Television Review : ‘Sabrina’ Loses Some Magic in Move to World of Animation

Don’t look for “Sabrina, the Animated Series” to be as quirkily entertaining as the prime-time live-action ABC series. This is surprisingly pedestrian stuff, fodder for an ambitious daily schedule: Beginning today on UPN and in syndication, it will run Sundays through Fridays as part of Disney’s animated block, “Disney’s One Too.” On Sept. 11, it will also become part of “Disney’s One Saturday Morning.”

If the show wasn’t spun off from the TV series starring appealing Melissa Joan Hart, the typical talking head animation and mildly entertaining plots would hardly make it stand out from the competition.

For younger audience appeal, the cartoon Sabrina is only 12 years old, living with aunts Hilda and Zelda--they’ve been reinvented as teenagers--and a kindly uncle.

Otherwise, it’s pretty much a carbon copy, with Sabrina’s imperfect control of her magic leading to mischief. (We’re not supposed to remember that she didn’t learn she was a witch until her 16th birthday.)

The cartoon format does allow her sarcastic cat Salem to do more, although this is not a big plus. Where the animated series finds freshness and sparkle is in the voice talents of Melissa Joan Hart--playing both aunts--and Hart’s younger sister, Emily, who speaks for Sabrina.

* “Sabrina, the Animated Series” airs weekdays at 7:30 a.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. on UPN; it joins ABC’s Saturday morning lineup Sept. 11 at 9:30 a.m.