVD from 2003, as well as the 4Kids opening) that can't be identified from actual finished ''Winx'' episodes, leading many to believe that these scenes were from the ''Magic Bloom'' pilot and were re-used for promotional materials due to the show not having enough completed footage to use at the time. |
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| + | At the 2018 Lucca Comics & Games convention, the transformation scenes from the ''Magic Bloom'' pilot were shown as part of an exhibition commemorating the 15th anniversary of ''Winx Club''. At around 33 seconds, this is the most footage from the pilot that has been released so far. The sequences are captioned "Magic Bloom - Pilot 2001," indicating that the pilot was indeed finished in 2001. The exhibition also revealed that Stella's original name was Sasha (see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtY5G8q8o8c here] for the video). |
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FzP6UtUygNc.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
FzP6UtUygNc.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
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Musabloomstella.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
Musabloomstella.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
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99test.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
99test.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
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| − | + | Maxresdefault.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
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| − | + | JfVyz5T.jpg|Screenshot from 1999 test footage |
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| − | + | Maxresdefault (1).jpg|Screen shot from 1999 test footage |
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| − | + | Tecna01.jpg|Character Design: Tecna (1999) |
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| − | + | Stella01.jpg|Character Design: Stella (1999) |
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| − | + | Testshots musa.jpg|Character Design; Musa (1999) |
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| − | + | Testshots flora.jpg|Character Design: Flora (1999) |
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| − | + | Testshots bloom.jpg|Character Design: Bloom (1999) |
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| + | R1xxzk.jpg |
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| + | Woop.jpg|Early promotional image (2003) |
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| + | R1xxzk.jpg|Early screenshot showing a CGI segment of the original pilot |
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| + | Capture.PNG|Screencap of Rainbow spA's website from 2003: middle image shows a prototype of the castle in Winx Club |
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| + | JfVyz5T.jpg |
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| + | Winx Club - Magic Bloom 2001-0 |
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</gallery> |
</gallery> |
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| − | [[File:Winx Club - Magic Bloom 2001-0|thumb|center|335 px| |
+ | [[File:Winx Club - Magic Bloom 2001-0|thumb|center|335 px|Test footage]] |
| + | [[File:'Magic Bloom' Transformations (Winx Club Prototype)|thumb|center|335 px|Transformation sequences]] |
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| + | A small poster with a logo reading '''''Winx: Just Fairies!''''' was on Rainbow SpA's website in early 2003, before the show's premiere. This indicates that the series proper went through another name change before becoming ''Winx Club''. It is unknown if any animation (such as a different opening) was made using this early title, but it is possible given the logo's usage as late as 2003. The image shows the finished designs of the three characters who appear on it. |
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| + | ==External links== |
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| + | *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winx_Club#Development Wikipedia article for ''Winx Club'', where most of these sources were found.] |
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| + | ==References== |
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| − | Even less is known about this stage of the series' development. One image exists with the ''Winx: Just Fairies!'' logo, which interestingly also has the finished designs of the three characters who appear in it. This was presumably the last stage that the show went through before becoming ''WInx Club''. |
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| + | <references/> |
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[[Category:Lost Animation]] |
[[Category:Lost Animation]] |
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[[Category:Lost TV]] |
[[Category:Lost TV]] |
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| + | [[Category:Lost Pilots]] |
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| + | [[Category:Pilots]] |
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| + | [[Category:Lost Episodes]] |
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| + | [[Category:Lost Nickelodeon]] |
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| + | [[Category:Partially Found Media]] |
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| + | [[Category:Lost 90s Cartoons]] |
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| + | [[Category:1999]] |
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| + | [[Category:1990s]] |
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Revision as of 14:34, 1 March 2021
| ARTICLE MARKED AS A STUB This article is a stub. You can help the Lost Media Archive by expanding it! |
Winx Club became a hit after premiering in 2004. The show quickly attracted the interest of the American company Viacom, which now co-owns the Winx Club animation studio (Rainbow S.p.A.) alongside the cartoon's creator, Iginio Straffi. Viacom's Nickelodeon started co-producing the show in 2011 and it became even more popular, ranking as Nickelodeon UK's second-highest-rated show. Before Winx Club even aired, however, Mr. Straffi spent several years developing the show. These testing stages resulted in the production of a short pilot episode, of which only small pieces have seen the light of day.
Magic Bloom (1999-2001)
A proof of concept titled Magic Bloom was animated from around 1999 to 2001. In this stage, the main characters were younger teenagers and the character designs resembled those of classic European fairies. 20 seconds of footage were released as part of a video interview with Iginio Straffi, in which he briefly discusses the circumstances surrounding the pilot's production.[1]
Sometime around early 2002, Rainbow held a test screening of the pilot in order to gauge audience reaction. According to a 2003 article, the ~120 test viewers "loved the series' concept, but found its look less than enchanting."[2] Iginio Straffi himself was unsatisfied with the pilot, recalling in 2016 that the end product "looked like just another Japanese-style cartoon ... nothing like [the modern] Winx."[3] Despite already gaining the support of broadcasters and investing over €100,000 in the pilot, Straffi scrapped the entire animation and started retooling the series. He hired an array of new designers to change the pilot's "dull" designs and color palette, and the series was being prepped for distribution in 2003.[2]
A promotional clip of the pilot was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.[4]
The original character design sheets from Magic Bloom (source unidentified) have been uploaded to the Internet. Additionally, some shorter pieces of footage have been released to the public (seen in a promotional DVD from 2003, as well as the 4Kids opening) that can't be identified from actual finished Winx episodes, leading many to believe that these scenes were from the Magic Bloom pilot and were re-used for promotional materials due to the show not having enough completed footage to use at the time.
At the 2018 Lucca Comics & Games convention, the transformation scenes from the Magic Bloom pilot were shown as part of an exhibition commemorating the 15th anniversary of Winx Club. At around 33 seconds, this is the most footage from the pilot that has been released so far. The sequences are captioned "Magic Bloom - Pilot 2001," indicating that the pilot was indeed finished in 2001. The exhibition also revealed that Stella's original name was Sasha (see here for the video).
.jpg "Maxresdefault (1).jpg (38 KB)")
Winx: Just Fairies! (2003)
A small poster with a logo reading Winx: Just Fairies! was on Rainbow SpA's website in early 2003, before the show's premiere. This indicates that the series proper went through another name change before becoming Winx Club. It is unknown if any animation (such as a different opening) was made using this early title, but it is possible given the logo's usage as late as 2003. The image shows the finished designs of the three characters who appear on it.
External links
References
- ↑ 2013 interview with Iginio Straffi. Retrieved 12 Mar '19.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rainbow, Scholastic Ent. turn to style specialists for design innovations. Retrieved 12 Mar '19.
- ↑ 2016 MoviePlayer interview with Iginio Straffi. Retrieved 12 Mar '19.
- ↑ http://www.renudo.net/andrea.asp