Pokémon in Portugal: Difference between revisions

Pokémon in Portugal
Flag of Portugal
Language	European Portuguese
Continent	Europe
Original anime airdates
EP001	1999
AG001	2004
DP001	January 31, 2009
BW001
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached Portugal around 1999, when the anime started to be broadcast on SIC.

Pokémon video games

All Pokémon video games were released in Portugal in English, with the box and the instruction booklet translated. Up until April 2009, games were not launched in Portugal in time. In April 3 2009 Nintendo opened a branch in Portugal and now almost all the games are launched in time.

Pokémon anime

SIC's most recent logo, used since 1997

The television station that started broadcasting the Pokémon anime in Portugal is SIC (Sociedade Independente de Comunicação, in English: Independent Society of Comunication), a station based in Lisbon that is owned by Impresa and lead by Francisco Pinto Balsemão. It aired the seasons 1-10, save for the banned episodes, including Pokémon Chronicles, having several breaks in the process. The show aired in an irregular pattern, shifting from 6 A.M. to 10 A.M., but always in the same programing block, named SIC Kids. The seasons 1-9 were dubbed in the Nacional Filmes studio, in Lisbon, along with the movies 1-4.

The 7th movie was dubbed in PSB, an amateur studio in Porto (with no previous relation with the series), which was poorly received by the fans, due to it using amateur VAs.

The Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl season was dubbed in the Dialectus studio, in Lisbon too. It premiered on SIC on January 31 2009, airing more or less consistently one new episode each Saturday, around 7 A.M. After DP037 aired on October 4 2009, the show went on a hiatus. The 14 last episodes of the season aired from 6th February 2010 to 13 March 2010. These last episodes were sponsored by the Italian toy company Giochi Preziozi.

Bulbanews has an article related to this subject:

Portuguese premiere of eleventh season to be in theaters

In Fall 2010, the rights to the series were purchased by another Portuguese channel, Panda Biggs. The production was moved into the Cinemágica studio in Porto, which meant the entire voice cast was going to be replaced. TPCi took over the control of the series, retaining the episode titles written in European Portuguese introduced in the Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl season, editing the ending credits with information from the local dub staff and also replacing the "To be continued..." message with a translated one.

The channel aired the 10th season from September 20 to October 25 2010, showing 2 episodes each day of the week and repeating the 10 episodes shown on workweek in the weekend. Notably, this version had fixed mistakes in the dub, also replacing some speeches from the original production with ones of the new actors, which were presumed by the fans to be tests for the new voice cast. Midway through the airing of the 10th season, the channel started a promotion campaign of their new ownership of the series, conducting a contest in which 70 winners would win two tickets to a premiere of DP053 and DP054 in cinemas. There were two premieres: one in Lisbon (40 winners) and one in Porto (30 winners). Both premieres were held on October 23, 2010, with the winners notified two days earlier.

The Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension dub premiered oficially on October 26 2010. Unlike the previous season, Panda Biggs broadcast 1 new episode each day of the workweek.

The dub of the Rise of Darkrai movie aired on 25th December 2010 in the channel, as part of the Christmas campaign. It was the first movie to be produced in the Cinemágica studio and also the first one to have its ending songs dubbed into Portuguese.

Music

All themes used in the Portuguese dub are translated versions of the themes used in the English dub, except for Pokémon World, where the previous theme was used, and Diamond & Pearl theme, which was aired in English.

A Portuguese translation of the Pokémon 2.B.A. Master soundtrack was released, entitled Pokémon: Vamos Apanhá-Los!. This soundtrack included a video of the English version of the Pokérap that could be played on a computer. The Totally Pokémon sountrack was also released, under the title Pokémon Total.

Cast and crew

Many main characters in the Portuguese dub of the Pokémon anime have switched voice actors several times.

Ash Ketchum, for example, had no less than eight different voice actors over the years. The first voice actress to dub Ash was Maria João Luís, who left the cast after Dig Those Diglett!, but returned for the first and the second movies. In addition to Ash, she also dubbed Nastina. Starting from The Ninja Poké-Showdown, Sandra Faleiro took over Ash's role, and stayed until Snack Attack. Another role she had during that time was that of Jessiebelle.

When no new voice actor was available to voice Ash, the part was given to Sandra de Castro, who, at the time, was also the voice of Jessie. Sandra de Castro started voicing Jessie and Officer Jenny since Showdown at Dark City, when Teresa Madruga, who originally voiced these characters (as well as Delia Ketchum and Duplica), left the cast for unknown reasons. Sandra de Castro voiced many other characters throughout the series, including Cassidy (in her first appearance only), Melody, Molly Hale, Sammy, Nurse Joy, Delia Ketchum, Marina, Prima, Johanna, and the Pokédex. She also had a couple of musical appearances in the series, such as Misty's farewell song and the Pokémon Chronicles' opening (along with Sérgio Calvinho).

Sandra remained Ash's voice actress from EP095 to EP131, and again from EP158 to EP209, AG093 to AG177, and finally from DP001 to DP052. Other voice actors to dub Ash during those breaks include Cristina Carvalhal, Ana Madureira, and Bárbara Lourenço (who also dubbed Jessie, Nurse Joy, Delia Ketchum, and Hun in Pokémon Chronicles).

Other voice actresses to dub Jessie include Dora Cruz (who also dubbed Officer Jenny), Cármen Santos and Raquel Ferreira (also known as Raquel Silva; also dubbed the main characters Max and Dawn, as well as Ritchie and Luka).

For the first three seasons, Misty was voiced by Helena Montez, who also voiced Nurse Joy and Delia Ketchum. After she left the cast, Misty was dubbed by Paula Pais, in the 4th season. She was replaced again by an actress presumably named as Carla, who dubbed her in the Master Quest season and her cameo appearance in the two-part arc in AG044-AG045. The last VA to give her the voice was Isabel Ribas, in AG132-AG134, who, like her predecessor, also voiced May at the time.

Two other members of the original cast are brothers Rui Luís Brás as Meowth, Professor Oak, and Giovanni, and Peter Michael as James, Brock, Gary Oak, and, later, Tracey Sketchit. The brothers left the cast after the Orange Islands, but returned for the third and fourth movies. To replace them, voice actors Rui Quintas and Pedro Carneiro were hired. Quintas dubbed James from EP094 until DP052, Brock from EP115 until AG192, and Professor Oak, while Carneiro dubbed Tracey and Meowth. Starting from Master Quest, Quintas was the narrator until the Diamond & Pearl season. In Pokémon Chronicles and the Advanced Generation series, the roles of Meowth and Tracey, as well as Vincent and Silver, were given to Luís Barros. In the Diamond and Pearl season, Barros instead became the voice of Brock (taking the role from Rui Quintas), and Professor Rowan. Other roles he had include Yuzo and Tyson's Meowth.

The role of Gary Oak, after Peter Michael's departure, was given to Rui de Sá, who was also the voice of Butch and the narrator. In Pokémon Live he also gave voice to Giovanni. He eventually passed Gary's role to Nuno Pinto.

May's original voice was an actress knows as Carla. In AG109 she was replaced by Isabel Ribas, who also had other roles in the series, including Neesha, Officer Jenny, Delia Ketchum, and Cassidy. She played her main role until the end of AG. In her cameo in the Diamond & Pearl series her role was performed by Marta Mota.

Paul's voice actor in the 10th season was Pedro Cardoso, who also dubbed Giovanni and Professor Rowan's assistant at the time. He was replaced by Mário Santos in the 11th season, who in turn also provided voices for the narrator, Meowth and Cyrus.

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