YMMV / Sabrina: The Animated Series

• Accidental Innuendo: The Flavor Babes' first performance opens with Chloe apologizing for the sound her French horn made by awkwardly giggling "sorry, wrong hole".
• Adorkable:
  • Although Chloe often plays the Only Sane Man, her inner dork often surfaces, such as her appalling bad dancing that she's intending to perform in a talent show, having to dress up like an elf to help her father at Christmas or when her ego gets the best of her in "Witchy Grrrls".
  • The Spooky Jar appears to be a Sealed Evil in a Can, but then he'll get moments like spending an entire episode trying to think of something that rhymes with orange for an incantation or fail at trying to make a spell suitably ominous. "Molar Molar" highlights how he can't swim without floaties, and he ends up without his swimming shorts on a public beach. The higher his voice goes, the more adorable he becomes.
  • Norma Alphalinear, Sabrina's childhood friend from "The Importance of Being Norma". She has the "dork" part down with her quirks, outfit and occasional snorts, while being generally sweet-natured.
  • The police chief from "Brina Baby" is hilariously inept, and is revealed to have a collection of Beanie Babies knockoffs stashed at the police station with tracking devices implanted in them. He's adorably dorky as he begs for the return of the toys the way a normal cop would for hostages.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • The episode "Anywhere But Here" was supposed to teach Sabrina (and the viewers) about appreciating what they have and that adults have a lot of responsibilities. Unfortunately, it turns out instead coming off as Growing Up Sucks. Within the same episode, since Sabrina has three kids and initially doesn't work, it gives an accidental lesson about how expensive children are and not living beyond one's means.
  • "Witchitis" ostensibly is about facing fears about getting vaccinations, with the plot only being solved when Sabrina gets the eponymous shot. But it could also have another Aesop about the irresponsibility of still going out in public if you're showing symptoms of a serious illness. (Highly applicable with COVID-19)
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Is the Corrupt Corporate Executive in "Xabrina, Warrior Witch" just the head of a video game company with really advanced technology, or is he actually a witch himself? His disdain for mortals, and presence in the game towards the end hints at the latter. His disappearance after being defeated in the game suggests he was physically there and not via virtual reality like Sabrina and Chloe. Or is he a mortal who just had access to magic?
  • In "Generation Zap," were Zelda and Hilda really unaware that Sabrina had switched bodies with Enchantra despite their niece sounding nothing like her normal self, or were they aware of it all along and were feigning ignorance to get back at Enchantra for not lifting their curse?
  • During the flashback of Gem’s birthday in “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?”, is she simply being a spoiled brat, as it appears? Or is it because she’s not as happy with her life as she lets on, (as episodes such as “Stone Broke” and “Witchmas Carol” suggest), and something (however minuscule) going wrong on her birthday was what finally triggered some sort of emotional reaction?
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: The Titanic parody referenced below (Sabrina has a video of a tragic romance on a ship called Gargantic). Perhaps it's meant to be a spoof of the various Mockbusters that sprung up in the late 90s.
• Angst? What Angst?: Despite Chloe being her best friend who she chose to be her secret-keeper, Sabrina never seems to miss her in the sequel series. On the other hand, considering how much she holds the Jerkass Ball in said series, one has to wonder if she might be holding some repressed angst.
• Anvilicious: It's a DIC show, so naturally it got into this territory sometimes, especially on Sabrina's Secret Life.
  • The trend/weight-loss episode. Sabrina and Chloe are desperate to fit into a pair of jeans that only come in one size - purely because they think Harvey will be impressed. Everyone else points out that the model they want to look like is too skinny and scrawny. When they resort to magic to lose the weight, they end up shrinking to the size of earthworms.
  • The Sabrina's Secret Life weight loss episode was even worse, with everything going wrong in Sabrina's life after she cuts down on food. Notably, she doesn't outright starve herself, just doesn't finish her meals, but is treated as an outright anorexic. The episode ends with Sabrina happily gorges on food, licking her lips and even a sandwich with a spoon, while being told binge eating is even worse.
  • Another episode features Sabrina assuming her grandparents are divorcing, and the characters (Salem, in particular) make damn sure you know about not jumping to conclusions.
  • The episode where Sabrina’s great grandfather pays a visit and nobody will renew his wizard license because he’s apparently too old. The girls don’t go one scene without saying that he deserves it because he’s more experienced than everyone.
  • "Field of Screams" is quite unsubtle about the moral of how it's more important to have fun playing a sport than winning.
• Awesome Ego: Enchantra is an Incoming Ham who makes everything all about her ("attention back on the most important person in the room please") and will inflict magical punishments on anyone who offends her pride. And that is precisely what makes her so entertaining.
• Awesome Music: Both theme songs, but most especially "She'll Bewitch Ya!" by B*Witched.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: At the start of "Molar Molar", Salem drinks the last of the milk, complains that they're out and when the aunts are unresponsive, he launches into a hammy monologue confessing to drinking it. While hilariously over-the-top, it seems out of place and unwarranted.
• Broken Aesop:
  • The moral of "Moldy Oldie" is basically that it's wrong to deny an elderly person a place in society just because they have so many years of experience, never mind the fact that said elderly person may be senile and/or a danger to himself or others.
  • "Anywhere But Here" tries to tell the moral that adulthood is not a magical fix since they have problems too, but it instead comes off more as "You will enjoy being a kid because Growing Up Sucks and adults can never have fun."
• Creepy Cute: Although the Spooky Jar is a Sealed Evil in a Can, he has several moments of being Adorkable, and is very obviously Dark Is Not Evil; making him closer to this.
• Crosses the Line Twice: In "Witchy Grrrls", there's a gag where Chloe means to blow up her French horn on stage, but accidentally blows up the drummer! She then giggles awkwardly and says "oops, my bad".
• Cult Classic: In the eyes of several 90’s kids who have grown up watching some episodes. The aforementioned theme song helps.
• Designated Hero: Sabrina in Sabrina's Secret Life. Granted, it's usually to set her up learning An Aesop, and the show has no problem calling her out for her mistakes. Sometimes she goes too far, notably teaming with Cassandra to get revenge on Maritza, casting a spell to make Harvey fawn over her, believing an obvious rumour about Harvey cheating on tests and getting half the Netherworld sick with gargoyle flu.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Gem's life is shown to be empty and lonely, as well as having very high standards to live up to. Except she lives in a Big Fancy House that even has its own bowling alley, and she mentions plans for an amusement park!
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Pi gets more love than his small screen time would indicate. One of the major complaints about Sabrina's Secret Life is his departure (along with that of Gem, Chloe and Uncle Quigley), especially since it left Harvey without a proper best friend character to interact with.
  • Chloe of course because she's voiced by Cree Summer. Half the moments on the Funny Moments tab are provided by her.
  • Alvin, the Monster of the Week from the episode "Planet of the Dogs".
  • Sheherazade, the female One-Shot Character cat from "Tail of Two Kitties" is definitely popular across the fanbase.
  • Hephaestus, Salem's old friend who was turned into a mouse, is also popular for the sheer amounts of Fanfic Fuel.
• Escapist Character: Sabrina herself more so than in the live-action. She's younger than the sitcom, only being twelve, and is actually more powerful. She's able to have even more adventures, due to animation providing more freedom. She also has a Secret-Keeper in Chloe, and thus able to share her magic with at least one friend.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Far as fans are concerned, there's no "Sabrina's Secret Life".
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Sabrina has a book from Great Aunt Morgan le Fay. Morgan appears in "Hexcalibur" as an evil witch, but what happens at the end? A version of Guinevere who looks exactly like Sabrina shows up to introduce herself to Arthur. Guinevere winks at Sabrina, implying she's an ancestor. If Guinevere married Arthur, then his half-sister Morgan would be Sabrina's great aunt. It also makes sense why Zelda would have a book by Merlin in the house, as he would have been a friend to the family.
  • The This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman in the climax of "The Senses Shattering Adventures of Captain Harvtastic". Harvey's power is to draw something that then comes to life, but not if he runs out of ink. It makes perfect sense why he would write a sidekick with the power to summon squids. He mentioned he was planning to have Calamari Queen's power evolve in the next issue, so the initial power must have been the reason the two were working together.
  • Gem in her Bad Future in "Witchmas Carole" doesn't care that Nanny celebrates her death. In "Witch Switch", we see that Nanny's job is to basically force Gem to do all sorts of exercises and keep to a strict schedule. So Gem just associates Nanny with unpleasant things she has to do, and doesn't care about her either.
• Genius Bonus:
  • In "Scare Apparent", Boogie is given the math question "If X squared minus X equals 42, what does X equal?", Boogie answers 7. The teacher counts it out and says that's correct. And it is.
  • In "Saturday Night Furor", Uncle Quigley has been spurned by his previous girlfriend Olympia and goes on a date with Ms. Bleachstain - whose first name in this episode is revealed to be Corinthia. Both are part of the Peloponnese region of Greece. And Olympia's last name is Peplum, which a Greek word for a woman's outer tunic or shawl. It's also another name for the Sword and Sandal genre, most of which take place in Ancient Greece. And the episode also features the mythological sorceress Circe, who famously turned men into pigs (as she does to Quigley).
  • The sphinx in "Xabrina, Warrior Witch" is played by Salem and wearing an Egyptian headdress, despite the in-universe game's Greco-Roman setting. However, the Egyptian sphinx was typically portrayed as a male and more benevolent than the Greek one (which was female and reacted with violence to anyone who answered the riddle incorrectly). The Riddle of the Sphinx, which only appears in Greek mythology and not Egyptian, also turns out to be wrong.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the Secret Life episode "J'Achoo", Sabrina is sick with the highly-contagious "Gargoyle Flu" on the day of a big party in the Netherworld. Not wanting to miss the party, she takes some cold medicine, puts on a face mask, and sneaks off. At the party, a clumsy dance partner knocks Sabrina over, causing her face mask to fall off, and she spends the rest of the party sneezing. She later finds out that everyone who was at the party (including Hilda, Cassandra, Ms. Magrooney, and Mr. Snipe) was infected with the Gargoyle Flu, and it soon spreads to Zelda and the rest of the Netherworld's population, resulting in many of them turning into lifeless dolls that can only be saved with a homemade soup to which only Zelda knew the recipe. The entire premise would end up being very similar to the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, which was commonly spread by social gatherings and a lack of wearing face masks.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In "Generation Zap", Salem makes a joke about Enchantra being blown away by how attractive his human form would be. In "At the Hop", when Sabrina has turned Salem into a human to be her date, Enchantra does indeed comment on how hot he is.
  • In one Secret Life episode, Mr. Snipe asks Sabrina what the ninth planet in the solar system is called. Her response: "There isn't a ninth planet, there are only eight". Cue everyone laughing at her.
  • Chantal Strand voices Gem Stone and in one episode she complains about her polo ponies being stolen. One wonders if one of the ponies was named Diamond Tiara (not to mention Gem and Diamond Tiara are the rare times she voices the Alpha Bitch). Also hilarious since Britt McKillip (Princess Cadance) is the second voice for Sabrina.
  • Clint Tarantulino. Sounds familiar?
  • The episode "Witchery Science Theatre" has Sabrina and friends getting trapped in a 1950s monster movie, but the gag is that the monster is really the female lead's boyfriend transformed - meaning Sabrina's influence turns a B-horror flick into a Beauty & the Beast fable. Fast forward to The Shape of Water, which is indeed a Beauty & the Beast romance within the set-up of a 1950s monster movie. Bonus points for the monster being sea-themed, too.
  • Sixteen years later, another Magical Girl series will feature two best friends in middle school named Sabrina and Chloe, but this time they are antagonists, with one of them being an even worse version of Gem.
  • In the Movie Sabrina: Friends Forever. Sabrina attends Witch Academy, where she becomes close friends with a Witch named Nicole. In Chilling Adventures of Sabrina attends the Academy of Unseen Arts, where she befriends and eventually dates a warlock named Nicholas.
• Ho Yay: Harvey and Pi's friendship is extremely tight knit. The two are rarely seen apart. Pi even gets jealous (very jealous) when Harvey befriends young Thomas Edison. Also the scene in "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted", when Harvey is trying to beat the arcade game, Pi waits for him through all 50 levels, even falling asleep on the floor. There's also the scene towards the end of Paranormal Pi where, Pi is practically in tears because Harvey refused to believe him. (It's clear at the beginning of this episode that if just Harvey believes him he'll be okay). And let's not forget "I got glue babe," when after Sabrina and Gem leave the two end up a riding a rollercoaster, all day, together. That just screams 'Date'.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Alvin, the Anti-Villain from the episode "Planet of the Dogs". Yes, he kidnapped Sabrina's family and yes, he is in serious need of a hug.
  • Some episodes do show that Gem might be quite pitiable. Her parents freely take off to Guam, leaving her alone at Christmas. She literally has no real friends, and her Girl Posse only hang around her because she's rich. What’s worse is that Sabrina doesn’t even seem to care when she finds out these things.
  • Salem, some of the time. While he did deserve being turned into a cat for trying to take over the world and he's a smartass a lot of the time, he's still disrespected even when he isn't doing anything wrong and can never catch a break. One such example is in "Has Anyone Seen My Quigley?", where the new nanny Quigley has hired demands no cats at the table, so the girls throw Salem outside, and when he shows up at the window to beg for food, they simply throw things at him to get him down so they won't get caught. In "Sabrina's Secret Life", he's just The Woobie since a lot of his Jerkass traits had disappeared but for some reason the amount of abuse he suffered got worse.
  • Poor Tim. He may be a witch hunter and stole ideas from Da Vinci, but said witches always gave the poor guy a hard time for being different.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
  • The reason Sabrina is so disliked in Sabrina's Secret Life. Unlike the actual villains, or the Alpha Bitch Cassandra, Sabrina's actions tend to come from her own stupidity or being too quick to jump to conclusions. But because she's the show's protagonist and thus the audience is expected to root for her, she ends up coming across worse than intended. For example, her behavior in "At the Hop" and "Rumor Mill" makes her look worse than Cassandra, since she's the one being a bad friend. The fact that she keeps suffering Aesop Amnesia from episode to episode makes her insufferable. This is in contrast to her persona in the previous seasons (and the sitcom), who was well-meaning most of the time.
  • While "jerk" is a slight overstatement, Uncle Quigley gets this the same way in the parent series. Villains like Gem, Scheherazade and Tim the Witch Smeller are entertainingly evil, whereas Quigley is just a stern parental figure and eternal wet blanket.
• Les Yay:
  • Sabrina and Chloe in "Witchy Girls" since the two of them arguing about what they want back from each other is a clear parallel to a Divorce Assets Conflict.
  • A more obvious example is in "Tail of Two Kitties", when Sabrina's plan involves transforming herself into a tomcat and, for all intents and purposes, seducing Salem's girlfriend to prove that she's not right for him.
• Moment of Awesome: In "Most Dangerous Witch" Quigley capturing Tim without magic and then calling Tim out on how unjustified his grudge against all Witches is.
• More Popular Replacement: The antagonist of the Friends Forever movie is a generic Alpha Bitch called Portia, who's a one-dimensional ditzy Hate Sink. Her character model is reused in Sabrina's Secret Life as Cassandra - a fellow teenage witch preserving The Masquerade in the mortal realm. She's Sabrina's rival, making her a more interesting antagonist. The jury is out on whether she's better than Gem, but she avoids being a Replacement Scrappy like so many others.
• Never Live It Down: Secret Life Sabrina can't live down her bad behavior in "At the Hop", where all the conflict is caused either by her own immaturity (turning on Maritza for asking Harvey to the dance and not considering there might be another reason), pettiness (conspiring with Cassandra to humiliate her, and laughing cruelly when her hair is messed up) or idiocy (mixing her call-waiting up, which is what kicks off the whole problem in the first place). She does realize Cassandra went too far and tries to stop her from doing more, but is far too Easily Forgiven by some.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The licensed games on the series were quite decent. Zapped! and Spooked! for Game Boy Color have been praised for being solid platform games, while Magical Adventure for the PC was also well-received.
• Refrain from Assuming: There is no song called "Have You Seen Her?" The theme song is officially titled "She'll Bewitch Ya".
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • The voice cast change for Sabrina's Secret Life. Britt McKillip would especially be criticized for her take on Sabrina (though she would redeem herself in later years).
  • Enchantra from the first series was retooled with a different design, voice actress and persona for Secret Life. This change makes her much blander, less attractive and therefore less memorable.
  • Maritza straddles the line; while she comes across as a better person than Sabrina herself in this show (who heavily Took a Level in Jerkass), she's still replacing fan-favourite Chloe. It doesn't help that she's basically Chloe's character model with her skin lightened to become Latina. It also doesn't help that she doesn't have much of a personality aside from being a Nice Girl who is in the role as Sabrina's best friend.
• The Scrappy: Some fans of Sabrina's Secret Life saw Sabrina herself as this, As the tone became more educational, Sabrina had to become meaner and stupider to demonstrate her learning An Aesop.
• Seasonal Rot: Sabrina's Secret Life is divisive to say the least. Fan favourite characters like Gem, Pi and Chloe get Put on a Bus, Harvey and Sabrina both get flanderized, the entire voice cast gets replaced, and the animation is a lot cheaper (which is typical for a DIC show). There's also a sheer disregard for continuity, where side characters Tiffany and Margo get mixed up within the same episode!
• Shallow Parody: The Titanic parody in "The Grandparent Trap". What’s even funnier is that Titanic is in the public domain, due it being based on a real event, and Chloe references it by name in another episode.
• Special Effects Failure: In "Documagicary" the Netherworld producer teleports away in what probably supposed to be a Smoke Out exit, but there's no smoke and Sabrina just starts coughing for no reason.
• Squick: Sabrina suffering from 'hypo-germia' results in her sweating disgusting green blobs that then mutate into giant monsters.
• Take That, Scrappy!: As despised as Sabrina herself became in Sabrina's Secret Life, there were moments of levity.
  • "Just a Rumor" - Cassandra makes up a rumor about her hair being synthetic, everyone at school believes it, and she's bombarded by people begging to touch her hair. Especially satisfying that Harvey believes it after how cruelly Sabrina believed the one about him cheating on tests.
  • "At the Hop" - Harvey tries to be nice to Sabrina when he and Maritza arrive at the dance (which is extremely big of him, since he thought Sabrina turned him down with an angry "no!" over the phone). Sabrina ignores him and Salem chews her out with "could you be any snootier?", and he likewise calls her out for laughing at Cassandra's mean prank on Maritza.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • A few episodes, but especially "Stone Broke" imply that Gem might have some Hidden Depths to her. In "Stone Broke", Gem seems to be quite reluctant to go back to the Rich Bitch life after even pondering out loud whether or not she was genuinely happy with her old life. This could easily lead to some Character Development and a future Heel–Face Turn... but nope, Status Quo Is God and she's back to being a Hate Sink. Sabrina doesn’t even seem to care that she’s miserable with being rich.
  • Anyone remember Nicole from the movie Friends Forever? Did you like Nicole, want to see her and Sabrina's friendship while also feeling Sabrina needed a friend who could call her out for using her powers for bad things? Sadly DIC didn't remember her and Nicole is a movie exclusive character. She may have lived in a different part of the mortal realm once graduating from the magic school, but she doesn't even get name-dropped.
  • Maritza was one of the few characters in Sabrina's Secret Life to be somewhat tolerable but, since she wasn't Sabrina's Secret-Keeper like Chloe was, she doesn't get to be involved in any of the magical plots. Ultimately she never grows out of being the Token Latina Friend.
  • Speaking of SSL, one of the most common complaints about the show was how Chloe, Gem, and Uncle Quigley were all Put on a Bus.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: "Witch Switch" showcased Gem gaining Sabrina's life due to Sabrina enacting a spell to switch their lives which allowed her magical powers. However we only see a bit of what she does with it halfway through the episode (essentially brainwashing Harvey into her slave, having him carry her books and follow her around) and by the time she catches on that Sabrina's up to something, Sabrina uses a spell to freeze her in place long enough to undo the life switch spell. They do get some mileage out of having a witch rival to Sabrina in Cassandra's characterization in Sabrina's Secret Life.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: For all the Seasonal Rot that is Sabrina's Secret Life, Tifanie Christun does a good job voicing Cassandra.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The cartoon can be an immediate snapshot of the Y2K Era, with the fashions on the female characters and the technology used; Gem the local Rich Bitch is the only one with a cell phone, and it's a blocky looking flip phone, with any other child characters using a landline to talk to their friends. Sabrina mentions having a VCR, showing it was before most households switched to DVD and eventually digital streaming. It's also full of pop culture references and parodies to 90s and 2000s media - two Totally Radical fairies named Dawson and Felicity, an Expy of Quentin Tarantino and a mockbuster of Pulp Fiction and mention of John Travolta's Career Resurrection because of it (with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer parody too), and references to Titanic (1997) and Forrest Gump in "Wiccan of the Sea" (when they find the Heart of the Ocean and Forrest's feather in the giant fish's stomach). The episode "Witchy Grrrls" captures the Girl Group popularity of the day, with the girls assigning themselves identities like the Spice Girls, and the montage showing their fame and fortune contains fans buying CDs. "Xabrina Warrior Witch" and "Anywhere But Here" show the children frequenting arcades, which were already falling out of fashion in 1999. "Brina Baby" likewise has a Bland-Name Product of Beanie Babies, a distinctly 90s fad.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: In the first season, Uncle Quigley can be so smothering and controlling that one can hardly blame Sabrina for rebelling once in a while. What's more is that he tries to boss around the aunts, who are centuries older than him, but trapped in the bodies of teenagers and unlike Sabrina could blast him in a second.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Sabrina's adult self in "Anywhere But Here" gets laughed at for trying to play an arcade game. In the late 90s and early 2000s, playing video games was still considered something only children did (or else nerdy Basement Dwellers, and therefore not women). Adults playing video games is considered far more socially acceptable nowadays.
  • One episode has the girls conjure up Romeo from Romeo and Juliet, and Enchantra ends up going on a date with him. Romeo is a teenager, and is clearly seen as one in-universe, since he goes to Sabrina's school. Enchantra is very obviously an adult (and Really 700 Years Old at that). No one even remarks on the age difference.
• Values Resonance: Uncle Quigley's speech in "Most Dangerous Witch" has a very poignant message on prejudice and bigotry. It's not at all subtle, but the message still resonates years later.
  "Everybody's an individual, responsible for their own actions. I judge people by what they say and do. Not by skin color or sex or nationality, or whether or not they happen to have magic powers!"
• Why Would Anyone Take Her Back?: It's safe to say that if Maritza knew that Sabrina was a witch, she would not have been so Easily Forgiven for her bullying in "At the Hop".
• The Woobie:
  • It’s not hard to feel sorry for Uncle Quigley in "Witch Switch". With Gem as his niece, she never bothered to spend time or visit him, making him feel sad and lonely.
  • You have to feel really sorry for Maritza in the episode with the school dance. She only asks Harvey out to stop Cassandra from doing so - fully intending to suggest he go with Sabrina instead of her. Unfortunately Sabrina gets the wrong idea and breaks off their friendship, not to mention conspiring with Cassandra to get revenge.
  • Salem is this in Sabrina's Secret Life. Even though he's not portrayed as a Jerkass anymore but instead a Voice of Reason, Sabrina often takes advantage of him and manipulates him for her own personal gain, often refuses to help him when he's in danger, and is quite the bitch to him in the episode Pet Peeved.
  • The hairdresser from the opening of "Witchery Science Theatre". He seemed so excited to give Sabrina a new hairdo, and when she hates it and runs out in distress, he's heartbroken and tells Quigley "you don't owe me anything".

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