Will Winx Club be successful a second time in North America?

Before Nickelodeon, 4kids (same people who originally brought us Pokemon) had dubbed the Winx Club in June 2004. They had made a lot of changes to appeal to American tastes and censorship. If I remember correctly, Winx Club had been the only girl show and 4kids made a great push to sell it. They sold a variety of  dolls, DVDs, shows at malls and even the comics for a short time. They did pretty well because of the show's aesthetics appealing to girls. Unfortunately, the show puttered and its popularity died.

Now we have Nickelodeon doing the same. They aired one-hour specials and season three. They are hyping dolls and the fact that they are co-producing the next two seasons.

I fear that what happened to 4kids with Winx Club will happen to Nickelodeon. Sure, they have enough money and global power to make the series popular but being good at selling will only get them so far. One needs to have a quality product to back up the confidence to sell. I love the series and have been watching it since 2004, but I also know that Winx Club is not necessarily the best-made show out there in terms of narrative. Winx Club has a weak story.

I believe that one of the Winx Club's greatest obstacles is Children's Television Act of 1990 from the United States. Specifically, any articles pertaining to "E/I." ("E/I" stands for "educational and informational." Pardon me if I make an interpretational mistakes.) The act basically says that any shows aimed for an audience less than 18 years old has to have elements of either being academically or morally educational. For those of you who hated the 4kids dubs because they changed the storyline too much, this might be why the show was changed so drastically. Some of the original narratives in the series might not have been sufficient for the E/I rating, explaing why some of the episodes were completely revised. It also explains why we don't have that many shows from outside North American aired on TV.

E/I tv bug on upper right

I bet that when Winx Club was first drafted, the writers did not think to compensate for American censorship and we can't blame them. On the contrary, American shows often take into account the E/I rating while creating the show. It's a very European concept to be born with greatness: Bloom is born with the ultimate powers and happens to be a long lost princess who saves the world and finds her parents. I believe that this might be one of the reasons why the show was not successful with 4kids.

With Nickelodeon co-producing season five and six, I hope that they make a better story out of the series, because I honestly don't think that they will get very far with the current quality of storytelling the Winx Club has right now. They have a unique aesthetic appeal but one can only get so far with beauty that will no doubt make them money, but they need to get past that and realise that they have a show with potential.