Pokémon in Canada
Pokémon in Canada | ||||
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Languages | English and Canadian French | |||
Continent | North America | |||
Original anime airdates | ||||
EP001 | September 1998 | |||
AG001 | 2003 | |||
DP001 | August 2007 | |||
BW001 | ||||
XY001 | ||||
SM001 | ||||
JN001 | ||||
HZ001 |
The Pokémon franchise first reached Canada in late 1998 with the release of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions and the airing of the anime.
Pokémon video games
All Pokémon games that have been released in the United States have also been released in Canada, with the exception of the Pokémon mini. New games are always released on the same day that they are released in the US. Pokémon games sold in Canada are direct imports of the US versions, so spelling variations such as color and center are not changed to colour and centre for the Canadian releases. While bilingual packaging and French-language instruction manuals are required by law to be included with the sale of all video games, no French-language Pokémon games have been released in Canada.
Typically, Nintendo does not distribute event Pokémon in Canada, although Canadian players may download Wi-Fi events. The recent introduction of Wi-Fi events has allowed Canadian players access to many previously unavailable event Pokémon.
Pokémon anime
In English
The English dub of the Pokémon anime has aired in Canada on YTV since September 1998, when Pokémon - I Choose You! debuted. In addition to airing the anime series, YTV also airs the Pokémon movies on occasion during their weekend "Moovibot" segment. Pokémon is very well received by YTV's viewers.[1]
Currently, YTV airs seven episodes of Pokémon: Advanced Battle per week.[2]
Day[3][4] | Time (EST)[3][4] |
---|---|
Monday | 8:00 AM |
Tuesday | 8:00 AM |
Wednesday | 8:00 AM |
Thursday | 8:00 AM |
Friday | 8:00 AM |
Saturday | 11:00 AM |
Saturday | 11:30 AM |
When the anime debuted on YTV, it aired on weekdays at 4:00 PM. When The Adventures in the Orange Islands debuted in the US, YTV continued to air Indigo League episodes until Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon? aired on Kids' WB!. This is due to YTV's policy of not airing new episodes until there are enough new dubbed episodes to air five days a week until the end of the season. Back around this time, Pokémon sometimes received blocks of "back to back to back to back" specials. The first time this occurred, the block was called "Pokemania".
YTV began airing new Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl episodes on Saturdays in August 2007. A 3:30 PM weekday timeslot starting with Following A Maiden's Voyage was added on April 7, 2008. Eventually, these 3:30 PM episodes surpassed the timeline of the Saturday episodes, starting with Buizel Your Way out of This!. Thus, Canada started getting five new episodes per week. The episode that made the weekday afternoon episodes pass the Saturday ones was Buizel Your Way out of This!. The first season of the Diamond & Pearl series had finished its chronological airing on Tuesday, June 17, meaning that Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension should have started on the next Wednesday or possibly Saturday. However, this did not happen, as YTV began rerunning season 10 from the beginning. This is due to YTV's episode policy as stated above.
Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension briefly appeared for three weeks, airing on Fridays at 8:00 AM starting November 7, 2008. At one point, YTV was constantly changing their schedule around from Pokémon: Battle Frontier and Diamond and Pearl episodes at the times of 3:30 PM and 8:00 AM. On Monday, March 2, 2009, YTV began to air Battle Dimension regularly and only aired Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl episodes on Saturdays. On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, YTV aired the last episode of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension. On Saturday, October 10, 2009, YTV began airing episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles.[5] On the same day, they aired Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness at 12:00 PM, and also Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky - Beyond Time & Darkness at 12:30 PM (just one day after the US airing).[6] On November 20, 2009, YTV stopped airing episodes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension and began to air only Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Galactic Battles. On November 28, 2009, YTV aired the Canadian premier of Arceus and the Jewel of Life.
Currently, YTV is airing reruns of Pokémon: Advanced Battle.
In 2005, YTV launched an on demand anime channel simply named YTV Anime On Demand. The channel contained new and old programs, including series that do not air on the normal YTV. The Pokémon anime was also available on this service. In 2008, YTV renamed its on demand service to Bionix On Demand, which continues to offer Pokémon in its line-up to this day.[7]
YTV has never banned an episode of the Pokémon anime except for those which were banned in Japan.
In some areas of Canada, The WB (now The CW) is available on cable. With this, Canadians were able to watch the newest English-dubbed episodes on Kids' WB! before they aired on YTV. Since Cartoon Network became the USA's provider of the Pokémon anime in 2006, Canadians must now wait until the dubbed episodes air on YTV to watch them due to the fact that Cartoon Network is only available in the United States.
In French
The French Canadian dub of Pokémon is actually a modified version of the dub from France. While the Canadian dub uses most of the same dialogue as the European French version, all the proper names in the show are redubbed to match the English version (for example, "Misty" is used instead of "Ondine" and "Charmander" instead of "Salamèche"). However, Meowth is still named "Miaouss". All of the Pokémon cries were redubbed as well, even for Pokémon whose names are the same in the English and European French versions, such as Pikachu. All dubbing and other modifications required for the French Canadian version of the anime were conducted by Covitec in the province of Québec.
The French Canadian dub aired on Télétoon, a French-language children's network based in Montréal. Although Télétoon has removed Pokémon from its schedule, it still occasionally airs the Pokémon movies. Approximately around Pokémon: Master Quest, the Canadian French version of the dub ceased to be produced and distributed, although the movies continued to be released to French Canadians until Destiny Deoxys. The French Canadian version of the Pokémon anime currently does not air on any channel.
The French Canadian dub was released on VHS and DVD by Imavision Distribution Inc., but their license to distribute the series has expired and their Pokémon titles have gone out of print. The movies were distributed on VHS and bilingual DVD (with both French and English audio tracks) by Warner Brothers, although no movies have been released to Canadians in French since VIZ Media took over the distribution of the films.
Cast and Crew
To match the names used in the English version of the Pokémon anime aired elsewhere in Canada, many voice actors and actresses contributed to the production of the French Canadian version of the anime by redubbing all proper names used in the show (as most of the characters, Pokémon and place names in the European French version have different names than the ones used in the English version).
These voice actors included Sébastien Reding, who provided the voice of Ash Ketchum, Kim Jalabert, who provided Misty's voice, Martin Watier, who provided Brock's voice, and Joël Legendre, who provided Tracey's voice. Ash's mother, Delia Ketchum, was voiced by Nathalie Coupal.
Jessie was voiced by Christine Séguin, James was voiced by Antoine Durand, and Meowth was voiced by François Sasseville. Their boss, Giovanni, was voiced by Daniel Picard.
Professor Oak was voiced by Alain Sauvage. Another Pokémon Professor, Professor Elm, was voiced by Pierre Chagnon.
Other notable voice actors of the Canadian French dub include Julie Burroughs, who provided the voice for Nurse Joy, and Camille Cyr-Desmarais, the voice of Officer Jenny.
Pokémon Trading Card Game
Cards for the Pokémon Trading Card Game have been sold in Canada since the introduction of the Base Set. English-language cards are imported from the United States to be sold in Canadian stores. Originally, only English-language cards were available, but many French-speaking parents felt this was unfair to their children, who also did not have a French-language Pokémon video game. As a result, Wizards of the Coast, which had recently started selling Pokémon cards in France, began to import these French-language cards for sale in Québec. Today, both English- and French-language cards are recognized as tournament legal in Pokémon Organized Play.
Pokémon merchandise
Canada receives most of the same Pokémon merchandise that is available in the United States, such as plush toys and foods. All four Burger King promotions were available at Canadian Burger King outlets. Per national laws[8], all Pokémon toys and other merchandise come with bilingual packaging and instructions.
Several Pokémon books released in English in Canada and the United States received French-language translations for sale in Québec. These translations were done by Le Groupe Syntagme Inc. Examples include many of Tracey West's Pokémon chapter books based on the anime, the Pokémon Adventure Series (Pokémon Collection Adventure), Pokémon Pop Quiz (Pokémon Questions-pièges) and Extreme Pokémon: The Guide for the Ultimate Fan (Extrêmes Pokémon: Le guide ultime des vrais mordus). VIZ Media exports all of its Pokémon manga to Canada, however, no Pokémon manga have been released in Canadian French.
All Pokémon board games released in the United States, such as Pokémon Master Trainer and Pokémon Yahtzee Jr., have been released in Canada in fully bilingual versions.
In the late 1990s, YTV featured Pokémon Theme on their first Big Fun Party Mix CD.[9]
Trivia
- Scott Ramsoomair, the author of the webcomic Super Effective, is Canadian.[10]
- Pokémon.ca used to redirect to Pokémon.com.
References
- ↑ Your opinion of Pokemon - Have Your Say on YTV.com
- ↑ YTV's Pokemon board
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 For the latest Pokémon listings for YTV, see YTV's Pokémon show times list
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Anime TV Guide
- ↑ YTV's Pokemon board
- ↑ www.YTV.com :: AnimeMaster :: Article Archive
- ↑ Video On Demand - Exclusive Anime!
- ↑ Official Languages Act
- ↑ Big Fun Party Mix: Big Fun Party Mix: Amazon.ca: Music
- ↑ Scott Ramsooair Biography @ AnimeCons.com
The Pokémon franchise around the world | |
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Africa: | South Africa |
The Americas: | Brazil • Canada • Latin America • United States |
Asia: | Greater China • Indonesia • Japan • Malaysia • Philippines • Singapore • South Asia • South Korea • Thailand • Vietnam |
Europe: | Albania • Belgium • Bulgaria • Croatia • Czech Republic • Denmark • Finland • France • Germany • Greece Hungary • Iceland • Ireland • Italy • Latvia • Lithuania • Netherlands • North Macedonia • Norway • Poland Portugal • Romania • Russia • Serbia • Slovakia • Spain • Sweden • Ukraine • United Kingdom |
Middle East: | Arab world • Israel • Turkey |
Oceania: | Australia • New Zealand |
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This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world. |