Winx Club (English, 4Kids)

This is the first English dub of the series, produced by 4Kids Entertainment, who acquired the rights from the show's production company, Rainbow, to broadcast the series in almost every English-speaking territory worldwide. The dub was initially advertised in a 10 minute (sometimes shortened to 5 minute) DVD promotional trailer in early 2004, and officially premiered on Fox on the 4Kids TV programming block, formerly known as the FoxBox, on June 19 of the same year, and on the The CW's CW4Kids on July 18, 2009. Like 4Kids' English dubs of anime, this dub included many changes to the series' plot, names, music, as well as other edits, mainly censorship and additional dialogue and humor, in order to make the series more marketable to much younger age demographic, thus creating an alternate Winx Club continuity entirely separate from the original.

In 2005, the second season was advertised as a sneak peak on a CD as a part of 4Kide tie-in with Toys R Us in which viewers could win prizes, alongside new seasons and series that would premiere on 4Kids that year. The second season premiered on September 10, 2005, concluding March 11, 2006.

Season 3 premiered on September 30, 2006; interestingly, this was before the season's official Italian premiere in 2007, as 4Kids had started dubbing and broadcasting the season when it was still in production, therefore, a few visual edits were made to cover up for the unfinished sections of the episodes, and scenes that were deleted or shortened in the final outcome ended up becoming present in this dub. Furthermore, by this point, 4Kids' constant editing of the series' plot had completely stopped, as there were little to no cuts and the scripts were more faithfully translated from the original Italian version, most likley due to the company's arising financial struggles. Their broadcast of season 3 eventually took a hiatus so the remaining episodes could complete production, and they concluded on September 22, 2007.

This dub was not approved at all by Rainbow, who, particularly series creator Iginio Straffi, believe that because of the constant edits, "[4Kids] removes something essential". By 2007-2009, 4Kids Entertainment's license for the series was permanently revoked by Rainbow, and the final rerun of Winx Club ended on July 17, 2010 with the final episodes of season 3 being incorrectly promoted as the last episodes for the entire series. Nickelodeon would then gain the rights to the series in English-speaking territories and produced their own English dub that outlived the 4Kids dub in more ways then one. The 4Kids dub of the original run of the series remains incomplete, as the fourth season was never dubbed.

This dub has received mixed reception by English-speaking fans of the series, who often comapare it to the Cinélume version. While some praise it for some of its plot changes, its voice acting, and music, others criticise it for these same reasons.

Cast

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Edits, plot changes, and censorship
A tendency of 4Kids was to edit some parts of the series to make it more profitable and appropriate for their viewers. The first season experienced the most changes out of all the seasons they dubbed, heavily affecting future dubbings of episodes moving forward, especially season 3, in which everything is almost completely retained.There are a variety of types of edits, which can be broken down into these categories:


 * Name changes: These are notable throughout the dub, and are made to many characters and locations:
 * Like most international dubs, Aisha is renamed Layla for unknown reasons; one of her prototype toy dolls produced by Mattel reveal that her name was originally planned to be Gladis in this dub.
 * Lord Darkar's fortress is known as "Shadowhaunt".
 * The Trix's Army of Darkness is called the Army of Decay.
 * The Trix's Vacuums are renamed the "Whisperian Crystals".
 * The Trix themselves are never referred to as such, and are instead called "Senior Witches", "the witches" or "the coven".
 * All the main characters' planet names are changed too, most of which were revealed the DVD series promotional trailer:
 * Bloom's home planet, Domino, is renamed Sparks. This change is consistent throughout the dub.
 * Flora's home planet, Lynphea, is renamed the Fifth Moon of Marigold, or simply Marigold.
 * However, in season 3, it is called Lynphea again, as 4Kids began to adapt from the original Italian version more faithfully.
 * Musa's home planet, Melody, is renamed the Harmonic Nebula.
 * Tecna's home planet, Zenith, is roughly renamed the Third Vector of the Binary System.
 * Aisha's home planet, Andros, is renamed the Realm of Tides, or Tides for short.
 * Stella's home planet name, Solaria, is not changed.
 * Although not technically a name change, the term "Winx", instead of it being a word Bloom made up to refer to her and her friends' club, is changed to mean the source of a fairy's power and magical identity.
 * Valtor's name is slightly changed to Baltor for unspecified reasons. However, this may be due to 4Kids dubbing season 3 eraly in production and Baltor was going to be his name at one point; his name label from the season premiere even reads "Baltor".
 * Dialogue: Some lines are edited so as to change the meaning and add extra plot details.
 * In the episode "Miss Magix", Lucy promises to do the Trix's homework, which was never mentioned in the original.
 * In episode 18, it is explicitly mentioned a few times that Bloom became the laughing stock of Magix after her fight against Diaspro the previous episode. Even Icy says that "it's all over the chatrooms".
 * Episode Titles: All episode titles are changed, except episode twelve's.
 * Puns: Some puns that are made in the original are lost in translation. More commonly, however, puns are put in where they were not before, such as in the promotional trailer made by 4Kids where Bloom says her life became "fairy amazing". Puns are used in episode titles as well, such as episode 54's "Beauty is a Beast".
 * Music: All background tracks are replaced with original music, most of which are recycled in other 4Kids productions. All the songs featured in the original Italian version are often replaced with original songs; for example, in episode 18, the song "Mi manchi" ("Got to Go" in the Cinélume version) is replaced with the shorter, original song "Wings".
 * During the transformation sequences, each Winx has a personalized theme for their Magic Winx transformations, like Aisha's pop-disco theme ("Shifting Tides") and Bloom's transformation theme being an instrumental of the show's opening theme. The Enchantix theme, which is an actual song, is replaced with a synthetic choir instrumental.
 * Almost all of Musa's spells release actual music.
 * Switched scenes: Sometimes, scenes are moved around in the episodes to change how the plot goes.
 * In the very first episode, which starts off with Bloom waking up and having her morning routine before she meets Stella, 4Kids had the encounter with Stella happen at the very beginning of the episode rather than midway through. The morning scenes from the start of the episode are still included, but are made to occur the very next day.
 * This happens again in the season 2 premiere, in which the first half consists of Aisha's mission to save the pixies from Darkar and the second half revolving around the Winx returning to Alfea for another school year. 4Kids instead had the episode begin with the Winx returning and having that as the episode's main focus, and eventually having the Aisha rescue plot be intertwined with these scenes.
 * Sometimes, scenes are moved to the very next episode. An example of this being the scenes featuring Musa and Stormy's fight at Alfea in episode 40 were moved to the very beginning of the next episode, a Musa centric episode, as a part of one single scene. This is likely done to keep the episodes as self contained as possible.
 * Cuts: Sometimes a scene is removed completely to shorten episodes as much as possible to make room for commercials, an example of this being the Fairy Dust sequences from season 3 being mostly cut out. This notably occurs in episode 41, in which several scenes were either shortened or cut out, such as Aisha's dance performance.
 * The transformation sequences are also often shortened. The severely shortened Magic Winx transformations would always often portray the same order: first Tecna, then Musa, followed by Aisha (season 2 onwards), Flora, Stella and Bloom. The Enchantix transformations do not have this case.
 * Plot: Some plot changes are made.
 * Notably, Musa was made the princess of her home world in this dub for unknown reasons, despite the actual princess of her home world, Galatea, being introduced in season 3.
 * Daphne is not being mentioned as Bloom's sister.
 * For a majority of season 1, Sky is known as Brandon, and Brandon is known as Sky, as the two had switched names to, as revealed in season 2, avoid Sky being a kidnapping target for Lord Yoshinoya. 4Kids changed the reason for them switching names to Sky wanting to escape the pressures of a royal lifestyle and "be a normal boy".
 * Lord Darkar's backstory is completely changed, as he is mentioned to be a researcher named Argulus who seeked and controlled the Shadow Fire after stumbling across Darkar's Fortress (known as Shadowhaunt in this dub).
 * The season 2 finale made some changes to feature moments about Sky and Lord Darkar fighting for Bloom's affection.
 * Personalities: Many of the characters' personalities are changed to make the characters more cartoony, such as Musa being a hip-hopper by saying things like "ditto that", and Stella being more of a hot-headed, stereotypical Valley Girl. Lord Darkar is made less threatening an is made more of a cocky villain. In general, the Winx, Trix, and Specialists act more like typical teenagers, for example, the Trix act more like typical mean girls, while still retaining their individual power-hungry personalities.
 * Censorship: Sometimes, physical appearances of things are changed, like blood being removed in the season 2 premiere, Daphne's outfit being made less revealing, and the bottom of Stella's breast being edited to look like her stomach during her transformation sequence from late season 1 onwards. Riven's internal conflicts being manifested by Darcy's illusions in episode 22 was cut as it could be perceived as too frightening. Some physical violence is also removed, such as Musa slapping Icy in the face in episode 9 being changed to Musa casting a spell on Icy that causes a wart to appear on her face, or Bloom getting punched in the stomach in episode 40. Some censorship was due to American copyright laws, such as the costumes in the season 2 Halloween episode; for example, an entire scene that involved Musa receiving a food delivery from a kid dressed up as Spider-Man was cut.
 * Many years after the dub's run on television, Rainbow removed official uploads of episode 12 from YouTube due to a racially offensive scene involving a black Miss Magix contestant having an "unnatural" afro due to a spell by the Trix. This is despite the fact that in the dub, to remove any of the offensive connotations, the issue was the Trix spelling her voice to be high-picthed instead.
 * Culture: Scenes relating to Italian culture were often edited to be more accessible to American audiences. Also, the schools in Magix are treated more like high schools rather than colleges to emulate typical American teenage life.
 * Opening/Closing: Instead of using the songs for the intro and outro from the original, an original opening sequence was created, and the closing was a shorter instrumental version of the opening.
 * Season 3: As they were dubbing unfinished episodes, 4Kids had to add their own additional edits:
 * Since Musa has longer hair from this season onwards, her Magic Winx transformation is re-animated to have her longer pigtails. Since 4Kids didn't have this footage by the time they started dubbing the season, they instead edited her old transformation to have her long pigtails instead. In the intro, scenes from season 1 are edited to feature her long pigtails as well.

Controversy
Since the highly-edited 4Kids dub premiered first in the United States, some American fans who had previously watched only this version have mistakenly criticized the newer episodes of Winx Club, which were produced and written with the involvement of the original creators. Fans of the original version have also complained that the 4Kids dub does not follow the original storyline and is highly edited, censored, and unnecessarily changed for American audiences.