Pokémon in Poland

Pokémon in Poland
Flag of Poland
Language	Polish
Continent	Europe
Original anime airdates
EP001	September 4, 2000
AG001	October 2, 2006
DP001	December 1, 2008
BW001
XY001
SM001
JN001
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise first reached Poland in 1999, when Pokémon Red and Blue Versions were released. On September 4, 2000, Pokémon - I Choose You! premiered in Poland.

Pokémon games

All Pokémon games are sold in Polish stores in English. The games are distributed by Stadlbauer, Polish official distributor of Nintendo games and consoles.

Pokémon anime

On September 4, 2000 Polsat started to air Pokémon Anime Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's afternoons. The first 104 episodes aired without any breaks until mid 2001. At the end of 2001 next 52 episodes started to air and after a short break Johto League Champions premiered from September to December 2002. Fourth season was moved to the earlier timeslot, when most of Polish kids are in school. Probably because of this and lack of payment to the actors of Polish version of the series, there were no new episode until 2004. New episodes were shown at Sunday's (and later also Saturday's) mornings until April 2005. Some of the recurring characters like Tracey, Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny had their voice changed in this new season. Shortly after this, at May 19, 2005, TV 4 started to air the series and, without any breaks, showed first 260 episodes, from Monday's to Thursday's afternoons, followed by first airing of sixth season from September 11, 2006. New episodes ended in December and later only reruns of fifth and sixth season aired until August, 2008.

Reruns of the first three seasons aired also on Fox Kids and Jetix until September, 2006. However this version was censored comparing to this one shown by Polsat and TV 4, with some scenes cut out. Jetix started to air brand-new tenth season at December 1, 2008. This series is infamous for changing the cast completely comparing to the sixth season. Airing of this season ended in the January, 2009 and there weren't any reruns of it since then.

In February, 2009, Jetix aired the first 26 episodes of Battle Dimension, with most of the original cast restored. Next 13 episodes aired in April. Last 13 episodes were at first planned for May, later moved to August, but they didn't aired until November, 2009 on Disney XD. In the same month they've also aired the eleventh movie.

Disney XD plans to air 12th season in March, 2010.

From May to August, 2009 Polsat aired the sixth seaon on the Sunday's mornings. However they've ended airing of the series before the end of sixth season.

In 2001 Mewtwo Strikes Back and The Power of One premiered in Polish cinemas and later both movies were also released on VHS and DVD. In 2002 Spell of the Unown and Mewtwo Returns were released on VHS and DVD. All movies were distributed by Warner Bros. Poland. All movies also later aired on HBO and HBO 2 channels. The first movie also aired on Cinemax and Cinemax 2 in 2008/2009.

Movies 4, 5, 6 and 7 are often airing on SPI owned channels Filmbox, Filmbox HD, Filmbox Extra and Filmbox Family. However they aren't dubbed, but have only voice-over put on the English dubbing.

Dubbing

Seasons 1-4 were dubbed by Studia En-Be-Ef based in Warsaw for Twin Media Power Video. Translators were only credited in some episodes of the 4th season and they include Katarzyna Precigs and Dorota Brewińska. The 5th season is credited as the work of Twin Media Power Video and 6th season was dubbed by GMC Studio. Translators of the 6th season are Dorota Brewińska, Maria Horodecka and Elżbieta Kowalska.

The first two movies were dubbed by Studio Sonica. The third movie and Mewtwo Returns were dubbed by Master Film. The cast was mostly the same as in the En-Be-Ef version, however unknown voice actor was replaced by Adam Bauman for the role of Giovanni, Anna Bielańska by Krystyna Kozanecka for the role of Delia Ketchum and, most notable, Wojciech Majchrzak by Jacek Kopczyński for the role of Tracey in the second movie, and Józef Mika in the third movie.

Later the voice-over version of the first three movies were created. They were all read by Piotr Borowiec in Master Film. Next two movies were read by the same lector in Studio Sonoria. Movies 6 and 7 had voice-over made by Genetix Film Factory and were read by Radosław Popłonikowski (who also voiced some minor characters in the first season of the dub, most notable Koga) and Jacek Brzostyński respectively.

The leading role of Ash Ketchum was given to Hanna Kinder-Kiss. Misty was dubbed by Iwona Rulewicz (who also provided voice of Vivian Meridian when Misty left the series), while the third main character, Brock, was voiced by Marek Włodarczyk, who also voiced Gary Oak.

Tracey was voiced by Wojciech Majchrzak in the second season, who also provided voices of many others minor characters, most notable Professor Elm at the beginning of the fifth season (he was also dubbed by Jacek Kałucki in the third season and Ireneusz Machnicki from the end of the fifth season). However Jacek Kopczyński replaced Majchrzak in the second movie, Józef Mika in the third movie, Arkadiusz Detmer in the fifth season and, finally, Aleksander Gawek in the sixth season.

Team Rocket's Jessie, James and Meowth were dubbed by Dorota Lanton, Jarosław Budnik, and Mirosław Wieprzewski respectively. Their boss Giovanni was dubbed by unknown voice actors in the first six season and Adam Bauman in the dub of the first movie and Mewtwo Returns. Voice of narrator was provided by Mikołaj Klimek.

May was dubbed by Julita Kożuszek-Borsuk and Max by Joanna Domańska in the sixth season of anime.

Other notable voice actors in En-Be-Ef, Twin Media, GMC, Sonica and Master Film dubs of the Pokémon anime include Małgorzata Maślanka as Officer Jenny in the first four seasons and movies, and Katarzyna Łukszyńska in the next two seasons, Anna Bielańska (seasons 1-4, movies) and Agata Rzeszewska (seasons 5-6) as Nurse Joy, Grzegorz Pawlak (seasons 1-4, movies) and Jacek Kałucki (seasons 5-6) as Professor Oak and Olga Borys as the voice of Duplica, Aya (first season only), Jessiebelle and other minor characters.

Much to everyone surprise, tenth season were dubbed by Sun Studio Polska. It was translated by Anna Hajduk and Anna Izdebska. Sun Studio decided to ignore previous cast of the series and choose all new actors for every character. Ash was then voiced by Grzegorz Drojewski, who received mixed opinions about his work from Polish Pokémon fans. Some of them stated his voice is now more suitable for Ash than previous, because in tenth season he is older and shouldn't be longer voiced by female, some others Drojewski is sounding too young, unsuitable to this role and Hanna Kinder-Kiss voice is commonly linked with Ash. Brock was voiced by Waldemar Barwiński, Jessie by Izabela Dąbrowska, James by Marcin Przybylski, Meowth by Łukasz Lewandowski, Professor Oak by Janusz Wituch, Gary Oak by Karol Wróblewski (who also voiced Conway), Nurse Joy and Delia Ketchum by Joanna Węgrzynowska and Officer Jenny by unknown voice actress. Piotr Bąk provided the voice of narrator. Magdalena Krylik was chosen for the role of Dawn.

The next season, as well as the 11th movie, was dubbed by Studio Eurocom, who worked on majority of Jetix dubs. Most of original actors returned to their respective characters, however there were few exceptions. Jessie was still voiced by Izabella Dąbrowska, Professor Oak by Janusz Wituch and Gary Oak by Karol Wróblewski (even though original Gary voice actor, Marek Włodarczyk, was providing the voice of Brock in the season). Beata Wyrąbkiewicz replaced Magdalena Krylik in the role of Dawn, and Joanna Domańska (who returned to voice Cassidy) began to provide the voice of Officer Jenny. Dub of this season was directed by Tomasz Marzecki and it was translated by Anna Hajduk, Maciej Wysocki and Kamil Pozorski (famous member of the Polish Pokemon fandom, known under the nickname AtoMan).

Music

In 2001, the soundtrack album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master was translated into Polish under the title Pokémon, Złap je wszystkie!. The Totally Pokémon CD was also translated to Polish, but actually never relased.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

The cards of Pokémon Trading Card Game available in Polish stores were sold in English for ten years. However in January, 2010 TM Toys began to distribute the Polish language version of the Diamond and Pearl extension.

Manga

Pokemon Special manga was relased in Poland in 2001 by Japonica Polonica Fantastica, under the English title Pokemon Adventures. Unlike anime, it was translated directly from Japanese language. Complete first volume was relased, in form of four comic books. However the series was discontinued due to the low popularity.

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