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Last time I talked about Winx I posted a link to an Italian site where you could order the dvd's. Only problem though- they're in Italian! Luckily I had two friends to help me translate it and so, for anybody who wants to order the DVDs here's how. Here's a brief transcript of our translation conversations, containing the most relevant information condensed into getting the DVDs.
******* (part 1- signing up with a credit card)
me: hmm... oh yeah, me: http://www.internetbookshop.it/dvd/ser/serdsp.asp?shop=1&e=8032442202119 me: I asked her and, the more expensive versions are mono. The cheaper ones are stereo friend: makes sense, considering Stereo is of a higher class of sound. friend: You getting the Stereos only then? me: yeah me: speaking of which, could I ask you for translated instructions on how to order the dvd's? me: I tried figuring it out but I don't know a lick of Italian language basically friend: I'll see, hold on a sec friend: Basicly, it takes about 3 weeks for them to get the shipments out. me: how do I order a dvd? friend: I'm seeing how friend: http://www.internetbookshop.it/dvd/bas/baspge.asp? Are you registered? me: hmm.... me: say, could I ask you to make a mini-guide explaining how those who don't know Italian can order the dvd's? me: I was thinking of putting that in my editorial at YGO U anyway friend: Well, you do need to be registered first of all, are you familar with amazon.com? me: yeah friend: then hopefully you'll know how to be registered with this site. https://www.internetbookshop.it/dvd/ord/ordpge.asp?mode=z7 Here is where to register. me: I just click email and password? me: Try that first., if you don't get an email, go to this link: https://www.internetbookshop.it/dvd/reg/regnw1.asp?Events=n0 and I'll do what I can to help through the guide me: hmm.... can I get some translations for some things? friend: Alrighty, hold on while I read through. me: ok, I'll just write what I don't understand me: Nome e cognome me: Indirizzo me: Sei un'azienda, ente, professionista e hai bisogno di ricevere fattura? friend: Nome e cognome = Name and Last Name me: Città = city? friend: hmm friend: yes sir friend: Indirizzo - Address me: sweet, states are listed friend: And that long sentence = A six company, agency, professional and do you need to receive invoice? friend: I hope that helps me: I guess I won't click that then me: and, "Fai clic su per proseguire l'apertura del nuovo conto." friend: You make click on this to order the continuing opening of the new account. friend: *You make a click* me: alrighty me: Possessore della carta di credito (come indicato sulla carta di credito me: Numero della carta di credito me: Data di scadenza = Date of Birth? friend: First sentence = Owner of the indicated paper of credit (come on the credit card) friend: Second sentence = Number of the credit card me: oh... date of expiration? friend: Third sentence = Due date = Given of Birth? friend: And date of expiration mean = data della scadenza me: anyway, I'll have to use a card to sign up later but thanks, I'll keep this convo to help me do it friend: Cool, glad to help out.
******* (part 2- ordering the dvd's and having them shipped to your house)
friend2 Saiyaman says: here's one Saiyaman says: Attenzione! Controlla attentamente il tuo indirizzo di posta elettronica: all'indirizzo che hai indicato verranno inviati gli avvisi di conferma dell'ordine e di avvenuta spedizione dei libri, nonché tutte le comunicazioni su eventuali problemi.
Per cambiare uno qualsiasi dei tuoi dati personali fai clic su uno dei bottoni [Modifica] friend2 says: it just says that you shouldn't give a false email friend2 says: as they'll send you friend2 says: confirmations for the order friend2 says: and also they'll tell you about problems there Saiyaman says: alright Saiyaman says: now, what does "Metti nel carrelo" mean? Add to the cart? friend2 says: yep Saiyaman says: hmm... Saiyaman says: I just clicked the button for the first dvd, the na vew screen pops up Saiyaman says: what do I do on the new screen? (could you try it out) Saiyaman says: and a new screen friend2 says: wait Saiyaman says: Togli = check? friend2 says: nope friend2 says: togli = remove Saiyaman says: ah. What does "Se possiedi un buono acquisto scrivi qui il codice" mean? friend2 says: ah don't mind it friend2 says: it means that if you have a voucher put it there friend2 says: but you can't have them as they were released only in america friend2 says: *italy friend2 says:
Saiyaman says: haha Saiyaman says: and "Codice offerta (facoltativo)"? friend2 says: same thing Saiyaman says: so ignore both friend2 says: yeeep Saiyaman says: also, "Spese di spedizione" and "Ricalcola le spese di spedizione per la destinazione" and "Aggiorna" and "Per consultare lo schema riassuntivo delle spese di consegna clicca qui" friend2 says: no don't click those friend2 says: just put usa and canada friend2 says: to the destination Saiyaman says: gotcha. And what do "Disponibilità" and "2 settimane" mean? friend2 says: i think it means that the product is in stock friend2 says: and will be sent friend2 says: in 2 weeks Saiyaman says: ah Saiyaman says: finally, "cerca altri prodotti," aggiorna il carrello", "svuota il carrelo", and "registrazione sicura dell'ordine" friend2 says: hmm friend2 says: you've got all the dvds= friend2 says: *?
Saiyaman says: each of the 4 is an option to click. Which one do I click to order another dvd? friend2 says: cerca altri prodotti Saiyaman says: ah, select another product friend2 says: yeeep Saiyaman says: woohoo, got all 6 in my inventory Saiyaman says: stereo ones friend2 says: good friend2 says: then friend2 says: click on friend2 says: registrazione sicura del prodotto
Saiyaman says: register the purcase of the product? Saiyaman says: purchase Saiyamansays: (just what I thought the translation meant) friend2 says: something like that Saiyaman says: almost lastly, "Attenzione! Controlla attentamente il tuo indirizzo di posta elettronica: all'indirizzo che hai indicato verranno inviati gli avvisi di conferma dell'ordine e di avvenuta spedizione dei libri, nonché tutte le comunicazioni su eventuali problemi. Fai clic su per proseguire la registrazione dell'ordine.
Per cambiare uno qualsiasi dei tuoi dati personali fai clic su uno dei bottoni Saiyaman says: [Modifica]." friend2 says: same thing i said before friend2 says: check your email Saiyaman says: I am checking it, but no new emails from the order site friend2 says: no no friend2 says: i meant friend2 says: check the email you gave friend2 says: as it's important Saiyaman says: ok. I see the email I'm using to order it up there listed correctly, so I guess I don't need to modify it or anything friend2 says: ok good friend2 says: then go ahead Saiyaman says: now then, "Fai clic su per proseguire la registrazione dell'ordine." friend2 says: click that Saiyaman says: "Fai clic su continua per proseguire la registrazione dell'ordine." ok friend2says: yep Saiyaman says: hmm... now it says, Saiyaman says: " Attenzione! Tutte le consegne avvengono tramite corriere espresso: per evitare spiacevoli inconvenienti, indica come indirizzo per la consegna un luogo presidiato, ossia un luogo dove ci sia qualcuno che possa ritirare il pacco, per esempio una casa con la portineria, un ufficio, un negozio ecc. Per modificare l'indirizzo di consegna fai clic sul bottone [Modifica indirizzo]." friend2 says: ok friend2 says: it says that a courier delivers your orders friend2 says: so friend2 says: give an address where someone can pick the items Saiyaman says: already done friend2 says: ok friend2 says: then go ahead Saiyaman says: almost done Saiyaman says: what about "Se vuoi fare un regalo premi - REGALO" friend2 says: it says that if you want to tranform it in a gift friend2 says: (so they'll wrap it for you) friend2 says: just click on REGALO Saiyaman says: nah, no need to. No need to give myself a gift Saiyaman says: wait... is it necessary or just something extra? friend2 says: nah friend2 says: just an extra Saiyaman says: alright Saiyaman says: "Codice offerta (facoltativo)" and "Buono acquisto Se possiedi un buono acquisto scrivi qui il codice" friend2 says: go ahead friend2 says: it's the same voucher i told you before Saiyaman says: oh. Just ignore those 2 areas? (they have blank areas next to them that can be filled in) friend2 says: just leave them alone Saiyaman says: alright, almost done Saiyaman says: finally, "aggiorna l'ordine," "conferma l'ordine," and "cerca altri prodotti" Saiyaman says: wait... 2nd = "confirm the order" and 3rd is "select another product", but what's the first? confirm the order Saiyaman says: aha, there we go Saiyaman says: "Il numero di riferimento dell'ordine - (random number) - è stato confermato" friend2 says: ok good friend2 says: just take note on the order number friend2 says: it may come in handy Saiyaman says: anything imporant in " Inviato! Questa pagina è la tua ricevuta e contiene il numero di riferimento (number) del tuo ordine." or just what you just said? friend2 says: just what i said friend2 says: it says that the order was sent friend2 says: and those page is your recept Saiyaman says: ah, ok Saiyaman says: final two translations- Saiyaman says: "verifica lo stato dei tuoi ordini" and "cerca altri prodotti" (that's select another product) friend2 says: yep friend2 says: and friend2 says: the first one is Saiyaman says: wait... "verify the state of your order" friend2 says: check your order status Saiyaman says: yes! friend2 says: ehehe Saiyaman says: the dvd's are finally ordered Saiyaman says: thanks! friend2says: ehehe friend2 says: no problem
******* (and if you get an email that reads something like....) ------------------------------- subject- "iBS Italia: Conferma della spedizione - nota di consegna n. (random number)"
Gentile Saiyaman,
siamo lieti di informarla che abbiamo appena SPEDITO dal nostro magazzino il pacco con i prodotti che ha ordinato. ------------------------------------------------------------ Il recapito viene effettuato con corriere espresso e la consegna verra' effettuata nei prossimi 1/4 giorni lavorativi a seconda del paese di destinazione. ------------------------------------------------------------ I prodotti sono stati spediti al seguente INDIRIZZO:
------------------------------------------------------------ Se risiede al di fuori dell'area Euro, sara' la societa' della sua carta di credito a convertire il totale della spesa nella sua valuta al tasso di cambio corrente.------------------------------------------------------------ RIEPILOGO DELLA SPEDIZIONE N. (number)
CODICE Titolo Winx Club. Disco 01 Winx Club. Disco 02 Winx Club. Disco 03 Winx Club. Disco 04 Winx Club. Disco 05 Winx Club. Disco 06
PRODOTTI : E.96,30 SPEDIZIONE : E.33,96 TOTALE : E.130,26
Grazie per aver acquistato presso iBS Italia.
Internet Bookshop Italia srl via Copernico 14/16 20090 Trezzano sul Naviglio (MI) - Italia tel. +39 0244576830 - fax +39 0244576890 P. IVA 12252360156 Registro Imprese di Milano ?/1997 http://www.ibs.it"
Well, this just means that the disc/s will be arriving in 1-4 working days.
Whew. Lots of work huh? But that's not all. Foreign discs don't play properly on regular DVD players. My last editorial talks about how to get them to play region-free so I'm not going to get into that but anyway, I ordered all the DVDs and I got them in about one and a half weeks. I was able to play them on both my computer and my modchipped XBox. (there's a book called something like "Hacking the XBox" if you really want to try to get one) So what'd I think?
Well for starters I was kind of disappointed that it didn't come with any subtitles. I had hoped I could try watching the original version "dubtitled" but, then again, even if there had been subtitles it's unlikely there'd have been anything besides Italian translations. After all, these discs are made/sold in Italy and designed for being sold primarily to Italian fans- even the inclusion of the U.K. dub is just an extra "bonus" feature for Italian fans to encourage them to buy the disc. The only Italian fans that could read and understand English subtitles would be those who already know English and even then, they wouldn't have any need for them! It'd be like American anime DVDs including Japanese subtitles with kanji.
Disappointed, I decided to watch the first original subtitle raw without subs. I've seen a few anime episodes raw before of manga series I really liked so it wasn't that unusual. However, watching the show at first was kind of odd- everybody spoke Italian. It kind of reminded me of when I watched my first DBZ sub and started hearing all of these strange, new, unusual Japanese voices and accents. But like with Japanese DBZ, I quickly got used to the idea of and hearing of new voices in foreign languages and watched it. The voices sounded pretty good and I was impressed with the animation.
I thought it was going to be like "Teen Titans" and have all of these anime-style expressions/reactions and artwork. However, it was actually the opposite. The animation... doesn't really "look" like an anime or anything currently on Japanese tv. It seems to have it's own unique style to it, I guess an Italian style, which is pretty good. It was a refreshing change of pace in that it was so different. (it does have "Magical Girl Transformation scenes" though, which is an element of some anime)
After watching the first episode in Italian I then watched the first episode again in English along with the second episode. Mind you that by "English" I'm of course referring to the U.K. dub. How was it? Well for one- it was totally uncut! Winx Club wasn't really all that violent (as in, people stabbing each other and bleeding) to begin with though. In one scene which kind of reminded me of how Piccolo killed Raditz (it shows him about to strike him, then it cuts off- many American fans thought FUNimation censored it, but that was how it originally was) some ogre-creature starts running towards a girl like he's going to tackle her or hit her. It then cuts, shows a flash, then shows the girl flying back. Later though, the girl get tossed out a window (a closed glass window too mind you- she winds up bruised but doesn't bleed) and some of the action showed one of the creatures (there's another one that shows up later in the episode) punching a guy directly in the face. He falls back and his face is bruised, and he wipes it off. I guess Italians are more lenient about violence towards guys then they are to girls but I'm not complaining and it doesn't really bother me. Not every place can be as freaky as Japan sometimes but then again, what place is?
(Speaking of which, in a -fairly- recent episode of Naruto one character named Gaara [for a short, relatively spoiler free synopsis, this guy is completely batshit crazy and violent as hell] punched/slapped his sister aside really hard when she had tried to help him while he was freaking out right before attacking some guy he wanted to kill. Also, in the first season of Sailor Moon at one point one of the girls is trying to fight a guy fist to fist, but he keeps avoiding her/blocking her. Finally he gives her a menacing look then pulls his fist back and throws it at her really hard as she starts to scream. He stops about an inch from her face then laughs at her loudly and makes fun of her before walking off. (can't exactly complain at DiC for censoring that scene) To be fair though, that's just one scene from Sailor Moon and that show isn't nearly as violent/bad as I might be making it sound by talking about in depth what's arguably it's most violent scene. As for Naruto, well, I'm not even going to try to argue that that show isn't violent but it is a really great show and there's a lot more to it than just violence.
So, to sum it up- although Italy's standards and ideas on nudity, like Japan's, are more tolerant than America's, the two countries definitely don't share the same ideas about depictions of violence on television.)
Anyway, the U.K. dub isn't just visually uncut- it's also musically uncut too. In other words, it uses the exact same soundtrack as the original Italian version with the exception of dubbing certain vocal songs into English. Now, how about the voices? Well- I really did start to get into the Italian version's voices and they kind of grew on me a little bit. The UK dub's voices are pretty good too, most notably Stella's (blonde girl) who I think blows her original VA away. The UK dub is also smart and non-resource wasting by the using the same VA for animal sounds as whoever did the voice of a rabbit called Kiko. (the voice sounds pretty cute- and it's not a talking rabbit, it just makes cute sound effects) One complaint I will mention though- to say that whoever did the voice of the narrator for the next/last episode previews was probably less than enthusiastic when she recorded her lines would be a pretty big understatement. (in later episodes she gradually improves some but in the first ones she sounds pretty terrible) Aside from that though all of the rest of the VAs do show good quality and enthusiasm in their roles.
Another thing- I remember I once complained that when watching 4Kids Winx Club I heard an obnoxious Hanna Barbara sound effects 30 seconds into it. I saw the same scene in episode 2- 4Kids definitely added that effect in, which I guess doesn't surprise me since even their most recent One Piece dubbed episodes are of atrocious quality despite all the complaints fans have made to them about it for so long. Also, in the only whole episode of 4Kids Winx Club I watched I remember hearing a LOT of valley girls accents all over the place ("like, oh my gosh!") which were completely nonexistent in the U.K. dub. The U.K. dub seems to follow the original script pretty accurately and seems more concerned with providing a good quality translated dub than a localized one.
******* [note- Everything outside of this bracket in the rest of the editorial was written before I had finished just watching the first dub episode. (the episode above I mentioned seeing was a different one from the first one) I came back later and decided to add this in. The violence did remain intact but they did some weird stuff along with splicing and dicing. For starters the first 5 minutes got cut and removed to later in the episode, so it starts with "action" at a fight scene in the park. The girl Stella originally is brought back and stays unconscious at Bloom's house and wakes up at night a few hours later, but they decided to have her "stay unconscious for almost a whole day" so they could play the first 5 original minutes later after the action. Also, several parts of the episode seemed like they were sped up some as they went by quicker than they originally did.
They also added in a LOT of slang and Americanized "hip" dialogue ("like, like, like, like, like!", "she kicked major booty!", "totally!"). Several parts of the script were changed. For example, originally the main girl Bloom wakes up and talks to her family and complains that they always go to the beach every years and she'd rather hang out with her fans. She then gets her hopes up when she thinks her parents have bought her a cool ride, but turns out to be bicycle instead of a scooter. (scooters are very common in Europe and Italy though not here) For these scenes in the 4Kid dub none of that really got mentioned and instead they just briefly talked about fairies. Also the word "Winx" which was originally a nonsensical fun word made up by Bloom at the end of the 2nd episode to call the group of 5 friends now refers to magic and is used frequently and commonly.
The episode also started out with her parents complaining about her still reading about stuff like fairies, but later in the 4Kids dub she mentions that she used to like fairies long ago. (it then shows a picture of her as a little kid. In the original, that's just pointing out how long her family's kept going back to the beach. In the dub it's just the dad saying how cute she was back when she liked fairies) Later when Stella wakes up and they briefly go to magic dimension where Alfea School's located, the 4Kids dub adds in a few scenes from future episodes with added dialogue of Stella talking about various things from the scenes and how exciting each area is. (I saw some scenes from episodes 3 and 4 at least, and at least 1 I didn't recognize) Finally, Bloom originally actually thinks for a while about whether or not she should go to the school or stay home but in the 4Kids dub she just leaps at the opportunity immediately with almost no discussion with her parents who are immediately supportive of it. Also they change the scene with the Specialists (basically bishonen-type guy fighters- they're called magicians but they're more like gladiators) a bit. Originally they were tracking one of the creatures and they show up in time to get it, but in the dub Stella says something about inviting them over to encourage Bloom to join the school and them showing up in time is a coincidence.
Musically, everything was changed. They had one vocal song in the episode near the end which I guess may have been okay but by the time I heard it I'd already been kind of weirded out by all the changes 4Kids did. Aside from maybe the opening and that song, the music was pretty bad. It goes really fast without really ever stopping and it sounds kind of bland and forgettable. There's little quiet or tension building-up. I was really disappointed they replaced the transformation music too, since it sounds really great in the original and U.K. dub and is pretty catch to begin with and hard to forget once you've heard it a few times. (hint hint, to any New York companies trying to make this show more marketable)
Voice wise though, the 4Kids dub was good. The 3 Witches seemed to over dramatize just how evil their characters are supposed to be and and screamed/talked a lot louder than they originally did but on the other hand I'm glad Riven (one of the 4 Specialists) has a different voice. In the U.K. dub he's the only voice I really dislike so far beside the unenthusiastic narrator, mainly because he has a lisp and a "bitchy gay guy" thing going on (and the fact he has purple spiked-up hair doesn't help much either- and I can't help but laugh at how he says "bye sweeties!" to the girls in one episode). The 4Kids dub actually makes him sound more masculine which I give them points for. The other voices are good too, and Kiko the bunny's voice remains the same as the Italian va like it also did in the U.K. dub. I might like Stella's voice more if they didn't make her sound like a valley girl.
Overall though, the 4Kids dub... 1. Changed all the music, usually with bad results. 2. Moved around scenes to "start in the action" and also sped up a lot of the animation. 3. Cut out the next episode preview. (Not sure about the last episode previews though, which take place after the intro song of every episode after 1.) 4. Added in lot of valley girl talk and "hip" slang to help Americanize/modernize the show. 5. Changed some of the dialogue/plot. Stuff like her parents complaining about the rabbit and saying they should have gotten a hamster instead, Bloom not really being a girl with an imagination who was always into fairies but someone who outgrew them... which is pretty funny/ironic though, since in the dub she leaps at the opportunity to join the school with little thought/discussion to her parents when she outgrew fairies long ago, but originally when she's always been into fairies she actually mulls over the decision some. 6. Has about the same voice quality as the U.K. dub. (Also, the Asian girl Musa's voice actually sounds Asian in the 4Kids dub which is a plus. On the other hand, Tecna has a really annoying British accent that wasn't even there in the British dub.) 7. Replaced opening/ending animation. Their opening animation uses many scenes from future episodes to showcase exciting stuff. Originally the opening animation is more relaxed, just showing off the "magicness" of the place. (it and the ending animation show scenes from the show too, but they're not all as action-oriented) 4Kids dub ending animation is just one shot of the 5 girls followed by quick credits. Also the original ending animation lasts longer and is more of a fun song that lasts a fair amount of length rather than something just plopped up on screen to show while they rush through the credits quickly to get back to the commercials.
How would I rate it? Well, if you go by a scale of the original having an A+ I guess the 4Kids dub's first episode of Winx Club is probably about a C-. It's not nearly as bad as One Piece's dub though but then again that's not saying much and it's not really all that good either. And since first episodes of dubs generally have better quality/more accuracy than later ones in bad dubs (One Piece, DBZ, Pokemon) I'm not sure the other episodes will be any better, and I've already heard about them having plot/script changes along with cutting/pasting material from various episodes around.
Anyway, here are some links where you can view the first 4Kids-dubbed episode and compare voices/versions.
1. http://www.winxclub.tv/ (4Kids Winx Club site) 2. winxclub.com (Official Winx Club site, links to several international sites. Note the "English" one is the U.K. one, and the song that plays there is vocally different from the one on the dvd's. I'm not surprised the Dutch put in a bad techno opening song since I've heard they're real techno freaks, but the site plays the same original music from the show as others listed) 3. http://4kids.tv/shows/ (you can watch the first episode here) 4. http://www.winx-club.de/content/downloads.html (foreign fansite with clips from the original and several other dubs including U.K.)] *******
Finally, the music. A friend of mine who follows 4Kids and knows a lot more about them than I do (he runs One Piece Uncensored, that's about all you need to know) told me that he's heard that much of the music from the 4Kids replacement soundtrack is recycled from Kirby. Recycled?! One nice thing about anime is that they all try to have unique soundtracks and literally none of them ever reuse the same opening song. (and even the very few that do are remixes of those songs) But come on... Kirby and Winx Club really aren't even anything alike to begin with! Winx Club is more like an Italian version of Sailor Moon with better music and animation, mixed with some Harry Potter elements. Kirby's pretty much kiddy- it'd like be saying Doraemon and Sailor Moon should have the exact same soundtracks.
To be fair, some of the Winx Club music 4Kids uses is "original", (that is, they actually made it specifically for the show) but this recycling of music really shows a cheap stinginess and xenophobia of all things foreign. I mean really, a lot of the original music for Winx is really good and catchy. The Japanese aren't incapable of producing exciting, interesting and fitting soundtracks for shows and the Italians certainly aren't either. I watched an episode of 4Kids Winx and it just sounded kind of boring and cheap. I don't understand why 4Kids ditched the original soundtrack but I think it's a shame that they did. I'd imagine their excuses are probably the same ones Funimation used for DBZ- "the music is too foreign. Kids have short attention spans. The foreign music has moments of silence- American kids have ADD and are incapable of sitting through silence. Silence will make them flip the channel, our psychology exams of kids at the malls being paid to watch/compare tapes and provide immediate analyses and opinions tell us this." Sigh. One Italian girl did tell me that 4Kids' opening song for Winx is kind of catchy though, so I guess they got something right. (I still like the original song, especially hearing in Italian, better though.) The fact that 4Kids completely abandoned using a completely fine English U.K. dub already completely finished suggests that Americanizing Winx Club was their primary intent in trying to sell the show.
Anyway, that about sums it up for comparisons between the 3 versions. (original Italian dub, the U.K. dub, and the 4Kids dub) I have to say that I do like the show and that anyone who liked Sailor Moon would probably enjoy it too. If you didn't like Sailor Moon though, then I probably wouldn't recommend it. I've seen the 2 episodes thus far but maybe I'll do a review when I've seen the whole series. Finally, I'd like to comment that the U.K. dub seems perfectly fine and I see nothing wrong with it that American audiences and girls would dislike, which makes 4Kids' decisions with their own dub seem even more baffling. I personally think 4Kids target audience with this show (kids to teens, mainly girls- especially since animated shows directed towards girl audiences on television are still fairly rare in America) would enjoy the U.K. dub better and that it'd help them make more money too.
Now for the disc. The disc- erm... well- it's all in Italian. It had 2 quizzes at the back asking questions about the show but none of them I was really able to understand. On the brighter side they have trailers for Winx (one without narration, just music, another with both), an funny/pretty silly Italian commercial advertising Winx dolls and a special feature showing the animators at work on Winx. (I didn't watch all of that feature since I thought have some spoilers, but about a minute into it it was still completely unnarrated and simply played music to accompany scenes of various people working on creating the Winx cartoon) One annoying quirk though- you can't fast-forward through episodes. I tried on my XBox- didn't work. I tried on my computer- didn't work there. Once you play an episode you can pause it and unpause it, and you can skip to the next episode, but no fast forwarding and rewinding. That makes it tough for looking up certain scenes but it doesn't hinder being able to watch it from beginning to end at all. Also, if you click "play" it plays all the episodes in chronological sequence, but- it only shows one opening and one closing. Only the first episode has an opening and, I assume, the last episode has the only closing. This can be corrected by individually selecting episodes from the menu- when doing this, it plays each episode in full along with with opening and closing, and after the closing it takes you back to the episode menu. The openings/closings/titles still contain the Italian language in them without translations but again, these are DVDs designed primarily for Italian audiences so it would be unnatural to expect them to include English translations of them as well.
Overall this is a pretty good series that I'd highly recommend it. It consists of 26 episodes on 6 DVDs and I was able to order all of them for $150 and get them fairly soon. It sounds like a lot, but it's a good deal when compared to other 7-8 DVD 26 episode anime releases in America. The value of the Euro is currently higher than the dollar and there is shipping and handling plus customs fees, but since the DVDs contain many episodes they help offshoot those costs.
Lastly- will DVDs like these ever come to America? Maybe. But at this rate, no. 4Kids has announced a DVD release of their edited-dub only in conjunction with FUNimation (http://www.animeondvd.com/news/pr.php?pr_view=542) and right now there is little to no demand for a dual/"uncut" (I use that word loosely because Winx Club isn't that violent to begin with so I find it hard to believe there'd be much in there to offend soccer moms, except for the "Harry Potter/any type of magical depiction = SATAN WORSHIP!" crazy variety, who'd be just as offended either way) release. Why? Most fans are unfamiliar with the show's Italians roots and most are under the impression that it's an American animation created by 4Kids. And the fact that so many fans hate 4Kids and don't want to support them at all, in combination with that, has unfortunately led to more than a few fans dismissing the show as 4Kids-made anime wannabe trash that should be completely disregarded so as to avoid supporting 4Kids in any way. When, in actuality, it's just another innocent foreign show suffering the same Americanization/dumbing down fate of so many other anime 4Kids has gotten before.
But, fear not- fan subs of this show are on the way! An Italian girl found out about my last editorial and responded offering to be a translator. It also turns out that she's trilingual (Italian, English, Japanese) AND has had practice fan subbing other shows before! Shortly after, I found out that my friend SSJ Conan is also trilingual (I knew that he knew English and Japanese, but didn't know that Italian was like a second language to him). Plus, he's done some fan subbing work too. (He's done his own fan sub of the last YGO episode, and a special "remix" of the Blue Water U.K. dub [note- yet another superior dub by our English allies] where he took scenes from them to look like the "preview" episode Funimation did.) The group is called Al Kahn Fan subs..... heh heh, just kidding, it's actually called Winx Club Fan subs (though Al Kahn Fansubs was actually a considered name that was dropped since it's only funny the first few times you hear it and since the name doesn't really bring up positive associations, particularly with animation or Winx) and hopefully the first release should come out in early July. Between an Italian translator with good English who knows Italian better, and an American translator with good Italian who knows English better (AND the accurate U.K. dub script to consult for any areas of confusion), both of whom have prior fan subbing experience and know their way around fan subs, the translations and releases should hopefully be very excellent.
I encourage people who are already fans of the Winx Club as dubbed by 4Kids, non-fans who avoided it because of it's association with 4Kids and- ah hell, I encourage everybody to watch this release, I'm not going to leave anyone out! Even if you didn't like Sailor Moon at least watch one episode, we'd like as many people to watch and enjoy this release as possible and we also encourage anime fan sub downloading programs BitTorrent/IRC sites to help us release it widely too. I know it's not really anime but it's still a pretty good show deserving of an uncut/dual release and if it does catch on and lead to demand for an original/more accurate version from 4Kids it could help ensure 4Kids will treat all of it's shows (including anime) better and change it's ways faster, which would be to the benefit of all anime fans.
Anyway, keep on watching YGO Uncensored's news section for information on the release (just for the record, we're hoping to do about one episode a week and possibly do the 2nd season later. Currently I'm in the process of obtaining special-sized blank DVDs for maximum quality, which I'll then use to copy the DVDs and send them to the team next week) as it will be one of the first sites to be informed about it and to report on it. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy the show and if you'd like to help support it and/or find a good English dub of it to watch... well, you know where to order your DVDs from.
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