Sabrina the Animated Series



Not to be confused with Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies, this is the Animated Adaptation of the sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which itself was already adapted from a comic book by Archie Comics.

Being produced by DiC Entertainment during the time it was owned by Disney and having run on ABC's One Saturday Morning and its weekday afternoon counterpart One Too on UPN, it was oddly treated like it was as much of a show by Disney as the company's actual productions. The reruns on Toon Disney placed it in the same primetime block as Disney cartoons like House of Mouse and Aladdin, even though it was pretty obvious that this was not an actual Disney cartoon. In its original run, the show lasted from September, 1999 to February, 2000 for a total of 65 episodes.

For those out of the know, the cartoon was more like an Alternate Continuity than a prologue to the live action series as it contradicts many things. For example, in the main show Sabrina comes into her powers on her sixteenth birthday and learns that her family (save for her mother) are witches. In the animated show, Sabrina is a preteen and already has her powers as well as knows about the magical nature of her family. In this version, Sabrina goes to middle school in between learning to use her magic. Harvey goes to the same school along with her and of course the two develop a like for one another. Her rival on the school ground is Gem Stone (acting as a preteen Alpha Bitch for Libby) and her best friend is Chloe, the only human who knows of Sabrina's secret. Her aunts, Zelda and Hilda, are in this version as well but are stuck in teenage bodies for a never revealed punishment. Thus, they have to be looked on by their Uncle Quigley (another original character) till then. Salem still lives with the bunch as usual and, being an animated show, is given much more movement than his live action counterpart.

After DIC split up from Disney, they produced a Made for TV Movie titled Sabrina: Friends Forever, which served as the pilot to a new syndicated series titled Sabrina's Secret Life, which was basically a follow-up to the first series. Many of the original characters from the first series were put on a bus or brother chucked and, since by this point Disney had ended their contract with DIC, features none of the original voice actors either. In this version, Sabrina now going to high school (further contradicting the main series, but only two years younger) is now at the age where she can attend magic school as well. She quickly finds a new rival in Cassandra, who's a full witch--and will let Sabrina know it every chance she gets. Of course, Sabrina more than willing to prove being full blooded doesn't mean you're automatically better.

Ironically, reruns of Sabrina's Secret Life briefly popped up on Toon Disney for a while. After that, they were aired for a while on Saturday mornings on CBS's Cookie Jar TV block in 2010, with "Sabrina's Secret Life" joining it on September 18. On February 5, they were replaced by Trollz and Horseland.

Now has a character page.

Sabrina the Animated Series contains examples of:

 * Actor Allusion: "FINE! WHO NEEDS AN AUTOGRAPH FROM MELISSA JOAN HART ANYWAY!?"
 * Adorkable: Pi and Harvey.
 * Affectionate Parody: The show really loved this one. Let's see...
 * "La Femme Sabrina" - spy films
 * "Xabrina Warrior Witch" - video games
 * "Wiccan of the Sea" - The Little Mermaid
 * "Hexcalibur" - King Arthur
 * "The Senses Shattering Adventures of Harvtastic" - comic books/superheroes
 * "When In Rome" - Gladiator
 * Alpha Bitch: Gem.
 * As Himself: Weird Al Yankovic in "Witchy Grrrls".
 * Bad Future: One that caused by stealing oddly enough.
 * Badass Adorable: Sabrina can be like this a few times.
 * Badass Normal: Tim The Witch Smeller is a villainous variation of this; using science to swore revenge on witches since he bullied as a kid for being a Muggle Born of Mages.
 * Balloon Belly: Sabrina in one episode.
 * And Salem in another episode.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: A major theme in the first series as, since Sabrina wasn't powerful enough yet, had to rely on the "Spooky Jar" who would grant Sabrina's desire at the moment. Typical of course these would always backfire and Sabrina would have to find a way to fix the problem.
 * Between My Legs: During the episode "Nothin' Spells Lovin Like Somethin' From a Coven", while Sabrina and Gem are arguing, this shot is used with Gem's legs as framing.
 * Big Eater: Salem.
 * And Harvey if the episode calls for it.
 * Bishonen - Pi has very feminine features, and on top of that he's also voiced by a woman.
 * Black Best Friend: Chloe.
 * Blond Brunette Redhead: Sabrina (blond), Zelda (redhead), and Hilda (brunette)
 * Break the Cutie: Harvey when he finds out his favorite cartoon got cancelled and when he was playing an arcade game at a very high level until an employee accidentally restarted it. Played for Laughs.
 * Broken Aesop - The moral of "Moldy Oldie" is basically that it's wrong to deny an elderly person a place in society just because they have so many years of experience, never mind the fact that said elderly person may be senile and/or a danger to himself or others.
 * Catch Phrase: Pi had two. "Mi Amigo" and "chyah"
 * Cats Are Snarkers: Salem
 * Christmas Episode ("Witchmas Carole")
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Pi. And depending on the episode, Harvey (The latter flanderized in Sabrina's Secret Life).
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: Hilda and Zelda teenage forms are the result for "abusing magic" in the past (which is kinda weird, Hilda one can understand but Zelda?). Apparently being "young and beautiful" as Zelda quips is a dishonor in the witches world.
 * Could also be seen as Cursed With Awesome.
 * Enchantra punishes them for allowing her to flirt with a conjured up version of Romeo by making them go out in public dressed as Rock-Hopper Penguins for a week.
 * Cool Loser - Sabrina and Chloe appear to be in the unpopular crowd for no reason other than because the popular kids say so.
 * Cross Dressing Voices - Pi is voiced by Chantal Strand.
 * Crowd Song: Goin' To The Beach from the episode "Wiccan Of The Sea".
 * Cute Shotaro Boy: Harvey
 * Dark Horse Victory - In "Wag the Witch," Sabrina runs for class president and Gem tries to ruin her campaign by having a reporter for the school newspaper follow her and watch her every move. Sabrina conjures up a pair of glasses that make the reporter see Sabrina as a normal tween girl. The reporter ends up running an article about how boring Sabrina is and endorses the school's resident Strange Boy Pi, who wins the election.
 * Disneyesque: While the show was part of One Saturday Morning, Disney didn't make it (though Buena Vista produced the first series)...though the art style is very similar to various Disney movies.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Tim the Witch Hunter's reason for hunting witches was because they made fun of him during his schools days.
 * The Ditz: Harvey.
 * Edited for Syndication - Ever since the show left its original networks, the theme song was cut down to 45 seconds in the United States.
 * Everybody Laughs Ending - Occasionally used, as well as Everybody Laughs Credits at the end of every episode.
 * Even Evil Has Standards - "When in Rome" reveals that even Gem would never intentionally kill someone.
 * In "Documagicary" during the Engineered Public Confession where the evil reality show director explains that he released Tim, endangering the lives of witches everywhere, for ratings, Tim is shocked at how evil this guy is.
 * The Faceless - Salem in flashbacks to when he was a human warlock.
 * Fantastic Racism - Against mortals and half-witches.
 * And in the case of Tim the Witch Smeller, against witches.
 * According to the Witch's counsel, half-witches are inferior to full witches.
 * Follow the Leader - Deemed to be the worst example of the wave of comic book themed show imitating Batman the Animated Series.
 * Foot Focus - Chloe wears sandals all off the time, and likewise with Gem half of the time.
 * Freudian Excuse - Tim the Witch-Smeller's hatred of witches comes from them tormenting him when he was a child.
 * Give Geeks a Chance - Harvey isn't exactly the coolest guy around, yet Gem has an all too transparent crush on him.
 * Hidden Eyes - Pi's eyes are always hidden under his hat.
 * You do see them for a second in "Paranormal Pi" when Slugloaf knocks him into a bush, but they're closed the whole time.
 * Humiliation Conga - In "Paranormal Pi" when Pi's paranormal activity tracker is homing in on Sabrina's house with a large mob of people following him, Sabrina has no choice but to make it look like the device didn't work, utterly humiliating him.
 * Incredible Shrinking Man - The episode "Shrink to Fit".
 * I See London - "Shrink to Fit" has magic used to fit into tight jeans backfire as it's victims shrink even further to doll size, the first indication of this is the pants becoming too big. Oddly both Chloe (green) and Sabrina (blue) are wearing boxers.
 * It Was All Just a Dream - see Crowd Song.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold - Salem, and Gem occasionally.
 * Karma Houdini - "Picture Perfect" ends with Sabrina winning the student of the year award, but then giving it up by admitting she cheated. Instead Gem wins, despite her having also cheated. The closest thing she gets to a punishment is everyone walking out on her victory speech.
 * Large Ham - Alvin. Don't EVER laugh at him!
 * Limited Wardrobe: Everyone in the show....with the exception of Gem.
 * Gem actually lampshades this in one episode: "Great outfit, Spellman. I just never get tired of seeing you in it."
 * Meganekko: Zelda.
 * Mini Dress of Power: Aunt Hilda wears one.
 * Morality Pet - Alvin from the episode "Planet of the Dogs" starts off like this but after being neglected and gaining the ability to speak, becomes a Knight Templar and Noble Demon for the neglected and abused neighborhood dogs.
 * Muggle Born of Mages - Tim the Witch-Smeller. In this series he seems to be a unique case, which is why all his empowered peers made his life hell.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed - The director in "Documagicary" is a Giant Spider named Quentin Tarantulino.
 * Noble Demon - As noted, Alvin from "Planet of the Dogs".
 * Not So Harmless - Tim The Witch Smeller and his pet aardvark.
 * Poor Communication Kills
 * Sarcasm Failure - Harvey is prone to this.
 * Screw Politeness I'm a Senior - Uncle Zamboni in "Paranormal Pi"
 * Sealed Evil in A Can - The Spooky Jar.
 * Though not all that evil as it at the least gave Sabrina a Reset Button for most of her wishes.
 * Secret Keeper: Chloe
 * Sixty Five Episode Cartoon
 * Talking to Himself - Gem and Pi in "Picture Perfect".
 * Gem and Bernard in several episodes.
 * And Hilda and Zelda. Both are done by Melissa Joan Hart.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight - The usual reaction by mortals whenever a spell is cast right in front of their eyes.
 * We Want Our Jerk Back - Subverted. When Sabrina unwittingly made a cake that reversed its eater's personality, Gem became a nice girl clever enough to figure out Sabrina's secret. Together, the two of them developed an antidote that turned everyone back to normal and made them forget everything. When Gem was the only one left, Sabrina tried to convince her NOT to drink it because she likes the new Gem better. The new Gem decided that bringing back the old one was the right thing to do and, as her parting words, told Sabrina she'll still be deep somewhere inside the original Gem.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Heinous: In "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?" we see flashbacks of Harvey and Gem getting their hearts broken by trivial things.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: In "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?" Sabrina is told to search for one person who never had their heart broken. Eventually she gives up, saying she checked everyone she could. This would imply Pi was among the people she checked, but we never see his broken heart flashback and it's hard to imagine how someone as laid back as him could have his heart broken.
 * Whos Laughing Now: Tim when he actually becomes a threat to the witches who once mocked him.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever: Or morever "Who Wants To Be Young And Beautiful Forever"?

Sabrina's Secret Life contains examples of:

 * Art Evolution: Subverted. Due to only Di C and Les Studios Tex working on the series (Disney split up with Di C at the time and Melissa Joan Hart didn't produce the show anymore), the animation and character design was pretty lazy, such as how Maritza was just a recolored version of Chloe, and Cassandra was a background student (once shown in Gem's posse originally unnamed!) in the 1999 series.
 * One example of actual evolution was the eyes of the characters. They became more "shiny"
 * It was mainly the clothes and hairstyles that changed (similar to Disney's Doug.
 * Bishonen: Salem's human form.
 * Channel Hop: From ABC for the first series to syndication for Sabrina's Secret Life. Then found a new home on CBS before being pulled off completely.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: While Gem and Chloe's departures were explained, we still don't know what happened to Pi, Quigley, or the Spooky Jar.
 * Flanderization: Harvey started out as a sweet but kinda ditzy guy. He's a full-blown idiot in Sabrina's Secret Life.
 * Foe Yay: Sabrina and Cassandra grow more and more attached to each other as the show goes on, culminating in
 * G Rated Drug: Dreamland in "Living Her Dreams".
 * Hair of Gold: In one episode, when Salem turned human he got blond hair.
 * Heel Face Turn: at the end of the show.
 * Paper Thin Disguise - Mr. Snipe's mortal disguise consists of just human clothes. His grotesque features should make him really stand out, but no-one seems to see anything weird about him.
 * Put On a Bus: Chloe and Gem
 * Screw The Rules, I Have Connections - Cassandra is Enchantra's niece and occasionally uses this to her advantage.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute - Maritza replacing Chloe, who reportedly moved away.
 * Actually Maritza used the same basic character design used for Chloe, only with slightly lighter skin color to indicate that Maritza was vaguely Hispanic.
 * Also, Cassandra uses a similar character design to Gem. Her character design was also used for the Friends Forever movie with a different voice called Portia.