Sabrina: The Animated Series

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Sabrina: the Animated Series
Format	Animated series, Fantasy, Adventure
Created by	Savage Steve Holland, based on the Archie Comics characters
Starring	Emily Hart as Sabrina Spellman Nick Bakay as Salem Melissa Joan Hart as Aunt Hilda and Zelda Spellman Bill Switzer as Harvey Krinkle Lalainia Lindbjerg as Katy Jason Michas as Slugloafe the School Bully David Sobolov as Spookie Jar Chantal Strand as Gemini Stone and Pi Cree Summer as Chloe Jay Brazeau as Uncle Quigley
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	65 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC September 11, 1999-October 13, 2001 UPN September 6, 1999-August 30, 2002 Disney Channel September 2, 2001-October, 2002 Toon Disney September 2, 2002-September 5, 2004 CBS (2006-2007) (2009-present)
Original run	September 11, 1999 – February 27, 2000
Chronology
Followed by	Sabrina: Friends Forever (2002)

Sabrina: The Animated Series (title shown as Sabrina, the Animated Series in opening credits) is an American animated television series based on the Archie Comics character Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. It was produced by DIC Entertainment, which was owned by Disney at the time. The cartoon series is a spin-off of the popular live action series that ran on ABC (also owned by Disney). Later, a television/direct-to-video movie Sabrina: Friends Forever and a spin-off series Sabrina's Secret Life were produced by DiC, this time without the ownership of Disney.

Premise

Sabrina and Salem, as they appeared in Sabrina: The Animated Series.

Most episodes centered on the typical problems of middle school, along with those that stemmed from Sabrina's inexperience with or misuse of witchcraft. Sabrina and best friend Chloe would often use magic (often from the "Spooky Jar" a cookie jar containing a genie-like being—in the family's kitchen) for all sorts of perceived emergencies, ranging from trying to fit into skinny new clothes to turning Sabrina's boyfriend Harvey into a superhero. By the end of each episode, the magic would backfire. Sabrina would learn that using magic usually wasn't the solution to her day-to-day problems.

Production

The series debuted in 1999. The Archie Comics star had already graced the Saturday morning airwaves in the 1970s (courtesy of Filmation), but the popularity of the live-action Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series) sitcom in the 1990s formed part of the basis for this spin-off series. Unlike previous versions, Sabrina in this series was depicted as a 12-year-old attending middle school. As in the original comic series, Sabrina lives with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda Spellman, and Salem Saberhagen, Sabrina's sarcastic cat, all of whom advise Sabrina on the use of her powers (thereby contradicting the live-action show's premise of not having those powers prior to her sixteenth birthday; thus this series is essentially a "retelling" of the story, similar in concept to The New Archies, a previous Archie Comics-based DiC production).

Savage Steve Holland (whose previous credits include producing Eek! The Cat) was the executive producer of Sabrina, the Animated Series. As such, the series reflected some of the irreverent style of humor seen on Eek! The Cat. Celebrity voice cameos in this series included Mr. T and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Melissa Joan Hart, who starred in the live-action sitcom, acted as producer of this series, but her younger sister, Emily Hart, voiced Sabrina. Melissa instead voiced Sabrina's two aunts, Hilda and Zelda. Salem is voiced by Nick Bakay, who also voiced Salem in the live-action series. The theme song is sung by B*Witched.

The series ran on UPN and in syndication (on Disney's One Too weekday afternoon block) and on ABC (on Disney's One Saturday Morning block) for one season with 65 episodes produced. In October 2002, a made-for-television movie based on the series was produced for cable channel Nickelodeon (TV channel). This was soon followed by a follow-up animated series, Sabrina's Secret Life. The original series at that time began airing on cable channels Disney Channel and Toon Disney, but recently has reverted once again to airing in syndication. During the 2006-2007 television season, the series returned as part of CBS's new KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS and was briefly part of the KEWLopolis cartoon lineup. On September 19, 2009 the series returned to CBS as part of the Cookie Jar TV cartoon lineup.

In Germany, Sabrina's Secret Life is simply a third season of Sabrina, the Animated Series, both under the title Simsalabim Sabrina. ^[1][2]

Rarely for a programme in another language,this was dubbed into Welsh and aired on Welsh language channel S4C.

DVD Release

The Very Best of Sabrina: the Animated Series by Shout! Factory contains fourteen episodes of the cartoon.[2] It is currently unknown if the entire series will be released on DVD.

This show has also been released earlier on several other DVDs, including Witch in Training, Bat Attack, and the holiday special A Witchmas Carol by Animation Station. All of these DVDs are very rare to come across, and may have even gone out of print.

Merchandise

An 11 inch Sabrina fashion doll was released by the company Bambola [3]. Several other small plastic toys, including a few figurines and a Polly Pocket-esque Sabrina doll were sold in stores while the series was in production. [4]

Comic Book

While Sabrina, the Animated Series was airing, Archie Comics printed a comic spin-off for the show. The first issue was dated January 2000 (meaning it was on-sale in late 1999), and it lasted for 37 issues.
In order to tie the plot in with their current Sabrina series, it was explained in the first issue that Repulsa the Goblin queen had sent Sabrina back in time to relive her pre-teen years, so that she would be out of the way while Repulsa attempted to conquer Enchantra's realm. In issue 38, the Repulsa plot was resolved, and the comic book returned to chronicling the teenage Sabrina in the next issue.

Characters

• Sabrina Spellman

Voiced by Emily Hart, has a secret: she's a half witch/mortal. She doesn’t become magically empowered until she's sixteen, but it’s possible to borrow spells from her aunts Hilda and Zelda, which she often does. She finds her meddling turns the situation from bad to worse. Her friend Chloe is aware of Sabrina's magic but Harvey Kinkle, another friend and her romantic interest, isn't. She is secretly in love with Harvey and one day marry him.

• Hilda and Zelda

Voiced by Melissa Joan Hart. While Hilda suggests they bend the rules a little and use magic to get ahead, Zelda’s determined to say no right up until the moment she gives up. Hilda is more carefree and reckless than her cautious sister Zelda but although they do butt heads sometimes, they're still sisters!. In this series and Sabrina's Secret Life, Hilda and Zelda both have the appearance of teenagers, as this was the punishment they received from Enchantra for "abusing magic" in the past. In the animated series Zelda wears a red blouse and blue bell bottom pants. She also wears a pair of blue glasses and has long red hair. Whenever she casts a spell the magic produced is always blue and yellow. Hilda wears a purple minidress and has olive skin. Her hair is brown and is shorter than Zelda's. When she casts a spell the magic produced is purple and yellow.

• Salem

Voiced by Nick Bakay, Sabrina's cat (and probably familiar) with a big attitude. Together they're a potent combination. Salem knows the right buttons to push to talk Sabrina into just about anything and he does it guiltlessly - until he's caught. He used to be a powerful warlock before being locked in cat-form. However, he makes up for it with magical trinkets that help Sabrina in some situations.

• Uncle Quigley

Voiced by Jay Brazeau, is an original character created for this series, Sabrina's maternal great-uncle and the household's adult guardian. As he doesn't have any magic powers, this shows that Sabrina's mother is a mortal.

• Chloe Flan

Voiced by Cree Summer, is Sabrina's best friend. She's the only mortal besides Quigley who knows Sabrina's secret.

• Harvey Dwight Kinkle

Voiced by Bill Switzer, has a cute and sweet personality, and, of course, is too shy to admit to Sabrina as anything more than his best pal. He is unaware Sabrina is a witch though often sees the results of the magic himself.

• Gemini "Gem" Stone

Voiced by Chantal Strand, Is snobby, pampered and ultra prissy. Gem lives down the street and sees the adorable Sabrina as her main competition for Harvey's Attentions. Stone is this series version of Libby Chessler from the live action series.

• Pi

Voiced by Chantal Strand, is Harvey's best friend. He is very smart and quite unusual in his own unique ways. His eyes are never seen because his porkpie hat obscures them.

Episode list

See also

• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
• Sabrina: Friends Forever
• Sabrina's Secret Life
• List of animated spinoffs from prime time shows

External links

• Sabrina: The Animated Series at Cookie Jar Entertainment
• Sabrina: The Animated Series at Cookie Jar TV
• NCircle Entertainment: Buy Sabrina, The Animated Series DVDs
• Sabrina: the Animated Series at the Internet Movie Database
• Sabrina: the Animated Series at TV.com
• [5]A fan Site

References