Avatar: The Last Airbender Meets Winx Club In This Lost Disney Gem From The 2000s

Published Sep 10, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. Disney has some lost TV gems, among them an animated show from the 2000s that is a perfect combination of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Winx Club. Disney is mostly associated with its animated movies, but it also has some memorable TV shows, both live-action and animated. In the latter category, Disney had some of its best TV shows in the 2000s, with series like Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, and House of Mouse, some of them now found among the best animated TV shows of all time. While the best and most popular Disney animated shows have aired on Disney Channel, which is why they were able to reach a wide audience, other shows were sent to networks owned by the Mouse House. Shows like The Weekenders and Fillmore! aired on ABC, and as good as they are, they ended up becoming some of the most underrated and forgotten animated shows of the 2000s. Joining them is W.I.T.C.H., one of Disney’s greatest hidden gems. Based on the Italian comic book of the same name, created by Elisabetta Gnone, Alessandro Barbucci, and Barbara Canepa, W.I.T.C.H. aired on ABC from 2004 to 2006 for two seasons. Although it was positively received by critics and has a loyal following, W.I.T.C.H. has now become a lost gem as it’s not available to stream anywhere, making it a lot harder for it to reach a wider audience. W.I.T.C.H. Is One Of The Best & Most Underrated Fantasy Shows Of The 2000s W.I.T.C.H. introduces viewers to five friends: Will Vandom, Irma Lair, Taranee Cook, Cornelia Hale, and Hay Lin, who learn they are the new generation of Guardians of the Veil. As such, the girls’ mission is to keep the veil between the human world and other dimensions safe, as there are evil creatures looking to cross over and take over the human world. As the leader of the group, Will is the keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar, which gives her and the rest their powers, with each of the other girls being the master of each classical element (water, air, earth, and fire). Thanks to this, each girl has different powers, and together, they are some of the most powerful beings. Throughout most of their story together, the W.I.T.C.H. girls have to fight the tyrannical powers of the planet Meridian. Despite their magical powers, W.I.T.C.H. has relatable characters, with each one representing different struggles that teenagers go through, which range from struggling at school to complex family dynamics. The main characters of W.I.T.C.H. are never intended to be flawless, even in their Guardian form, which makes them more interesting and adds a lot more depth. At the core of W.I.T.C.H. are the individual journeys of each team member through their early teenage years, as well as their friendship, with the show being one of the best representations of friendship between teenage girls. On top of that, there’s diversity in the group, with different cultures and traditions woven into their stories, making the show and its stories even richer. W.I.T.C.H., then, had everything to succeed (more so as the comic books already had a loyal fanbase), but Disney never seized that potential. How Disney Failed W.I.T.C.H. & Made It A Lost Gem Unfortunately, W.I.T.C.H. had the same fate as many other Disney animated shows that aired on ABC, in large part due to a lack of promotion. Disney later shifted its focus to live-action content, which led to the premature end of many animated shows, one of them being W.I.T.C.H. The show was also tricky to rerun, as unlike most animated shows, it has serialized arcs, so catching the episodes out of order or not following the show from the beginning can be confusing to new viewers. W.I.T.C.H. is also not available to stream anywhere, making it even harder to remain in the audience’s memory, and Disney didn’t seize the new interest in it. The W.I.T.C.H. comic books were reprinted between 2017 and 2023, which led to new interest and reviews of the animated show – the problem is that it can’t be watched anywhere. The reprinting of the comic books was the perfect time for Disney to bring W.I.T.C.H. back but now as a live-action show, with which it would have competed with Winx Club one more time. It’s hard to say if W.I.T.C.H. will ever be available to stream, as it’s unknown why it hasn’t been added anywhere or if there are issues with the rights to the show – but, at least, the comic books can still be enjoyed, and they give a much better look at the complex world of W.I.T.C.H.