The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

If you’re over sixteen
and not familiar with the magical world of Winx Club, let’s just say,
you’re not missing much.  Winx Club
is an Italian animated television series that is fond of silly mystical powers,
frivolous fairies and foolishly ruthless witches. Mostly popular amongst the tweenie
girls and other Nickelodeon enthusiasts, Winx Club has been dubbed in
many languages and is showing across many worldwide networks.

Winx Club creator-director, Iginio Straffi, recently
announced that a third film, as well as a sixth season of the TV series, will
be released in 2013.  However, after the
viewing of his latest feature, Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure, one can only
wonder whether the big screen is really the right place for it. 

The story is centred on
main character, Bloom – a recently self-discovered powerful fairy – and picks
up where season four left off.  The Winx
Club has now returned to their home worlds after safely locking away the Wizards
of the Black Circle – also known as the Fairy Hunters – in the frozen world of
the Omega Dimension.

The film opens up with
the celebration of a new school year at Alfea – a fairy school.   Soon,
things take a turn for the worse, when the students learn that the members of Cloud
Tower – a school for witches – have put the food under a spell as a prank,
turning everyone into a frog.  The Trix,
a trio of witches form Cloud Tower, use the distraction as a cover and sneak
into the school to steal the Compass of Revealed Secrets in order to find the Tree
of Life, leaving the Winx to clean up the fiasco caused by the spell.

The film then shifts
to the Kingdom of Sparks, where Bloom (Ciampa) has trouble getting used to her
new royal life.  She soon reunites with her
beau, Prince Sky (Vivio), who at long last asks for her hand in marriage.  Bloom is overjoyed; however, Sky’s father
Erendor (Marchese) is not.  He forbids
him from marrying Bloom as she is the daughter of sworn enemy, King Oritel
(Prando).  

Winx Club 3D:
Magical Adventure has
some potential, but too many clichés stifle the story. It’s self-contained and
the despite the transition to the silver screen, still feels like the
traditional animation used in the television show – but then again there is
only so much you can do with the use of computer graphics.  However, if the idea behind the aesthetics is
weak, you’re in for trouble.  In fact,
it’s pretty intolerable; the whole affair is pretty comical.

There is also lack of
male fairies, warlocks and female heroines, and the few that do make an
appearance don’t have any magic abilities. 
The boys of the Winx Club franchise are not portrayed in the best
of lights; here, it’s the girls that run the show. Unfortunately, even though some of them come
off as adorable and charming, they are all really skinny, perhaps a little too
skinny for their pre-teen followers.

On the upside, some of
the action scenes are pretty decent. There’s some sleek manoeuvrings and strategy in place and the
voice-acting is satisfactory.    

It is clear that Winx
Club 3D: Magic Adventure’s place
is definitely not on the big-screen and not meant for anyone over the age of 16.  This magical world of wizards, warlocks and
superior witches is just a little too hard to swallow.