Pokémon in Norway

Pokémon in Norway
Flag of Norway
Language	Norwegian
Continent	Europe

The Pokémon franchise first reached Norway with the launch of the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the release of Pokémon Red and Blue. In Norway, Bergsala A/S owns the franchise.

Pokémon anime

The Pokémon anime is broadcasted on Disney XD (previously known as Fox Kids and later Jetix) and TV2 Junior. Most of the Johto saga has been skipped, and was never shown on Norwegian television. The 9th season, Battle Frontier, has never been shown on television, but was streamed online on TV2's streaming service TV2 Sumo the summer of 2009.

Most episodes of the series were simply the American broadcast version with an added dub track, and for certain early episodes, a list of key dub voice actors shown after the American credit roll. Starting with the TV2 broadcast of season 12, which had previously aired on Jetix, actual video edits were done to the episodes, with the English title replaced with a Norwegian one, a new "To be continued" message in Norwegian, and a new set of credits properly crediting the entire Norwegian dubbing staff.

When Pokémon first appeared on TV2, the series was accused of marketing the Pokémon toys, games, and trading cards. Since commercials and marketing towards children is illegal in Norway, per episode 30, TV2 was forced to edit out Who's That Pokémon? and the bonus videos at the end of some episodes, such as the Pokémon rap and Pikachu's Jukebox. The ban was lifted after the anime came back from its hiatus with season 6, and some unedited versions of early episodes were also released on home video.

Cast and crew

The main character, Ash Ketchum, is dubbed by Nils-Martin Crawfurd (born August 19, 1983). Misty's role was given to Anine Kruse (born November 1, 1977), and Brock was originally voiced by Eirik Espolin Johnson. Even though he passed that role to Erik Skøld (who also voiced Gary Oak and Tracey Sketchit), Eirik continued to voice characters in the anime, such as Hank, Matt, Samuel, Scott (season 8), Spenser, Robin and more recently Trip.

Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth were voiced by Lena Meieran, Ola Fjellvikaas, and Tommy Karlsen (born June 9, 1975) respectively. Karlsen, who is most known for his role as the protagonist Proffen in the popular movie serial Pelle og Proffen, also had many other roles in the series, including Drake, Kai, Maron, Tommy, Raoul Contesta (from AG160 and up), and other minor roles. His performance as Meowth is heavily based on Nathan Price's interpretation of the role. In the DP episodes, he also voices Paul. Ola Fjellvikaas eventually passed the role of James to Kim Fangen, who later passed the role to Simen Sand in the beginning of season 8. Sand's interpretation of James is notably much more flamboyant than Fjellvikaas' rendering, taking inspiration from Eric Stuart's later work in the role. He also took over the roles of Professor Oak (who was originally dubbed by Even Rasmussen) and Harley.

In season 9, Professor Oak's role was given to Trond Teigen, a veteran actor and one of the most prominent voice actors in the Norwegian Pokémon dub, best known for being the voice of the narrator since the first episode. He is also the vocalist for several of the Norwegian opening themes, including the opening to the first season, Pokémon: Battle Frontier and Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension. Teigen voiced many other characters in the series, including Adam, Archie, Bill, Brandon, Butch, Conway, Dee Dunstan, Drew, Fitzwilliam, Forrest, Hal, Isaiah, Jeremy, Jonathan, Joshua, Kerrigan, Nando, Nicholai, Professor Birch, Professor Proctor, Randy, Sebastian, Sigourney, Tate, Tucker, and Wallace.

May was voiced by Marit Berg, while her brother Max was voiced by Even Løken Bergan. Dawn's role is performed by Eline Høyer.

Other notable voice actors in the Norwegian dub include Siv Klynderud as Officer Jenny and Hanne Dancke Arnesen as Nurse Joy, with Katrine Blomstrand and Scott Maurstad providing the voices for other characters.

Music

In the year 2000, the soundtrack album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master was translated into Norwegian under the title Pokémon Du må fange dem alle!.

Pokémon games

The games are released in Norway at the same time as all other European countries. They are not localized to Norwegian, but are in English.

Events

Bulbanews has an article related to this subject:

Norway Celebi distribution announced

Norway receives the same Wi-Fi events as the rest of the PAL region.

Local events do not occur often in Norway. Events are announced at the official Pokémon forums of Norway. From March 5th to April 2, 2010, players could receive Arceus as a Wonder Card at GameStop. In February 2011, Celebi was available at GameStop and in Spaceworld stores across Norway.

The third generation received most of the same events as the rest of Europe. Events for the Game Boy Advance games were given out at the national championships for the TCG, but also on other occasions. Aura Mew was given out the first time in fall 2007, and at the TCG championships in 2008 and 2009. The top 10 most wanted was given out the first time in 2006, and the last time before it was sent back to Nintendo was in 2008. Norway also got Eon Ticket and AuroraTicket.

At some national championships, Jirachi has also been given away unofficially from a GameCube bonus disc.

External links

• Official Pokémon website for Norway

This article is part of Project Globe, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.