I had loved the series Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a child, and as an adult, I find it is still one of the better of the limited animation cartoon series from that time.
Unlike other magical cartoon characters since then, Sabrina was neither an idiot nor a self-absorbed greed-head (such as the hero of Fairly Oddparents). Her powers were limited only by her self-restraint, her sweet nature, and her strong personal ethics.
The episodes were more sophisticated than average for the time (a time when most cartoons tended to oversimplify the tastes and interests of children), with Sabrina having genuine moments of pettiness, annoyance, and confusion amidst the mandatory Saturday morning cartoon cheeriness.
The character also appealed to children on two levels often overlooked at the time: their identification with the Gifted Outsider, and their interest in power and wish magic. These days, we have seen the Gifted Outsider so frequently that it seems a lackluster cliché', but at the time, children's cartoons tended to encourage conformity. Sabrina hid her powers, but she used them freely albeit covertly and never expressed shame or regret over who and what she was.
I was never able to enjoy the live action Sabrina specifically because it abandoned the sweetness of the series for a hackneyed cynicism and faux edginess. The cartoon Sabrina and her aunts occasionally became angry and even fought, but the live action Sabrina and family are sometimes downright cruel, such as the time one of the live action aunts simply killed off by zapping a rival musician so she could take over her seat in the local orchestra or when for laughs a live action character ran over Mr. Kraft and apparently killing him off (since he's never seen again in the series).
Unlike other magical cartoon characters since then, Sabrina was neither an idiot nor a self-absorbed greed-head (such as the hero of Fairly Oddparents). Her powers were limited only by her self-restraint, her sweet nature, and her strong personal ethics.
The episodes were more sophisticated than average for the time (a time when most cartoons tended to oversimplify the tastes and interests of children), with Sabrina having genuine moments of pettiness, annoyance, and confusion amidst the mandatory Saturday morning cartoon cheeriness.
The character also appealed to children on two levels often overlooked at the time: their identification with the Gifted Outsider, and their interest in power and wish magic. These days, we have seen the Gifted Outsider so frequently that it seems a lackluster cliché', but at the time, children's cartoons tended to encourage conformity. Sabrina hid her powers, but she used them freely albeit covertly and never expressed shame or regret over who and what she was.
I was never able to enjoy the live action Sabrina specifically because it abandoned the sweetness of the series for a hackneyed cynicism and faux edginess. The cartoon Sabrina and her aunts occasionally became angry and even fought, but the live action Sabrina and family are sometimes downright cruel, such as the time one of the live action aunts simply killed off by zapping a rival musician so she could take over her seat in the local orchestra or when for laughs a live action character ran over Mr. Kraft and apparently killing him off (since he's never seen again in the series).