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Cartoon Graveyard: Malibu Stacy And The Order Of The Phoenix

Previously on Cartoon Graveyard, we discussed Stripperella, a hamfisted attempt to appeal to a male audience.  This week, thanks to a little magic trick I call “Recording a Saturday Morning Cartoon At Random,” we have on the docket a hamfisted attempt to appeal to a young female audience.  As a result, I hereby arbitrarily dub this Gender Studies Couple Of Weeks here at Cartoon Graveyard.  As you know, anything involving the phrase “(Blank) In The Media” can easily be read as “How The Media Screws Up (Blank),” so don’t expect to come out of this feeling good about TV.  You have been warned.  If you could picture someone standing immediately behind you hollering “MALE GAZE!” every couple of minutes, that would help.

First, let’s talk demography (and the crowd goes wild).  The TV viewing audience has been sliced and diced nearly to oblivion, to the point that shows will soon be designed to appeal to individual people.  No, wait, that sounds awesome.  Anyway, the segments are sacrosanct, and attempts to cross them are risky indeed.  Our subject today rushes in where marketers fear to tread with the tried-and-true method of cliché merging.  What do young girls like?  They like fairies.  What do somewhat older girls like?  They like hypermaterialism and disingenuous empowerment slogans. From this manipulative melange we get Winx Club.

Title: Winx Club
Network: CW
Premise: What if the Harry Potter books were written by the guy that invented Bratz dolls?