It may be because he was born in Gualdo, a picturesque medieval village in the Marche region. Still, Iginio Straffi, ‘dad’ of the Winx fairies, an authentic Italian Walt Disney, has the superpower to imagine fantastic worlds and turn them into reality and business!
Cartoonist, director, producer, and entrepreneur Iginio Straffi, born in ‘65, is the founder and owner of Rainbow, the largest Made in Italy animation studio. His love for cartoons has given him a career worthy of a Netflix docufilm.
From comics to animation
Always passionate about drawing and animation, he published his first nationally published comic strip story at 19. He enrolled at the University of Macerata and alternated his studies in foreign languages and Literature with work as a cartoonist for important publishers such as Bonelli.
Shortly before graduating, he went to France to work on animated feature films, thus discovering industrial animation, which was pure utopia in Italy at the time. Returning to Italy, he put his experience to good use. In his early thirties in 1995, defying all the pessimistic forecasts of the experts, he founded Rainbow S.p.A. in Recanati, the first technologically advanced animation studio in Italy. Thus began Iginio Straffi’s ‘magical’ career!
In 2004 came the worldwide success of Winx Club, which consecrated Rainbow’s animation industry worldwide.
Magic, friendship and solidarity: the Winx
The Winx were born out of Straffi’s passion for comic strips, from drawings and sketches first made by hand and then becoming 3D animated characters with special effects. In particular, they were born out of the desire to create a cartoon dedicated to little girls, with characters carrying positive values such as friendship and solidarity, all spiced with a touch of magic. But, of course, a successful product is often the result of teamwork, and the Winx were born from the imagination and work of a team of around 200 people, including authors, designers, set designers, animators and even stylists. Today, the Winx Club series is broadcast on TV in more than 150 countries, including China.
Over the years, the Winx have grown, reinvented themselves, kept up with the times, and even anticipated them. They have embraced the cause of environmental protection and ecology, winning over entire generations of little boys and girls in every latitude of the world.
A Made in Italy giant
Congratulations to those who bring Italy and Made in Italy creativity to the world’s screens!However, Straffi’s inventiveness and business sense did not stop with the Winx. It is no surprise that the father of the colourful fairies, an all-around entertainment entrepreneur, is also the producer of the revenge movie My Name is Revenge, which was just released and is already in the Netflix Top Ten in several countries.
Today, Rainbow, the largest TV and film industry in Italy (990 employees), is headquartered in Loreto (AN) and also includes Colorado Film Production and Paramount Group Italy. It has a turnover of 90 million euros and produces animated TV series and movies for 150 networks from Detroit to Seoul!
Congratulations to those who bring Italy and Made in Italy creativity to the world’s screens!
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