Pokémon in the Netherlands

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Pokémon in the Netherlands
Pokémon logo English.png
The Netherlands Flag.png
Flag of the Netherlands
Language Dutch
Continent Europe
Original anime airdates
EP001 October 27, 1999
AG001 2004
DP001 May 2008
BW001 February 25, 2011*
September 4, 2011*
XY001 April 18, 2014*
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first arrived in the Netherlands in 1999, with the first broadcast of Pokémon, ik kies jou! in Dutch. The release of Pokémon Red and Blue Versions followed afterwards, on October 10, 1999 in the English language.

Pokémon Video Games

All of the core series and spin-off Pokémon games have been released in English in the Netherlands, usually the same day as the release in the United Kingdom. An exception to this were Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions. Due to a major bug found in some releases of Pokémon HeartGold, which prevented saved games from being detected, the release was postponed from March 25th to April 2nd, 2010 in both the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium).

As in the rest of Europe, Pokémon Trozei! was sold under the title Pokémon Link! and Pokémon Rumble Blast was sold under the title Super Pokémon Rumble.

Pokémon Play It! was released in Dutch as Pokémon: Speel het!. The interface of Pokémon Trading Card Game Online is in Dutch but the cards themselves remain in English.

On August 19 and 20, 2000 Nintendo Benelux organised the Dutch Pokémon Championship 2000 in Six Flags Holland. 3 x 128 Pokémon Trainers could battle for the Pika Cup, Poké Cup and the Prime Cup using their Pokémon from Red, Blue, or Yellow. Using Transfer Paks these Pokémon were moved to Pokémon Stadium, which was used for battling.[1]

Pokémon anime

Pokémon was originally broadcasted in the Netherlands on Fox Kids. On February 23, 2005, the network was renamed Jetix and then again on January 1, 2010, as Disney XD.

When Fox Kids announced it would stop broadcasting Pokémon in March 2001, 32,000 complaining children called to Fox Kids. It turned out to be a 1 April joke, when the channel announced on 1 April that the third season would begin airing the same day.[2]

The first four movies (M01 Dutch premiere: 20 April 2000; M02 Dutch premiere: 12 October 2000; M03 Dutch premiere: 23 May 2001; M04 Dutch premiere: 3 July 2003) saw a release in Dutch theaters. Later movies, as well the special episodes, are regularly broadcasted on Disney XD. The last Pokémon movie to be released in the Netherlands on VHS was M04, the last release on DVD was M15 and there have been no Blu-ray releases.

Episodes and movies in the Netherlands generally debut a few weeks after the first airing in the United States. A notable exception to this was Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness which aired in Dutch before airing in English anywhere in the world. Which together with the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon special, four Pikachu shorts (PK01, PK04, PK07 and PK11), The Uncut Story of Mewtwo's Origin (part of M01) SS026 (part of M16), Mewtwo Returns and The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon were the only specials of the Pokémon anime to be released in the Netherlands.

The Dutch dub also airs in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. In both Belgium and the Netherlands the anime is available on Netflix.

Music

Some songs used in the Dutch anime are translated (these include Pokémon Karaokémon, Pokérap and the title songs from season 3-4 and season 8 onwards), while some other songs are used untranslated (Pikachu's Jukebox, The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye) and the title songs from season 1-2 and 5-7). Usually the regular singer for television theme songs is Herman van Doorn, returning in the 17th season Pokémon the Series: XY.

Three soundtrack albums have been released in the Netherlands. The first, Pokémon 2.B.A. Master, was the same as its North American counterpart and was sold in English. The second, Pokémon - De Reis van Johto, was a Dutch translation of Totally Pokémon. The third Pokémon 3: The Ultimate Soundtrack Nederlands Versie, was a Dutch translation of Pokémon 3: The Ultimate Soundtrack.

Cast and crew

The lead role of Ash Ketchum is performed by Christa Lips (born 1964), a Dutch actress and singer. Christa also voiced Cassidy in season 2 and 8.

Marlies Somers (born January 16, 1973) gave her voice to Misty, while Fred Meijer is the voice of Brock, as well as Giovanni in seasons 3-6.

In season 2, the role of Tracey Sketchit was voiced by Martin van den Ham (September 15, 1962 - March 9, 2001), an actor and comedian. After his sudden death of cardiac arrest at the age of 38, Tracey's recurring appearances were performed by Rolf Koster (born February 25, 1968).

In the Advanced Generation series, May was voiced by Nicoline van Doorn and Max was voiced by Lot Lohr (born June 3, 1963).

In the Diamond & Pearl series, Dawn's role was given to Meghna Kumar (born June 23, 1979).

In the Best Wishes series, Iris is voiced by José Kroon and Cilan is voiced by Jurjen van Loon (born September 14, 1983)

In the XY series, Serena is voiced by Tara Hetharia, Clemont is voiced by Christian Nieuwenhuizen, and Bonnie is voiced by Manou Cardoso.

Jessie is dubbed by Hilde de Mildt (born November 19, 1959). James was originally dubbed by Bram Bart (April 32, 1962 - April 8, 2012), who also voiced Gary Oak, but in season 8 the role was given to Paul Disbergen, also the voice of Butch in season 8.

Meowth also had a change of voice actors at the same time, from Jan Nonhof (born December 9, 1947) to Bas Keijzer (born March 31, 1973). In season 15, Bas Keijzer has been replaced with Fred Meijer who previously provided the voice of Brock and Giovanni.

Giovanni has had many voice actors. He was originally voiced by Just Meijer, in season 2 Stan Limburg gave his voice. From season 3 to season 6 Fred Meijer, who also did the voice of Brock, dubbed him and in the special Mewtwo Returns, Sander de Heer did Giovanni's voice. From season 6 to 7 Just Meijer did Giovanni's voice again but he was replaced by Bas Keijzer, who also did Meowth's voice. In season 14, Just Meijer returned once again and he is the current voice of Giovanni and also voiced Stephan in his debut episode.

Dexter and Professor Oak were voiced by Jon van Eerd (September 5, 1960) up to season 7, at which point he was replaced by Tony Neef (born January 29, 1961), who also voiced Gary Oak (AG146-present), Harley, Paul and Butch (season 9-present). In season 11, Professor Oak's role was moved to Thijs van Aken (born May 5, 1969), while Dexter's role was moved to Hetty Heyting (born October 19, 1953), also the voice of Zoey, Cassidy (season 9-present), and Vivian Meridian.

Other notable voice actors in the Dutch dub include Jeroen Keers as the narrator, Mandy Huydts (born April 9, 1969) as Nurse Joy (season 1-13) and Cassidy (season 1), Edna Kalb (born October 11, 1959) as Officer Jenny (season 1-13) and Fennel (season 14), Beatrijs Sluyter as Delia Ketchum, Lilian Meridian, and Marian, Edward Reekers (born May 24, 1957) and Pepijn Gunneweg (born May 18, 1976) as Todd Snap, Niki Romijn as Ritchie, Sander van der Poel (born September 19, 1986) as Drew, Huub Dikstaal (born January 6, 1968) as Drew, Butch, Scott and Pierce, Finn Poncin as Butch, Lottie Hellingman (born August 7, 1977) as Cassidy, Marjolein Algera (born November 25, 1965) as Vivian Meridian, Lotte Horlings (born April 10, 1979) as J, Frank Rigter (season 11-12) and Mitchell van den Dunge Bille (season 12-13) as Barry, Thijs van Aken (born May 5, 1969) as Trip, Fleur van de Water as Bianca, Eva Burmeister as Burgundy, Natalie Hanenveld as Georgia, Trevor Reekers (born June 21 1988) as Luke, and Paul Disbergen as Dr. Zager.

Most of the movies held the original voice actors. However, the distributor for movies 4-7 chose for another dubbing studio. As a result, most of the original cast was replaced by other voice actors. Only Christa Lips as Ash and Marlies Somers as Misty remained. From movie 5 and on, they, too, got replaced by new voice actors.

Beside the replaced voice actors, the dub was also not of high quality. The dialogue and title song were poorly translated, and at some scenes, the English dub voices could still be heard, or no voices would be present at all.

From 2007 on, the movies did not premiere anymore on DVD, but rather on TV (Jetix and Disney XD). This meant that the dubbing was once again of high quality and held the original cast.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Booster packs of the Pokémon Trading Card Game have been sold in the Netherlands since the beginning of the TCG. Prices are generally around €4 per pack. Base Set, Jungle, and Fossil have been released in Dutch, while later sets have been sold in English only.

There are nineteen Play! Pokémon leagues in the Netherlands, which work the same way as leagues in other countries. Once every year, the leagues in the Netherlands and Belgium hold an international tournament called the Benelux Cup.

Fox Kids regularly organised a Pokémon Trading Card Liga in Six Flags, visitors could trade and play Pokémon Trading Cards.

Pokémon manga

English Pokémon Adventures volumes are imported and sold in the Netherlands by comic/manga stores. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Ginji's Rescue Team was translated in Dutch and serialized in three parts alongside 2007 publications of Jetix Magazine.

Trivia

Pokemon Offical Magazine issue 6/2016 of the Dutch version

Related articles

References


The Pokémon franchise around the world
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HungaryIcelandIrelandItalyLatviaLithuaniaNetherlandsNorth MacedoniaNorwayPoland
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