Will 'Sabrina Secrets of a Teenage Witch' Bewitch Viewers?

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A revamped version of Sabrina is ready to entrance a new generation of viewers. "Sabrina Secrets of a Teenage Witch" follows 16-year-old Sabrina (voiced by Ashley Tisdale) as she juggles life in two different realms, Glendale and Witch World.

While in Glendale, the half-witch, half-mortal poses as a human and keeps her magical abilities secret. Her BFF, Jessie, is the only human who knows Sabrina and her aunts are witches. Buddy Harvey is a super awkward with a love of costumes and all things geeky.

Evil Enchantra, who wants to stop Sabrina from becoming queen of Witch World, sends Salem to work undercover. If he can make Sabrina so miserable she leaves the mortal realm, Enchantra will restore his warlock form. Sabrina's charm and the joys of cat life make Salem reconsider his mission.

And then there's Shinji, Enchantra's arrogant son. He is the only one powerful enough to rival Sabrina's brains and magical skills. Enchantra wants Sabrina to marry Shinji so she can use her role as mother-in-law to control Witch World.

Sabrina the Superhero 
This version maintains Sabrina's klutzy mortal persona, but adds a cool superhero quality. Naturally, the premiere episode, "Dance with Werewolves," shows Sabrina's two worlds colliding.

Sabrina's witch world wrecks havoc with her human friends when Harvey puts on a cursed jacket as part of the costume he plans to wear to the premiere of a new werewolf movie. Later, Shinji crosses into the human world to seek revenge on Sabrina for standing him up at the full-moon dance. (Synopsis via press release.)

First Impressions
The casting seems solid. Treating Sabrina as a superhero and amping Salem's duplicitous nature sounds compelling, but the actual animation is strange. At certain angles, Sabrina looks like a caricature of Nancy Grace. Surely, that isn't how they intended to portray a lively 16-year-old heroine. 

Shinji looks like a cartoon character who bought a low-budget Eddie Munster costume.

Salem's mustache is a bold reminder of his rightful place as a warlock, but it is incredibly distracting. He looks too much like Dr. Bombay (Bernard Fox) from "Bewitched."

The preview showed only a brief glimpse of Aunt Hilda and Zelda. Short and clad in dreary brown attire, they look like Tuffnut and Ruffnut from "How to Train Your Dragon." Still, I almost want to tune in just to find out their story.

Check out the promo to see the characters for yourself.


"Sabrina Secrets of a Teenage Witch" premieres Saturday, Oct. 12 at noon on the Hub Network.