Winx Club: The Secret of the Lost Kingdom

## Plot

My first movie review, and hopefully last. The only reason I'm reviewing it is because it has plot significance in season 5. It's the first in a really bad trilogy with awful CGI and voice acting. I know I'm used to the RAI dub, but dear lord, even the 4Kids, Nick, and DuArt dubs weren't this bad! All three movies were dubbed by Dubbing Brothers. Okay, enough about the bad, there's plenty to go around. Let's talk about the good. I like the songs they use in the movie, and I like seeing Enchantix again. I guess it looks okay in CG. The character models for the girls look… weird. It just feels off. So, onto actual plot! The Winx infiltrate a castle. They battle the knight guards. They find Hagen the swords smith in the castle, which is his. Faragonda arrives and explains the situation. Bloom is the last princess of "Sparkz." I really hate dubs sometimes. She's from Domino! She wanted to find Hagen so she could find her parents. He created her father's sword, and the maker of the sword can find it anywhere in the Magix Dimension. It's a magical sword that can never be destroyed or separated from its owner. Hagen was a member of the Company of Light. Since the day of their final battle, he's never stopped looking for Oritel and Mariam, but has yet to find them. He believes that they're dead and Bloom should accept it. She runs off, crying. The other girls are concerned about her, but Faragonda says that they should leave her alone, and that they have to get ready for the Day of the Gift, the graduation day at Alfea. Everyone from all the schools is there, including Mirta, Alice, Clarice, Professor Avalon, Headmistress Griffon, Saladin, Codatorta, the Specialists, and all of the other teachers. Despite the fact that Alice and Clarice are first years during season 4, which takes place after this movie. Bloom is on the roof and Kiko joins her, along with a fairy cat pet that she names… Ron. 'Kay. Unlike the rest of the Winx Club, she won't be graduating because of her incomplete Enchantix. The rest of them graduate and become guardian fairies of their worlds. On the roof, Bloom softly says that she loves them. Aw! (Genuinely good line number 1). The girls attend the graduation ball that night. Sky is about to tell Bloom something important when he's interrupted by a ship and hastily recalled to Eraklyon by a Diaspro lookalike. He promises to see Bloom again soon and explain everything to her when he can. The other girls cheer her up with a pillow fight. They're going back to their home worlds, and Bloom is going back to Gardenia to see her parents, and plans to help her mom in the flower shop. It should be noted that Flora comments that Bloom's lucky to have such great parents. See? Even Flora appreciates Bloom's parents more than Bloom does! Just saying. Anyways, Bloom is depressed because she can't talk to her friends or Sky. One night, she has a dream about Daphne. She tells her little sister that their birth parents are alive. Their father kept a magical book called the Book of Fate in a secret library on a mountain. It contains their family's entire history. If their parents are alive, the book will show it. Daphne didn't tell her about it before because she thought it had been destroyed. Lampshading your plot holes doesn't excuse the fact that you have them. And if that's the case, then how did you suddenly find out that it wasn't destroyed? It was the powers of the plot, wasn't it? I mean, you're a ghost-spirit-hybrid-person! She gives Bloom her mask so she can see what it was like before Domino was ruined. Before leaving, she tells Bloom that she'll never be truly alone, ever. (Genuinely good line number 2). The next day, Bloom is about to tell her parents about her dream, but they throw her a surprise party with the Specialists and the Winx. It's Bloom's 19th birthday. Sky says that since graduation, he's been on a challenging journey as well. The Specialists and the rest of the Winx decide to help Bloom on her journey. Bloom's hope and magical power activates Oritel's sword in another dimension. Its light hurts the three Ancestral Witches in the Obsidian Dimension. They can't destroy the sword because they can't touch it. Their henchwoman, Mandragora, offers to seek out what's causing the activation of the sword in exchange for some of their dark magic. The Winx and Specialists arrive at the frozen Domino. Sky tries to talk to Bloom about what he said at her house, but Bloom says it can wait until later. Even though it's clear that she's thinking about Diaspro 2.0 and has been waiting for this moment for months. She uses Daphne's mask to see Domino as it was before it became a frozen wasteland. They find the mountain, but it's protected by a sleeping mythological bird. The mountain is actually its nest, so they have to be careful climbing it. Sky and Riven screw things up by arguing and the bird wakes up and takes off with the guys hanging on for dear life. The girls can't help by transforming because the bird is much faster than they are. They get back to the ship. They don't really know how to work it though. Tecna, you are the fairy of TECHNOLOGY! You've *flown* this ship before! Remember season 2?! They try to calm the bird down. After a gratuitously long chase scene, it finally works and the bird lands. They reach the Secret Library and find the Book of Fate. Great, now I'm thinking of Sofia the First's Secret Library arc, and that infamous book scene from season 1. It's real this time though. Bloom can't read it, but the spirit of Lord Bartleby, her father's scribe, translates it for her. Her parents are alive, in the Obsidian dimension. It has nothing but a prophecy on how to save them though. *At the crossroads of the endless ruins, demons of stone lead to the abyss of the caged people. A king without a crown will save another king of the lost kingdom. And the six of the fellowship that defends light will shine with dazzling strength and defeat the evil darkness. And what was lost will be found once again.* The bad news is that Riven is now under mind control, and no one knows it. They take the book back to Alfea and ask Faragonda about the Obsidian dimension. Their meeting is interrupted by an attack on Alfea, obviously from Mandragora. They're able to fend her off, but there are injuries, and the school is destroyed. Meanwhile, Bloom has a somewhat genuinely good breakdown about awakening the Ancestral Witches (Genuinely good line number 3). "Oh, when will they stop tormenting me?" I said somewhat good. The pixies show up to help, and everyone fixes Alfea. Well, that sure was simple. Bloom sends Kiko and Ron to stay with her parents while she and the others look for the Obsidian dimension. First, they need to find a key to open the gate to the dimension. They find it, and have to leave the pixies back in the village. They open the gate and start heading through, but Mandragora attacks again. The Specialists hold them off, but Riven turns on them and takes the key out of the lock, and the gate starts closing. Musa takes a fatal blow meant for Sky, and the mind control apparently wears off, but the Specialists are captured (Genuinely good line number 4 is in there somewhere). The girls have to face their worst fears. I wish Aisha/Layla's could've been her monophobia, it would've been a nice continuity nod. They meet the three witches, who can possess bodies. The girls can barely use their magic in such a dark dimension. Which is the writers' way of saying, "We want Bloom to do everything." The people of Domino are all frozen in stone, and Mariam put her spirit or whatever in the sword to be with Oritel. She's not dead like Daphne though. Only an heir of Domino or the king in the prophecy can touch the sword. All others die by its touch. The witches want Bloom to destroy the sword. They try threatening her adoptive parents but Bloom realizes that it's an illusion because Mike isn't sneezing from Ron. He's allergic to cats. Riven saves the Specialists, and Musa is okay. He's finally figured out what he's fighting for: Her. Aw! Mandragora and Sky head to the Obsidian dimension. Sky picks up the sword, but it looks like it kills him. Daphne shows up and uses her power with Bloom's. Mandragora is possessed by all three witches and seems to be winning, but then Sky stabs her in the back and Bloom blasts them with magic. The dimension is destroyed. Sky was able to hold the sword because he's the new King of Eraklyon. His coronation was the night he had to leave Bloom. Domino is restored, and all of its people. And no, we're not going to talk about the infamous "Mike and Vanessa" scene, or the father-daughter dance scene. Those speak for themselves about how bad they are. Bloom and Daphne are reunited with their birth parents, and the Winx Club is the new Company of Light. Admittedly, the royal family reunion is sweet, like the one in Tangled. And here's genuinely good line number 5: Mariam: "My sweet baby daughter–!" Yay! The movie's finally over!

## Review

Well, the acting sucks. Like this overly melodramatic line from Bloom: "It's just, I feel as if all the colors of the world are gone." But her "I love you" line comes shortly after, so it makes up for that one time. But not all the other times. The other girls aren't much better frankly. And the CGI is terrible. I honestly think season 5's is better. My complaints are more or less the same as the season 3 finale: That Bloom saved the day, not the Winx Club. Musa didn't even go into the dimension! Sky stole the spotlight too, although I will admit that him literally stabbing Mandragora and the three witches in the back is awesome. I think Musa and Riven's relationship arc should've ended after this movie, and maybe Bloom and Sky's too. What happened to Musa and Riven is basically a gender-flipped version of what happened to them during the season 2 finale. And Sky totally proposes to Bloom at the end. They should've renamed this movie "Bloom: The Story of A Brat." Because it's Bloom's movie, not the Winx Club's. Just like the other two movies that *I will never review.* While on the Winx Club Wiki, I found out that 1. They're making another spin-off, called World of Winx, and it will have at least two seasons. 2. They're also making a live action TV reboot/reimagining, also on Netflix, except they've changed a lot of names and cut out important characters, even Tecna. And 3. They also made and released a heavily changed eighth season. Oh poor Rainbow and Iginio Straffi, you're just refusing to let this die, aren't you? Even though it should've been put out to the pasture after this movie. At the time of this writing, this is a franchise that is over twelve years old. It's had its heyday, but that's it, it's done, it's over. This isn't *Star Wars* or *Star Trek* or *Sailor Moon* or DC or Marvel or *Power Rangers* or *Pokémon*, etc. This isn't a show that has ingrained itself into our culture. I may love it, but it hasn't earned that right. So *please* stop trying to force it to become something more than it is. Stop trying to force it to become an international icon, and leave well enough alone. Maybe after that, the franchise, and its beloved fans, can finally find some peace. I'm finally *out* of this *mess*.