W.I.T.C.H. is an animated television series based on the Italian comic book series of the same name published by Disney Publishing Worldwide. It was produced by SIP Animation and The Walt Disney Company, with the participation of France Télévisions and Jetix's European division. The show follows five girls â Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin â who have respective magical powers over the classical elements quintessence, water, fire, earth and air, which they use to fulfill their duties as Guardians of the Veil. It takes place in the city of Heatherfield and various mythical worlds, primarily Meridian.
W.I.T.C.H. premiered in the U.S. on December 18, 2004, and concluded on December 23, 2006, where it aired on ABC's ABC Kids block, with reruns on ABC Family and Toon Disney's Jetix blocks, and Disney Channel. The series premiered in France on February 3, 2005, on France 3's Toowam block, with reruns on Jetix, Disney Channel, and Disney XD. Internationally, it was mainly broadcast on Disney-owned channels, especially on Jetix.
The second generation of legendary Guardians of the Veil â Wilhelmina "Will" Vandom, Irma Lair, Taranee Cook, Cornelia Hale and Hay Lin â must save planet Meridian from the evil Prince Phobos and Lord Cedric, who are searching for the tyrannical prince's younger sister, the long-lost princess of Meridian and true heir to the throne. They later find her to be Irma and Taranee's classmate and Cornelia's best friend, Elyon Brown, and the Guardians then set about saving her from Prince Phobos' cunning.
When Meridian is finally freed from evil and the true heir takes the throne, a mysterious evil sorceress named Nerissa takes Phobos' top henchmen and reforms them as the Knights of Vengeance to act as a distraction to the Guardians. Once the Guardians learn more about the evil sorceress and her evil plan of reuniting the other four former Guardians - Cassidy, Halinor, Yan Lin, and Kadma - they are able to defeat the Knights of Vengeance, only to battle with more powerful Knights of Destruction made from Nerissa's dark vengeful feelings of hatred and anger, fear and misery: Shagon, Khor, Tridart and Ember.
The Guardians' chief ally is Hay Lin's paternal grandmother Yan Lin, the former Guardian of Air. She taught the girls about their magical abilities and destiny as the second generation of Guardians of the Veil. They are also helped by Caleb, a heroic soldier from Meridian, leader of the rebellion against Phobos, and Blunk, a frog-like goblin creature (known as a Passling) who takes things from the human world to Meridian and vice versa, humorously mistaking everyday objects for other things or items of value. Matt, Will's boyfriend, accidentally learns about Meridian and when he sees the troubles there going on, he learns how to become a warrior to help them. They are also helped by the Oracle, leader of the Universe in Kandrakar, who was the one who chose the five girls.
Each Guardian's powers are further developed and magnified greatly by the mystical world of Kandrakar, transmitted to the pink Heart of Kandrakar via the Aurameres (the physical representations and source of the Guardians' powers). The Keeper of the Aurameres is Luba, a cat-like being.
When the Guardians transform, they change form (their bodies mature to its physical prime), outfits and grow wings, which help them fly. Since the Veil was taken down, the Guardians cross worlds by folding, with the help of the Heart of Kandrakar. Elyon and Blunk can fold as well.
In order to travel to another place in the same world, each Guardian can teletransport. Teletransporting is a difficult ability to learn and one can materialize into another solid object if not careful enough. If a Guardian teletransports while not connected to an Auramere or a Heart, then they will drain their life force.
Each Guardian can use their elemental powers and also manifest abilities based on their element or specific to them, such as Hay Lin's enhanced hearing as the Air Guardian. She also is an empath, able to determine someoneâÂÂs future stressful emotions via dreams.
A Guardian can become a Quinto-Guardian, obtaining powers over all five elements. A Quinto-Guardian can gain the power to create solid ice out of thin air as with liquid water. The only known Quinto-Guardians are Cornelia (temporarily via the merged Aurameres) and Nerissa (by using her Seal).
The Guardians can also literally become their element while increasing all of their elemental abilities to their zenith of strength. But this is risky and rather dangerous because it costs them their humanity and they could be easily controlled and enthralled.
Using the Heart of Kandrakar, a Guardian can create an Astral Drop, a duplicate of herself, when the words "Spord Lartsa" (Astral Drops spelled backwards) are said. The Astral Drops are doppelgangers, summoned when the Guardians have to go on a mission and need doubles so their absence is not felt. Although a Drop is a perfect physical copy of a person, they possess none of their memories, and have no personality of their own.
An Altermere is an Astral Drop brought to life through the power of Quintessence. Unlike Astral Drops, they are independent beings with feelings, emotions and memories. The concept of Altermeres is introduced in "H is for Hunted" when Will creates an Astral Drop to do her chores (laundry). Nerissa soon creates trouble by making the Astral Drop an Altermere. In "R is for Relentless", Nerissa tries to corrupt Yan Lin to her side, but is unable to do so. Nerissa traps Yan in the Seal of Nerissa and creates an Altermere double who does not realize she is not the real Yan until Nerissa tells her. In "Z is for Zenith", Yan introduces her Altermere to her son and daughter-in-law, passing her off as her long-lost twin sister Mira.
All five main characters are thirteen years old.
The following were former underlings of Phobos that were recruited into the Knights of Vengeance:
After the Knights of Vengeance were incarcerated, Nerissa formed the Knights of Destruction as her second group:
Two seasons were produced in total, adapting plot elements from The Twelve Portals and Nerissa's Revenge comic arcs from the original series. Each season consists of twenty-six episodes, resulting in a total of fifty-two episodes overall.
An unaired 15-minute pilot episode exists, which was never fully animated. It was used to test the show with a focus group in 2003. The first episode of the series was originally meant to air on Halloween, with corresponding themes.
German network Super RTL was originally announced to be collaborating on the show alongside Jetix and France 3. However, it does not appear in the actual closing credits of the series.
SIP Animation announced the production of an animated series based on the comic books in 2002. The show was immediately picked up for a full order of 52 half-hour episodes. According to Justine Cheynet (co-associate producer and co-translator in the first season, story editor in the second), SIP had come to Disney with the initiative of producing a cartoon based on the Disney-owned comics.
The first season of the show took roughly 18 months to produce, with about 200 people working on it. Work on the series began in spring 2003, in collaboration with Disney Channel. In September of that year, Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers were hired as supervisory producers, and would serve as showrunners throughout the first season. Trey Callaway and Nancy Neufeld Callaway were hired as producers to both write episodes and produce the first season cast voice sessions. The show's primary target markets were considered to be Italy, France (represented by SIP Animation), the United Kingdom (Fox Kids UK), and the United States (Disney Channel). As such, while Nicholls and Vickers were officially employed by SIP, they would be working with guidance from all four of these countries.
A team of freelance writers was also brought in under their supervision, ultimately being responsible for just over half of the first season. Due to the show's unusually heavy use of continuity for a cartoon, Nicholls and Vickers planned out the season arc and even individual episode stories beforehand, and gave the other writers very careful instructions covering even smaller details of the series to avoid contradictions and repetition throughout the episodes. The director for this season was Marc Gordon-Bates, who was unfamiliar with the series and surprised that he was offered the position over other directors with greater interest in the project and more relevant prior experience.
At the outset, the show was more oriented towards comedy (early marketing described the series as an action comedy) than the original comics, which were primarily of the fantasy genre, but in common with the source material was targeted towards the female audience. Early on, the writers were informed that the show was now to be aired on Toon Disney and the Jetix block on ABC Family, as part of a changing business strategy being pursued by Michael Eisner (chairman and CEO of Disney at the time). As such, the show was reoriented to appeal more to boys, including more action and additional focus on the few major male characters. By this point, the first 7 episodes had already been fully scripted (with several more outlined), and had to be rewritten.
For the second season, Disney decided on a "darker, more fantasy-driven approach", with less humor. A completely different team of writers was hired, with Greg Weisman now serving as supervisory producer and showrunner, and Norman J. LeBlanc as the new director of the show. According to Nicholls, Weisman had decided against re-hiring him and Vickers to work on the second season due to considering them "sitcom writers". (Although W.I.T.C.H. was indeed their first non-comedy series, Nicholls has suggested that Weisman's impression may have resulted from omissions on IMDb of shows not under the auspices of the Writers Guild of America, which included numerous other animated series they had worked on.) This may have been a factor in the hiring of other comedy writers during the season, as the network considered the early scripts to have insufficient humor.
The writing team for the second season was given "marching orders" to incorporate more material from the comics, and bring the two mediums closer together. At the same time, only the first season of the show was considered official, and as such the first 26 episodes could not be contradicted, while there would continue to be certain differences from the comics. Weisman emphasized the seamless nature of the transition between seasons, especially in production aspects such as character voices and model sheets. The episode "J is for Jewel" was considered to be a turning point during the season, before which a lot of work had been done to set up the new direction of the series.
According to Justine Cheynet, the show ended after 52 episodes as a result of "very little to no interest both from the investors' and the producer's side in making a third season." There were no plans for a movie.
Although the basic structure of each season follows the respective arc of the comics, and the show shares a great deal of plot points and characters with the source material, there are many differences as well. At the start of production, the showrunners had only approximately the first 6 issues of the comics â about half of the first arc â to work with in developing the overall storyline for the season (for comparison, the first 27 issues were made available to the writers of the second season, which covered slightly beyond the end of the second arc). More than 20 creatures had been created specifically for the animated series by the end of the first season. Certain further changes requested for story reasons were denied by the network in light of the comics' popularity and existing fans.
The first season showrunners encountered numerous challenges in adapting the comics material, which had been written with a static narrative in mind, to the dynamic medium of television. According to Andrew Nicholls:
One of the major differences is the variety of powers the Guardians have in the first season. During the screenwriting stage, questions arose from the network as to why the girls did not use their powers more in a given situation. As a result, certain powers they had in the comics were not among their abilities during the first season, such as telepathy, "instincts" about people, and communicating with appliances. In the second-season episode "C is for Changes", this changes as the Guardians gain most of the remaining powers they had in the source material.
The character of Caleb was altered significantly in the show, including his visual appearance. In the comics, he had clear facial markings that made him obviously different from a regular human. In the show, they are not present for multiple reasons: child test audiences found them unnerving; when animated, they looked too similar to a beard; and in the animated series, in contrast to the comics, he spends extended periods on Earth blending in with the inhabitants, which would be much more difficult to accomplish otherwise.
Blunk is an original character created for the cartoon, and does not appear in the comics. A comedic sidekick smuggler, his role and prominence in the story became increasingly important as the show shifted its focus from comedy to action during production of the first season, as one of the few major male characters in a series now trying to appeal to boys. The character's name was reused from a failed pilot, created by Howie Mandel and produced by Nelvana, that the first season showrunners had worked on. Second season showrunner Greg Weisman admitted to initially disliking Blunk, but came to view him as an invaluable part of the team, particularly as a result of the bonds between Blunk and the main characters that had begun to form in the first season.
In the comics, Will's dormouse is introduced quite early into the first arc. In the cartoon, this only occurs in episode 24 of the first season. Although the showrunners tried to have this take place earlier in the series, the network did not approve it for some time. According to Andrew Nicholls, this may have been due to its similarity to the naked mole rat Rufus in Kim Possible, another Disney series.
The character Vathek starts out as an enemy of the Guardians in the comics, but in the show he is already on their side. This was changed to streamline the first few episodes due to the number of characters that had to be introduced.
Early into production, Nicholls had suggested changing the name "Kandrakar" out of sensitivity toward the ongoing events in the real-life Kandahar in Afghanistan. This request was initially ignored, but ten episodes in the writing team was informed that the spelling had been changed to "Candrakar", with later episodes referring to it as "Candracar". However, the "Heart of Kandrakar" is consistently spelled that way throughout the closing credits of both seasons. Certain character names were changed as well: Laurent was referred to by his nickname "Clubber" instead as it was considered more appropriate for a bully character, and in the second season, Thomas Vandom's first name was changed to Tony for legal reasons.
The animation studios for season 1 were Wang Film Productions and Hong Ying Universe, while Dongwoo Animation animated season 2. Hong Ying and provided digital ink and paint services for the second season. The 3D animated design of the Heart of Kandrakar used throughout the series was made by Maga Animation Studio.
The series has been considered anime-influenced animation in terms of its visual style. First season director Marc Gordon-Bates cited anime such as Neon Genesis Evangelion as design inspiration. The original comics are themselves drawn in line with manga conventions, as opposed to the more rounded style traditionally used by publisher and co-producer Disney. Co-executive producer Olivier Dumont noted that the high-quality animation was intended to be true to the detailed artwork of the comics series.
W.I.T.C.H. has different theme songs and openings, depending on country of broadcast.
The original, international title sequence shows the girls and their powers in a story version with unique footage for the opening, and music by the composers of the show, Alain Garcia and Noam Kaniel. In the original international English version, the opening theme is "W.I.T.C.H. Theme Song" (title per CD liner notes and back cover; renamed to "W.I.T.C.H (Theme)" on music streaming services) performed by Sabrina. The intro sequence of the second season, storyboarded by Richard Danto and Bruno Issaly, is changed to incorporate the new plot developments and characters, along with a remix of the theme composed by David Vadant.
The US opening shows action clips from some episodes and scenes from W.I.T.C.H. demo reels from various animation studios. The American theme song is "We Are W.I.T.C.H.", written by Adam Watts and Andy Dodd. The opening uses a demo version of the song performed by Chelsea Somma until episode 14, when it is replaced with a version sung by Marion Raven. It has been explained that once the American broadcaster had chosen to go with a different song, it was decided to make a new opening for it instead of trying to fit the existing one. The footage and theme are unchanged for the remainder of the US series; the intro stayed the same in the second season as the network "wanted consistency in case they aired both seasons simultaneously".
Both the first international theme and the US version were included on the soundtrack album Music From and Inspired By W.I.T.C.H. The US theme song was also released as a promotional two-track CD single titled "W.I.T.C.H. Cartoon: The Original Theme from the U.S.A.", which was distributed with comic issue 54, released in 2005. On this CD, the song is performed by Chelsea Somma, and it also includes an exclusive instrumental version (not available on the album) as the second track.
In Italy, a different opening consisting of clips from the show and first international intro sequence was used. The Italian theme song, simply titled "W.I.T.C.H.", was written by Max Longhi and Giorgio Vanni, and performed by the group Lucky Star. The full version of the Italian theme song was released as the first track (and promoted on the cover) of Lucky Star's 2006 album LS3, which otherwise consists of songs unrelated to the W.I.T.C.H. franchise.
In the United States, a special one-hour preview of W.I.T.C.H. aired on December 18, 2004 on the Disney-owned ABC network's Saturday morning children's programming block, ABC Kids, and on December 19 on ABC Family and Toon Disney as part of their Jetix programming blocks. The series proper premiered January 15, 2005 on ABC Kids, and ABC Family, and January 17 on Toon Disney. On January 28, 2006, the series began airing on Disney Channel.
As W.I.T.C.H. is based on a Disney comic series and was produced in association with Jetix Europe, it has been broadcast worldwide on the Disney-owned Jetix channels, as well as Jetix-branded television blocks, including that on Family in Canada (November 26, 2005 â March 10, 2007; reruns until August 26, 2007). In Canada, it was broadcast on none of the English-language terrestrial TV networks, but the French version was shown on the CBC's French-language television network Télévision de Radio-Canada (September 10, 2005 â October 27, 2007; reruns until April 25, 2010). In the United Kingdom, BBC's children's strand CBBC had aired it. In the Republic of Ireland, it was broadcast on RTàTwo's The Den. In Australia, it was shown on Seven Network and its affiliates. In New Zealand, the show was aired on the 2 Kids block on TV2.
In France, where this TV series was primarily made, it was terrestrially broadcast on France 3. (The second season was known as Dimension W.I.T.C.H. in the country.) In Italy, where the original comic came from, it was shown on Italia 1.
W.I.T.C.H. has been released on DVD in Europe, Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, and the Philippines (also in VCD format) containing episodes of the first season, which was divided into volumes of varying number of episodes. Each volume contains 2 art cards, each featuring one of the W.I.T.C.H. girls.
In the UK, the first three volumes were released in 2006 on 1 May, 19 June, and 21 August respectively. In October 2007 the volumes were re-released as a DVD box set along with the box set of volumes four, five and six, containing the rest of season 1.
Season 2 DVDs have been released in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia. The Czech and Polish sets have audio available in multiple languages, including English.
In France, both seasons have been made available for streaming via Canal+, provided by Disney Channel France which is the last channel to still air it at night-time. According to the United States Copyright Office, the series remains a property of Disney's defunct subsidiary SIP Animation, but is currently not available for streaming on Disney+.
In a review of the two-part series premiere, James Harvey of Toon Zone (now Anime Superhero) praised the opening song and animation and complimented the writing and voice acting, asserting that "W.I.T.C.H. definitely stands out as part of the Jetix blocks on ABC Family and Toon Disney." He later added in an interview with second-season supervisory producer Greg Weisman, "The series acquired a cult following during its first season [...] What makes this a unique series is the approach to the characters, all of whom are fallible and utterly human." Also reviewing the premiere, Jacqueline Cutler of The New York Times stated the series succeeds to emphasize the importance of teenage friendships between girls, while saying the show can manage to appeal to boys as well thanks to some of the characters, asserting, "Imbued with superpowers passed on by one girl's grandmother, this attractive, multicultural bunch is not your everyday coven of witches." Larisa Wiseman of Common Sense Media gave W.I.T.C.H. a grade of 3 out of 5 stars, praised the depiction of positive messages, citing teamwork and kindness across the characters, writing, "The five main characters are ethnically diverse and are good role models for girls because they're independent thinkers and deal with challenges head-on."
The television series saw more critical attention in the early 2020s, following the comics reprints, which began in 2017, and the 2021 reimagining of competing series Winx Club as the live-action ', which spawned new comparisons between the two franchises.
In 2019, Ara Wagoner of Android Central asserted, "This is a Jetix throwback, but W.I.T.C.H. is a cool comic series and it deserves to be on Disney+, even with all the nonsense that went on during its production. Also, if Disney is looking to reboot some series for D+, this would be a great place to start so that we could have a consistent vision and throw the focus back on our female superhero girls."
In 2020, Laura Thornton of Comic Book Resources praised the diversity across the main characters, citing their personality and different supernatural abilities, and found that the show depicts themes of determination, friendship, and love, while balancing between action, comedy, and drama, writing, "A real gem of the '00s, the show definitely deserves a second chance, and a spot, on Disney+ â hopefully sooner, rather than later." Juliana Failde of Screen Rant ranked W.I.T.C.H. 3rd in their "10 Classic Children's Shows That You Still Can't Stream For Free Today" list, describing W.I.T.C.H. as a classic children's show, stating, "W.I.T.C.H. was a super cool show on Disney's Jetix that followed five totally normal girls who become the Guardians of the Veil with powers to manipulate the elements. This show is like Sailor Moon and ' combined but with fairy-like heroines and mythical worlds. This show was one of those series that is still often spoken of today and made remembered by all the fans who watched it."
In 2021, Petrana Radulovic of Polygon compared W.I.T.C.H. very favorably to Winx Club, another magical girl series that had also debuted in 2004, describing it as an exciting fantasy story with a diverse cast, saying that "W.I.T.C.H. is also ahead of Winx Club when dealing with complicated relationships with mentor figures." She further argued that the revival ' would have worked better as an adaptation of W.I.T.C.H. based on the latter's darker and more complex themes, asserting: "The memory of W.I.T.C.H. lives on â in Tumblr posts, in fan art, and in the striking parallels of a live-action show about 2004's other five-member magical girl show. Maybe one day it'll land on Disney Plus, but until then, Fate: The Winx Saga will have to suffice." Yelyzaveta Tretiakova of Comic Book Resources compared W.I.T.C.H. to Winx Club and stated that both shows manage to surpass the other in several fields, saying that W.I.T.C.H. provides better vilains, comedy scenes, visuals, comic books, and fashionable characters.
In 2022, Kyle Grammatica of Collider referred to W.I.T.C.H. as one of the "must-watch French cartoons," noting that "the show offers compelling action and stories that can be enjoyed by kids of any age (and plenty of adults too)." Priya Paramanandam of Comic Book Resources ranked W.I.T.C.H. 1st in their "15 Great Animated Shows Missing From Disney+" list, calling it a "popular Jetix show," writing, "A highly imaginative show with lots of lore and world-building, W.I.T.C.H. also centered around the trials of friendship and girlhood. For many viewers, it remains a beloved favorite," and included it in their "10 Must-Watch French Cartoons, From Arcane to Totally Spies!" list, describing the series as "a highly imaginative show with lots of lore and world-building", and complained that it was missing on Disney+ despite Disney retaining the rights, while Maham Arsalan included it in their "Best Anime to Check Out After Finishing Winx Club" list, asserting, "The magical girl elements are greatly justified in this series, especially when compared to Winx Club." Layann Basileh of Game Rant ranked W.I.T.C.H 7th in their "8 Great Magical Girl Shows That Aren't Anime" list, calling it one of the "brilliant magical girl shows that have been developed internationally."
In the early stages of the first season, the series was a major hit and a TV breakout in the US. The two-episode premiere registered record ratings across ABC Kids and the Jetix blocks on ABC Family and Toon Disney, both as a preview and in regular airings.
In Europe, W.I.T.C.H. was the most popular Jetix original series for third-party sales as of fiscal year 2007, when the second season was delivered. All of the major Jetix Europe originals, including W.I.T.C.H., ranked "as one of the top two shows in their timeslots in all of the markets in which they aired."
In 2006, the Casting Society of America's Artios Award nominated Joey Paul Jensen for Outstanding Achievement in Casting: Animation TV Programming.