Sabrina: The Animated Series

Premise

Unlike previous incarnations, Sabrina Spellman in this series is 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 her loud-mouthed cat Salem Saberhagen, all of whom advise Sabrina on the use of magic. It is considered a spin-off of the live-action series and borrows certain elements from it, but is obviously set in an alternate universe, as it contradicts the live-action show's premise of Sabrina not knowing about magic prior to her sixteenth birthday.

Most episodes center on the typical problems of middle school, along with those that stemmed from Sabrina's inexperience with or misuse of various magic, witchcraft, and extremely powerful and complex spells. Sabrina and her 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 crush Harvey into a superhero. By the end of each episode, her innate magical abilities would unintentionally backfire and Sabrina would learn that using magic usually is not the solution to her day-to-day problems.

Production

The series debuted in 1999. Sabrina had previously appeared in an animated format on The Archie Show (animated by Filmation), but the popularity of the live-action Sabrina, the Teenage Witch sitcom formed part of the basis for this spin-off series.

The series was developed by Savage Steve Holland and Kat Likkel, and Holland served as showrunner and executive producer of the series. As such, the series reflected some of the irreverent style of humor seen in Eek! The Cat. Celebrity voice cameos in this series included Mr. T, Long John Baldry, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Melissa Joan Hart, who starred as Sabrina in the live-action sitcom, acted as producer of this series, but her younger sister Emily Hart (who played the recurring character Amanda on the sitcom) voiced Sabrina. Melissa instead voiced Sabrina's two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, originally played by Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea. Salem is voiced by Nick Bakay, who also voiced Salem in both the film and live-action series. The theme song is sung by B*B*Witched.

Broadcast

The series first ran in syndication on UPN (on Disney's One Too weekday afternoon block) and ABC (on Disney's One Saturday Morning block) for one season, with 65 episodes produced.

The series reran on Disney Channel from September 3, 2002 to September 2, 2004. It also reran on Toon Disney from September 3, 2002 to June 1, 2006.

During the 2006-2007 television season, the series returned as part of CBS' 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.

Reruns of the series were aired on the "This Is for Kids" block on the TV channel This from Fall 2012 to October 2013.

Reruns of the series were aired on the Starz Kids and Family Monday to Friday on Starz From February 2017.

Characters

Sabrina is a half witch–half mortal that won't become magically empowered until she's sixteen, but she is able to borrow spells from her aunts Hilda and Zelda using a magical "Spooky Jar", which she often does. However, she usually finds that her meddling turns situations 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 wants one day to marry him. She wears a white tank top with a pink stripe, a green moon-shaped earring paired with a yellow star-shaped earring, pink skirt, pink hair-clips in her bangs, with white and pink sneakers. When she casts a spell the magic produced is pink and yellow. She is voiced by Emily Hart; Melissa Joan Hart's sister who played her cousin Amanda in the episode "Witchright Hall".

While Hilda suggests they bend the rules a little and use magic to get ahead, Zelda is determined to say no right up until the moment she gives up. Hilda is more carefree and reckless than her cautious sister Zelda, and, although they do butt heads sometimes, they are 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 in addition to 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, with brown hair that is shorter than Zelda's. When she casts a spell the magic produced is purple and yellow. They are both voiced by series executive producer Melissa Joan Hart, known for playing Sabrina in the Showtime film adaptation and the ABC series.

Salem knows the right buttons to push to talk Sabrina into just about anything, and he does it guiltlessly—until he's caught. Salem was once a powerful wizard, but he was locked into a cat-form because he was constantly trying to take over the world. However, he makes up for his predicament with magical trinkets that help Sabrina in some situations. He is voiced by Nick Bakay, who also voiced Salem in the 1996 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch TV series.

Uncle Quigley is an original character created for the animated series. He is Sabrina's maternal great-uncle, and the household's adult guardian. Because Uncle Quigley doesn't have any magic powers, one understands that Sabrina's mother is a mortal. He is voiced by Jay Brazeau.

Chloe is Sabrina's best friend. She's the only mortal besides Uncle Quigley who knows Sabrina's secret. She is voiced by Cree Summer.

Harvey has a cute and sweet personality. While he only admits to Sabrina that she is his "best pal," he likes her very much. However, Harvey is unaware Sabrina is a witch although often sees the results of the magic himself. He is voiced by Bill Switzer.

Gemini is snobby, pampered and very prissy. Gem lives down the street and sees Sabrina as her main competition for Harvey's attention (whom Gem is interested in as well), though Harvey likes Sabrina more. She is voiced by Chantal Strand.

Spookie Jar is a genie (or possibly a demon of some kind) who resides in a purple cookie jar in Sabrina's kitchen. Whenever Sabrina needs a special spell, she can get one from the Spookie Jar, but they rarely turn out the way she expects. Spookie Jar speaks entirely in rhymes. He is voiced by David Sobolov.

Pi is Harvey's best friend. He is very smart and quite unusual in his own special way. His eyes are never seen because his pork pie hat obscures them. He has been described by Sabrina as "totally out of it and really smart at the same time." According to the episode "Upside Down Town", it is implied that he is of Chinese descent. He is voiced by Chantal Strand.

Slugloafe is the fat bully who calls Harvey Kinkle by his last name. His real name is Horace. There have been times where he compliments Harvey. He is voiced by Jason Michas.

Bernard is a small, bald, nerdy boy with glasses. He is often bullied by Slugloafe and easily bossed around by Gem. He is voiced by Chantal Strand.

Tim is a witch hunter who appears in "Most Dangerous Witch", "Enchanted Vacation", and "Documagicary". He was previously bullied by witches as a child due to his lack of magical powers, except his immortality, even though his mother was a witch. For this reason, he viewed witches as evil and so he collects them as trophies for revenge along with his sidekick aardvark named Elton. Tim wears a hat with a witch cauldron marked with a ban sign on it. Both Tim and Elton are voiced by Bob Bergen.

Enchantra is the queen of all witches and head of the Witches' Council. She resembles somewhat of a dominatrix with a tight-fitting red catsuit with a flowing cape and black, over-the-knee boots. She speaks in a thick British accent and has long black hair, tan skin and green eyes. When she casts spells, the magic produced is red and purple.

Gem's parents are the richest people in town. They first appeared in "Witch Switch"; when Sabrina wishes herself to be rich they almost sent Sabrina to Cambridge when they found out she got a C in her report, but later changed their mind after Sabrina unwished herself as being rich. They also appeared in "Stone Broke" when they lost their money and moved into Sabrina's house until their dog struck oil.

Merchandise

An 11 inch Sabrina fashion doll was released by the company Bambola. 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.

DVD releases

On August 28, 2001, Trimark Home Video, Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment and DIC Home Entertainment released "Sabrina's World", a DVD that contained 4 episodes of the series.

In 2007, NCircle Entertainment released two DVDs of the series, "Witch in Training" and "A Witchmas Carol".

On October 17, 2006, Shout! Factory released The Very Best of Sabrina: the Animated Series on DVD in Region 1. This 2-disc set features fourteen episodes from the series. This release has been discontinued and is out of print as Shout! Factory no longer has the distribution rights to the series.

On January 3, 2011, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series, under license from Cookie Jar Entertainment. They subsequently released Sabrina the Animated Series - Volume 1 (which contains 32 episodes of the series) and Sabrina the Animated Series - A Touch of Magic (a 10 episode best-of collection) on DVD in Region 1 on February 15, 2011.

In the Philippines, Viva Video and Cookie Jar Entertainment released Sabrina the Animated Series - Volume 1 (which contains the first 32 episodes of the series) and Sabrina the Animated Series - A Touch of Magic (a 10 episode best-of collection) on DVD for the Philippine market. Sabrina the Animated Series DVD collection episodes include: "Field Trippin'", "Picture Perfect", "Shrink To Fit", "The Importance of Being Norma", "This Is Your Nine Lives", "Witch Switch", "Boogie Shoes", "Boy Meets Bike" and "The Most Dangerous Witch".

Video games

On August 17, 2000, Simon & Schuster Interactive's Knowledge Adventure and Havas Interactive officially announced the video game version of Sabrina The Animated Series: Zapped! for the Game Boy Color system. It was released on November 22, 2000, and followed by Sabrina The Animated Series: Magical Adventure for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computer systems, released in October 2000.

On September 4, 2001, it was announced that Simon & Schuster Interactive had acquired the rights to the series, under license from Archie Comics based on the video game license. They subsequently released Sabrina The Animated Series: Spooked! (which contains the first levels for Game Boy Color platform). It was released on November 6, 2001.

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 Sabrina series, it was explained in the first issue that Repulsa the Goblin Gueen 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.