Winx Club

Winx Club is an animated fantasy series created by Iginio Straffi. It is co-produced by Rainbow, RAI, and Nickelodeon. The series has also spawned three feature-length movies and multiple spin-offs, including a live-action adaptation aimed at young adults. In 2010, Winx Club was revamped when Nickelodeon began co-developing new seasons of the series. Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, became a co-owner of Rainbow the following year. Straffi has continued to work with Nickelodeon on both Winx Club and new shows. Almost a decade after their collaboration started, Straffi commented in a 2019 interview: "the know-how of Rainbow and the know-how of Nickelodeon are very complementary." The pilot episode for Winx Club was finished in 2001, originally called Magic Bloom. The first sketches for the pilot were drawn by Iginio Straffi himself in 1999. When the pilot episode was screened for test audiences, Straffi found that they did not like its medieval-inspired look. He asked for help from fashion designers to redesign the characters. In this first draft of Winx Club, the girls were to be younger. Bloom, Stella, and Tecna's appearances were kept relatively unchanged, but Flora's and Musa's appearances were much different. Flora originally had lilac hair and glasses, while Musa had green hair and elf ears. All of the characters' fairy forms were different as well. After the first season began production, the series' name was changed to Winx: Just Fairies in 2002, and then to Winx Club in 2003. Straffi based the title on the English word "wings". Winx Club was created by the Italian comic book artist Iginio Straffi. The show's animation studio, Rainbow, was founded by Straffi. In 2011, the American company Viacom became a co-owner of Rainbow. Viacom is also the owner of Nickelodeon, which co-developed the specials, and seasons 5, 6, and 7 of the show.