Winx Club: Cut It Out!
A guide to edits made by 4Kids to Winx Club
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Sparks of Hope
(European title: "Mission to Domino")
The Winx head to Sparx, while the Specialists fight.
Rewrite: Icy's demand is reduced from 12 hours to 5 hours in 4Kids' version.
Rewrite: Faragonda and Grizelda are originally silent while Palladium is "dressing up" the Winx for their trip to Domino (in fact, Palladium doesn't comment on their clothing either). 4Kids has the two teachers comment on their mid-riffs as they're being "dressed up". "If I had my way, this would be the year-round dress code." "Oh, Griselda."
Rewrite: Stella points to the yeti hill... 4Kids: Stella thinks it's a hill. Originally: Stella thinks they should run.
Rearrangement: 4Kids ends the ep on Bloom falling into a chasm. Rainbow's version goes on with Icy looking in a crystal ball (the Trix have been causing all the trouble where the Winx are), followed by the Red Fountain people (Icy having destroyed their place with a frost dragon) landing at Alfea and talking with Faragonda about allowing them to stay here (FG then points out the war has only just begun). The latter scene has instead been wedged in between parts of the yeti battle, and re-scripted so that FG says their hope rests with one girl now (yadda yadda).
Not an edit: But notable nonetheless. Like 4Kids, Rainbow's preview of the next eppy also shows Bloom at the bottom of the chasm. Blech!
The Frozen Palace
(European title: "The Crown of Dreams")
The Winx head to Sparx's castle and fight icecrabs. Subtle changes have been made, mostly rewrites:
Rearrangement / Removal: The original opens with a shot of the chasm, before showing Bloom. Cue flashback to her fall. Then, cut to the others in the snowed up area. In the 4Kids version, we start at the others in the snowed up area, and then we wipe to the chasm Bloom fell into. They also cut out the flashback.
Rewrite: Musa talks about locating Bloom using an energy sensing spell, where she originally strategizes that since the yeti thinks it's rid of them, they should let it keep thinking that way.
Rewrite: Originally, Bloom just considers herself lucky to survive the fall into the chasm from last ep. In 4Kids' version, she's saved by the padding on her new outfit. Video.
Visual edit: The shot of the Sparx dining room has gained a flashback outline. Pic.
Rewrite: Originally, Stella is bewildered at Tecna because she's explaining, with technobabble (Tecna-babble!), how she's using her digital sphere to help Stella melt the ice around the palace. 4Kids dialog for this part: "Now aren't you glad we took that mathematics and magic honors workshop together?" "Uh, I took that?" "Yeah, you did, but it was early and you slept a lot in class."
Rewrite: Originally, Daphne is repeatedly, and explicitly, mentioned as Bloom's sister, and the original also has her birth parents going into exile after losing both of their girls. In 4Kids' version, Bloom's birth father ordered Daphne to send Bloom away to earth.
Rewrite: Bloom is crying in the treasure room. Originally, she is shocked at her past, esp. where her parents are concerned. In 4Kids' version, she feels that she has failed her responsibility to protect the Dragonfire. Plus, they get rid of Bloom promising to look for her exiled parents after she's done dealing with the witches, now she'll do what it takes to reclaim the Dragonfire. Wonder if 4Kids was being psychic then? After all, there's nothing about her search for her missing parents in S2.
Rewrite / Addition: Okay, 4Kids makes up some stuff about how jazz (which Musa is playing on a flute) makes Flora's pterodactyl ivory fierce and improvistational. Originally, everyone's attack was fairly independent from each other.
Rearrangement: Segment 3 is topped with a shot of the ice-crabs flooding the castle walls (shown earlier in the battle), before showing with the Specialists' arrival at the Sparx castle, up to where Sky extends his sword, before showing Musa's attack on some icecrabs (described below). Originally, the sequence of the icecrabs entering the castle that ended segment 2 is immediately followed by the Musa bit.
Rewrite / Removal: Musa is hiding inside the castle. Originally, she is genuinely afraid of the icecrabs. In 4Kids' version, she makes a short (and quite lame) rap before disposing of the icecrabs with a double subwoofer blast (orig.: sonic megablast). And then they cut out about one second of a close up of Musa turning her head up and going "Hah!" Instead, when Musa lands on the floor, 4Kids fades to the Specialists fighting the ice crabs.
Rewrite: So the Specialists have shown up. Originally, they flew through a portal Palladium opened. In 4Kids' version, they added a warp drive to their ship.
Not an edit: At least 4Kids kept in the bit where Sky mentions breaking it off with Diaspro. ;)
Rewrite: But 4K still has Bloom making a deal with Sky that she can call him "Baby". HUH.
Mission to Cloud Tower
(European title: "Storming Cloudtower"... and again, the school name is one word)
Bloom and Stella head to Cloud Tower with some help.
Removal: 4Kids removes an entire scene involving Riven. Darcy mind-controls Riven into seeing many clones of himself turning into green monsters. This sequence ends with a green monster dissipating while Riven is thinking about the jerk he's been lately, before seguing into the portion where he's talking to Griffin. As a bonus, the dub has Griffin spelling the small piece of metal Riven uses to pick the lock on his cell. Here's the scene.
Removal: 4Kids has also removed Mirta from the attack at Alfea scenes in this ep. There's one scene where she is being projected from her pumpkin on to the Winx's balcony. Later, she protects Flora from being attacked by a monster.
Rearrangement: Okay, you better sit down for this. Originally: Landing at Alfea --> Riven in his cell --> Riven jumps out a window --> Faragonda has a meeting with Bloom, Stella, Brandon and Sky --> The Trix make a plan --> The Trix summon the demons (more on that in a Rewrite) --> Bloom leaves --> The attack on Alfea. 4Kids: Landing at Alfea --> The Trix make a plan --> Faragonda's meeting --> Bloom leaves --> The Trix summon the demons --> Some of the attack scenes --> Riven in his cell --> Riven jumps out a window --> More of the attack scenes. And all this runs over just about half of the episode in 4Kids' version.Rewrite: After splitting the Trix's first scene in half, 4Kids then proceeds to remove the mention of Riven escaping, since it hasn't happened yet in their version.
Rewrite: Bloom makes a point of being only able to take five in 4Kids' version. Originally, there was only the bit about Tecna, Musa and Flora being needed over at Alfea, which is just as well, because of their run-in with Riven later.
Addition: 4Kids gives labels to each unit that's part of the Alfea defense, like, freshmen, Red Fountain marksmen, lacrosse team, prom committee, and honor squad. (About those last two: Really.)
Rewrite: Originally, a buttress broke Riven's fall, leading him to the dump. In 4Kids' version, he used his cape as a sort of parachute.
Addition: Originally, the ep ends on Bloom and Stella's group meeting Riven. 4Kids tags on a brief scene with the witches (which is really that brief scene just before Knut reaches three tunnels, reused).
Search for the Flame
(European title: "Power Play"... I've seen too many shows with an ep title like this)
More of the mission to Cloud Tower, plus homefront developments. Some edits:
Rearrangement: And this is a big one. Originally, about a quarter of the way in, a scene with Flora, Musa and Tecna talking with minor characters about the war going on (ending with Tecna getting a pager call from Timmy) is followed immediately with a brief scene of Tecna and Timmy analyzing some data. 4Kids puts these two scenes at opposite ends of the ep, with the episode opening on the courtyard conversation and the data analysis being the penultimate scene (the last scene is a montage of the army).
Rewrite / Removal: Originally, Tecna/Timmy are analyzing a subspace shield. 4Kids has them analyzing data and concluding that the army is BIG. Originally, the Tecna/Timmy bit also existed to set up the possibility of her being in love with him... the original has a brief shot of Tecna looking at a bunch of numbers on a computer screen arranging into a heart shape, while 4Kids' version of this scene only shows her looking at the numbers (cutting out the heart). Video.
Rearrangement: 4Kids ends this ep on a montage of the army. Rainbow ends this ep on Bloom and Sky and their "motorbike" landing in the forest near Magix's main town (4K follows it with the data analysis).
Battle for Alfea
(European title: "The Witches' Siege")
More fighting, while Bloom and Sky camp out. Just paring it down, since this ep is not much more than filler to get to the final 2 eps (especially the next episode's major plot advances).
Addition: Daphne calling Bloom is added to the first segment. Originally, it's not there (Daphne starts calling Bloom much later on), which is why Bloom doesn't notice this first time.
Name change: Originally, Bloom has to go to Lake Rocalucce to meet Daphne. 4Kids de-Italian-izes it into Lake Chrysalis. (For the record, "chrysalis" means the cocoon of a butterfly.)
Rewrite: First scene with the teachers. Originally they discuss their concern over Bloom and Sky having gone missing. Now they discuss how the Trix got into CT.
Visual edit: Tecna slices a flying stingray's legs with her wings, by morphing them into the hang glider form she usually uses to fly around. In the original version, the "normal" wings simply disappear before the hang glider extends out. In the 4Kids version, the wings disappear with a flash (well, not really a flash, but you get the idea), and then the hang glider extends out.
The Great Witch Invasion
(European title: "The Ultimate Challenge")
Preparations for the final battle, plus many key plot developments. A few good edits:
Addition: As usual, there's tons of dialog in 4Kids' version of the opening scene with the thrones, and none in the original. There's also much less dialog in the Alfea scenes too.Addition / Rearrangement: 4Kids puts the brief scene of the army of decay at the beginning (originally occuring much later), before heading over to Alfea (where the ep originally begins). Also, originally Bloom's skinny dip at the Lake is sandwiched between the two scenes involving the pumpkin. 4Kids rolls those scenes into one long scene (the first part of the Alfea scene ends with a shot of the pumpkin at the point where Flora says "Stop talking like that" in the 4Kids version), and puts Bloom's scene after Flora talks to Mirta at the courtyard.
Rearrangement: Actually, the rearrangment of this episode was quite heavy. Original: Start at Alfea --> Lake --> Flora deals with Mirta --> Downtown --> The Trix make their thrones --> Alfea courtyard --> The bit where the nymphs appear. 4Kids: The Trix make their thrones --> Start at Alfea --> Flora deals with Mirta --> Downtown (with ad break sliced down the middle) --> Alfea courtyard --> Lake (followed by another ad break) --> The bit where the nymphs appear.
Rewrite: Even the added dialog stuff infects the vision shot of Flora and Mirta. Even if it's just the words "Flora" and "Mirta".Cue viewers who soon interpret this as a sign of Flora being lesbian. EW!
Rewrite: The scene at the lake is originally without dialog until Bloom sees Daphne under the lake.
Rewrite: 4Kids: Daphne says that they're not at the bottom of a lake, but rather, Daphne is inside of Bloom, and has been the entire time. Rainbow: As I said earlier, Daphne was Bloom's sister, and 4Kids viewers can check that fact in "Angel of Doom" where you can plainly see Bloom's family tree, and yes, Daphne's on it. (Yeah, it's not absolutely necessary for Daphne to be Bloom's sister... but it's a nice touch.)
Addition: Bloom flies out of the lake, and draws the dragon behind her. Originally, it then faded to white immediately (before going over to Alfea). Here, 4Kids puts in a couple shots of Bloom from the battle downtown later in the ep, before fading to black, and you know what? It looks weird when the scene fades to black instead of the original fade to white.
Fire and Ice
(European title: "The Witches' Downfall")
The (lacklustre!) final battle and the aftermath. A few good edits:
Rearrangement: Originally, the Trix see a wall of fire, and then realize Bloom has the Dragonfire again. In the 4Kids version, the Trix see Bloom first, and then the wall of fire.
Removal: There is originally a brief minute-long lull showing various places in Magix over rather sorrowful music, in between Musa blasting Darcy and Icy freezing Bloom behind a wall (eventually leading to the ice mountain).
Not an edit: 4Kids cuts from the Bloom/Icy battle after Bloom breaks out of an ice sculpture to the proceedings at Alfea, and next we see of them, Bloom is landing at Alfea with Icy passed out in her arms. This was actually the way it was in the Rainbow version as well. (Raising the question: Why wouldn't Straffi let us see Icy get knocked out? And why didn't he realize that the dragon that destroyed RF would be perfect to counter against Bloom's own resurgent dragon? Riven: "Lame.")
Removal: Still, 4Kids did do some editing to the bit above. Originally, it cuts back to a stock footage wide shot of the fighting at Alfea, instead of cutting back to Sky fighting a monster.
Rewrite: After the battle, originally Griffin and FG discuss about how Bloom is the only person who can control the Dragonfire, and that it was dangerous and foolish for the witches to take it from her. In the new version, they talk about how Cloud Tower needs new measures for admission. Saladin then originally informs the two that Magix is coming back to life, while as edited, he informs them that the Council has funds to rebuild RF.
Rewrite: One word: Milkshake. To be fair, the Italians don't explicitly mention the stuff in Saladin's stein as beer either (then again, it's a stein he's holding, what else would you expect?).
Name change: The Trix are being taken to Lake Rocalucce / Light Haven for their treatment.
Rearrangement: Originally, the season ends with a brief scene between Sky and Bloom after the party. 4Kids puts this scene just before the party, so that the season ends on Bloom looking at the undines (nymphs, over in Europe) flying over her at the party.