Winx Club (franchise)

Winx Club is a media franchise including a television series, books, clothing,[1] video games,[2] product line,[3] DVDs, and theatrical films.[4]

Television series

Main article: Winx Club

Winx Club is an animated television series[5] directed, created, and produced[6] by Iginio Straffi[5] and his company Rainbow S.r.l.[1][2] The series is the first Italian cartoon to be sold in the U.S.[1] It is aimed toward children between the ages of three and seven.[7] According to Iginio Straffi's website, "Winx Club is an action and fantasy show combined with comedic elements. In the mystical dimension of Magix, three special schools educate modern fairies, ambitious witches and supernatural warriors, and wizards from all over the magical universe."[6]

Publications

Dancers portraying the Winx Club attend the Rome Film Fest in Italy.

In Italy, there are two ongoing monthly comic books in publication. One is a Winx Club comic book, although its storyline is generally not related to that of the animated series. The other is Pixie, a spin-off of the Winx Club comic book centered around the pixies.

In July 2012, the Winx Club comics will become published in 96 page volumes in America. Random House will be publishing a junior novel series based on the show and multiple activity books in America.

Films

A CGI feature film, Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, was announced in late 2006, and released in Italy on 30 November 2007. It was released on 20 November 2008 in Singapore. The plot of the film revolves around Bloom's origins, and takes place after the events of the first three season.[8] The official website for the film covers several markets, with release dates and other information.

At the Licensing Expo 2008 in New York, Rainbow announced the production of a second film, slated to premiere in 2010. It was later announced in spring 2010 that it would be titled Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure and it would be Italy's first 3D movie, with a release date of October 29.[9] A 10-minute promo reel will be shown at the Giffoni Film Festival in July.[10]

Theater

In September 2005, the "Winx Power" musical show began in Italy.[11][12] After a successful tour in Italy, it also expanded to Belgium and the Netherlands, before expanding to Portugal in 2009. November 2008 also saw the launch of "Winx On Ice", an ice show starring Carolina Kostner.[13]

Video games

Winx Club games have been released for the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Windows. Most of the Winx Club games are published by Konami; Winx Club: Believix in You was published by Namco Bandai Games as well as Winx Club: Magical Fairy Party was published by D3Publisher. The only game by iOS in this game series was Winx Club: Love & Pet, published by Rainbow Interactive.

There are currently ten games based on Winx Club.

Merchandise

In Europe, Italian candy manufacturer Ferrero began to distribute plastic Winx figurines as prizes inside their Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs.

A tile in a murial in Alassio, "autographed" by the Winx Club.

In the United States, 4Kids Entertainment held the licensing rights to the series until their licence expired in 2009, they had no more plans to make any more episodes for the show.

In Singapore, bags, clothing and similar items are available.

The Winx Club dolls are the "third most popular dolls in the world" and merchandise sales are over 1 billion euros per year as of 2007.[14] In the summer of 2012, Winx Club dolls produced by Jakks Pacific starting hitting shelves ahead of its Fall 2012 release date. The presell of the Winx Dolls were at Toys "R" Us and sold out in 4 days.[15] The official street date was July 1. Balanced items will hit shelves on August 1.[15] Jakks Pacific made a Charmix Stella, Flora, and Bloom doll exclusive to Toys'r'us along with a Bloom Sophix and Sky 2- Pack, Bloom and her Scooter set, and the Winx pets stuffed plush. Target has an exclusive Ecnhantix Flora, Stella, and Bloom vs. Icy doll set. Jakks Pacific announced that the Harmonix dolls will be shipped to retailors and the end of November 2012 with an aimed release date of January 2013. The Sirenix dolls will be released in Fall 2013 along with a the Sirenix Icy, Darcy, and Stormy.

DVD releases

In Italy, Mondo Home Entertainment released the first two seasons with both Italian and English audio tracks, the English audio being Cinélume's dub. In 2007, 01 Distribution released the third season on DVD, but these discs contained the Italian audio only. Later, 01 Distribution re-released the first and second season on DVD without the English soundtrack. Tridimensional also released the first three seasons of the show on Italian newsstands along with the Winx Club magazine. These releases contained the original English, Italian, and French audio. The third season release contained Dutch audio as well, and the fourth season contained only Italian audio. Box sets of all four seasons were released by Tridimensional with the same amount of volumes and content that were released separately on newsstands.

In North America, the entire first season of the Winx Club, first released on 12 July 2005, was available as a five-disc collection until 2008. The first DVD of the second season, Layla and the Pixies, was released in 2007, and the second volume, Battle for the Codex, came out in September 2007, and both are still available. The first DVD of the third season, The Princess Ball, was released on 27 January 2009;[16] however, the release of the other half, Fire & Flame, has been indefinitely suspended due to the fact that 4KidsTV license expiring (see Future above).[17]

In the Netherlands, the first season released in 2005 on DVD. The second season was released in 2007 on DVD. The third season was released in 2008 on DVD, however, the last two volumes containing the episodes 19-26 were not released at all. The fourth season was aired in 2010 but the DVD release was in 2012. All the seasons of Winx Club have a Dutch dub.

In Singapore, Turkey, and Hungary, the third season (as well as the first two) was released with unedited English audio (Cinélume's dub) in four and six volumes respectively; the latter containing Italian audio as well. Also, the fourth season is available in Turkey with English audio spanning six volumes. In Brazil, the first two seasons were released with unedited English subtitles and audio in sixteen volumes.

In the United States and Canada, Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom is released in DVD on August 7, 2012 along with the first 7 episodes of season 4.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.iginiostraffi.com/press.php?id=2
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.gamezone.com/news/konami_4kids_entertainment_and_rainbow_s_r_l_announce_winx_club_license_agreement
  3. ↑ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/a-magical-morning-to-celebrate-winx-fairy-launch-at-toysrus-canada-166750936.html
  4. ↑ http://insidepulse.com/2012/08/16/dvd-review-winx-club-the-secret-of-the-lost-kingdom-movie/
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.chacha.com/question/how-can-i-contact-iginio-straffi-the-producer-of-the-winx-club-series
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 http://www.iginiostraffi.com/
  7. ↑ Rainbow S.p.A.. "Winx Club". Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  8. ↑ Rainbow S.p.A.. "Feature films". Retrieved 2006-11-12.
  9. ↑ Vivarelli, Nick (2010-03-15). "Medusa to release 3D 'Adventure'". Variety.
  10. ↑ Vivarelli, Nick (2010-03-18). "Valley forges ahead". Variety.
  11. ↑ Rainbow S.p.A.. "Winx Power Music Show". Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  12. ↑ Winx Club On Tour. "Winx Club On Tour". Retrieved 2006-11-15.
  13. ↑ Winx On Ice. "Winx On Ice". Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  14. ↑ "WINX FAIRIES HEAD TO CANNES". Web.archive.org. 2007-09-30. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 http://www.michaelsfavorites2.com/winxclub3/newspage.html
  16. ↑ "Winx Club". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
  17. ↑ "Winx Club:Fire & Flame: Movies and TV". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-05-09.