Whether it’s Netflix’s adaptation of Winx Club in Fate: The Winx Saga or the upcoming slasher Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, the acting industry has been rife with gritty and bleak adaptations of iconic children’s franchises. While these adaptations might seem like interesting new spins on nostalgic icons to producers, they suck the life and purpose out of the originals to mindlessly appeal to adult audiences that actually don’t want these lifeless versions of characters and stories they know and love.
Producers latch onto children’s media as a way to appeal to the now grown-up audiences who once engaged almost reverently with those old shows and novels, hoping to capitalize on their nostalgia. However, in order to adapt to the individuals’ ages, producers abandon the heart and soul of the original series in a short-sighted attempt to garner attention, and ultimately, profit. People don’t look back on Winx Club or Winnie the Pooh and wish they had been greeted with a bloody and grim storyline. The fondness and nostalgia lie in the kindness emulated by the characters and how power and unconventionality can be found in a world that demands conformity.
Given how the rapid development of the internet has facilitated a relentless onslaught of dismal headlines on politics, climate change and so much more, children’s media is a beacon of light and warmth in such an adverse time. Fans revisit these shows to reconnect with their childhood and with impactful stories that have stuck throughout their lifetimes. These are stories that encourage kindness during times when it’s hard to find, that embrace femininity and girlhood as a source of strength during times when femininity is still seen as a weakness, and so much more.
How on earth could anyone watch these adaptations with the same level of enticement as the material they engaged with as children?
Producers may own the rights to use these characters and their universes, but they are abandoning every unique quality that made the series stand out in the first place. These adaptations are more often than not pathetic cash grabs — and they are cash grabs that fail. Whether these adaptations are rejected (like that of The CW’s “Powerpuff Girls,” which has been sent back to the development stage) or outright canceled (like “Fate: The Winx Saga” which was canceled after only two seasons), it’s clear that nobody is a particular fan of such abysmal spins of beloved characters.
Hopefully, producers will soon see that these types of adaptations that capitalize on nostalgia while missing the heart of the stories they gain the rights to aren’t what people want to see. These attempts to spin a so-called adult narrative out of a children’s show miss the point these shows were trying to make by a large margin, and it would be better for producers to try to create original content instead of trying to appeal to audiences that don’t care about their spineless reinventions.