Pokémon in the Czech Republic

The Pokémon franchise first reached the Czech Republic (Czechia) in October 1999, when Pokémon Red and Blue Versions were released. The animated series followed in September 2000, when Pokémone, volím si tebe! premiered in Czech.

Pokémon video games

All Pokémon games sold in Czech stores are in English. Since 1999, Nintendo products have been distributed by ConQuest Entertainment.^[1] Interestingly, the appearance of Pokémon in the Czech Republic caused an increase in sales of Nintendo consoles in this country at the end of 2000.^[2]

Pokémon animation

TV series

In September 2000, TV Nova started to air the Pokémon animated series on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Without breaks, 208 episodes of seasons 1-4 (sans banned episodes, but including Holiday Hi-Jynx and Snow Way Out!) aired until August 2002. From June 2003 to September 2005, TV Nova aired reruns of these episodes. No Pokémon episodes have aired on TV Nova since then.

Cable channel Fox Kids aired season 3 (EP106—EP157) in 2004.

Some chosen episodes of seasons 1-4 also aired on another cable channel, A+. This channel was later replaced by Animax, which has not aired Pokémon.

The fifth season, as well as the entire Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, were skipped in the Czech Republic and are only available in the form of fansubs.

However, on January 5, 2009, season 10 premiered on Jetix. After its airing, season 11 premiered on March 5, 2009. Until Jetix was re-branded to Disney Channel in September 19, 2009, Jetix aired reruns of season 11. After that, Pokémon was dropped until March 1, 2010 when season 12 was announced to premiere on Disney Channel. But instead, reruns of season 11 aired. At the end of March, even these reruns stopped again.

After weeks of fan speculation, season 12 finally aired on Disney Channel on July 5, 2010.

On December 5, 2009, Following a Maiden's Voyage! premiered on TV Prima. Since then, the station has been broadcasting Pokémon regularly on weekend mornings for more than a year and aired all episodes from seasons 10 and 11.

In 2011, TV Barrandov gained broadcasting rights for the Diamond and Pearl series. Season 10 premiered on TV Barrandov on September 5, 2011. Season 11 and season 12 followed shortly after. For the first time in history, episode title cards have been localized into Czech. Later in April 2012, season 13 premiered on TV Barrandov. The episodes were cropped to 4:3 format and unlike season 12, all text was left in English. After ending season 13, the station aired reruns of season 12. In September 2012, season 14 started airing, followed by season 15 in November. The localized title cards made their return and the show was aired in 16:9 for the first time. After that, the station continued with reruns of seasons 10 to 15 until August 2014, when the show was removed from schedule altogether.

Seasons 17 to 19 were previously available on Netflix, with seasons 20 to 22 currently available. Seasons 10 to 19 were previously available on Prime Video.

Movies

In 2001, Mewtwo Strikes Back and The Power of One along with their accompanying Pikachu shorts premiered in Czech cinemas and later that year, they were also released on VHS and DVD. In March 2002, Spell of the Unown: Entei was released only on VHS and DVD. All of them were distributed by Warner Bros. Czech Republic. All three movies also later aired on HBO and HBO 2 channels.

In 2004, SPI International Czech Republic released Celebi: The Voice of the Forest direct to video on VHS. It was also frequently aired on SPI-owned channels Filmbox and Filmbox Extra from 2008 to 2013. In 2012, it was rereleased on DVD. At the moment, it is available through several Czech streaming services.

On June 14, 2009, Giratina and the Sky Warrior premiered on Jetix. It was first Pokémon movie released in the Czech Republic since Movie 4 in 2004. On January 24, 2010 Filmbox HD (owned by SPI International) premiered Jirachi: Wish Maker. On February 14, 2010, the same channel premiered Destiny Deoxys.

In 2016, Netflix began streaming Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction and Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, followed by Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel on January 4, 2018, I Choose You! on January 1, 2019, The Power of Us on January 1, 2020 and Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution on February 27, 2020.

A Czech version of POKÉMON Detective Pikachu, both subtitled and dubbed, was also shown in cinemas starting May 9, 2019 via Vertical Entertainment, and later released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 28, 2019.

Dubbing

S01 - S04, M01 - M03 (AVF Studio Zero)

Seasons 1-4 and movies 1-3 were dubbed by AVF Studio Zero based in Prague, but in TV series, the dub studio was not credited and instead the company Česká produkční 2000, who ordered the dub for TV Nova, was credited. This was common practice in TV Nova dubs in between years 1999-2006.

The dub director was Jitka Tošilová, who also worked as dialog editor. Seasons 1-3 and movies 1 and 2 were translated by Klára Cabalková, movie 3 was translated by Blažena Kukulišová, season 4 was translated by Silvie Šustrová. Sound editor was Miloš Zajdl.

The leading role of Ash Ketchum was given to Radek Škvor, who was ten years old at the time the show first reached the Czech Republic, making him the same age as his character. Radek's older brother Jan Škvor later voiced Tracey Sketchit the following season. Eva Spoustová provided the voice of Misty.

The third main character, Brock, was voiced by Martin Písařík, who was mistakenly credited as Petr Písařík in seasons 1-3 and movies 1 and 2.

Team Rocket's Jessie, James and Meowth were dubbed by Dana Černá, Michal Michálek, and Zbyšek Pantůček respectively. Their boss Giovanni was dubbed by Pavel Soukup, one of most popular Czech actors and voice actors, who also dubbed the narrator. For reasons unknown, Giovanni was portrayed by Jiří Plachý in the first movie, even though Soukup was still providing the role of narrator in the movie.

Other notable voice actors in the AVF's Czech dub of the Pokémon animated series include Kateřina Lojdová as Officer Jenny, Klára Jandová as Nurse Joy, Jiří Prager as Professor Oak, Jana Páleníčková as Cassidy and some other side characters and Jan Maxián as Brad Van Darn and some other characters.

Initially, all songs were kept in English. However, after the Czech release of the Pokémon 2.B.A. Master, the dub opted to use excerpts from the CD for the show's first opening theme, Pokérap and Pikachu's Jukebox sections. The previous episodes were also retroactively edited to reflect these changes. All other songs were still kept in English.

M04 (Studio Ebbi)

Movie 4 was dubbed in Brno-based dub studio Ebbi. The dub director was Jindřich Stožický, translator Renata Pruklová, dialog editors Filip Stožický and Radka Přibyslavská. The sound editor was not credited.

Since the dub of movie 4 was produced in Brno, only two members of the original cast were willing to travel there from Prague. These two were Radek Škvor as Ash and Eva Spoustová as Misty. All other characters were recast. Brock was voiced by Jiří Balcárek, James by Robert Jícha, Jessie by Radka Přibyslavská, Meowth by Maxmilián Hornyš and the old version of professor Oak by Milan Horský. Sammy, the young professor Oak was voiced by Klára Sochorová and Iron-Masked Marauder was voiced by popular Brno's actor and voice actor Zdeněk Junák. The role of narrator was provided by another famous Brno's actor and voice actor Aleš Jarý.

S10 - S11, M11 (DW Agentura)

Unsurprisingly to Czech fans, season 10, 11 and movie 11 were dubbed by Prague-based DW Agentura, which worked on all Jetix dubs. The dub director was Alice Hurychová, who is well known as the dub director for several Harry Potter movies. Many different translators, dialog editors and sound editors worked on this dub.

Radek Škvor and Michal Michálek reprised their roles and Pavel Soukup returned as the narrator but not as Giovanni. Eva Spoustová also returned, this time, however, as a voice of Jessie and Nurse Joy. Meowth was now voiced by Marek Libert. Rozita Erbanová was chosen as the voice of Dawn.

A well-known Czech actor, singer and composer Jan Maxián took over the role of Brock, as well as that of Professor Oak in the first three episodes. Jan's performance as Professor Oak caused controversy amongst Czech Pokémon fans, many of which stated Maxián's voice sounds too young. In his later appearances, Professor Oak was repeatedly recast. Maxián also sung Diamond and Pearl and We Will Be Heroes, and gave his voice to Saturn, and other minor characters.

The role of Officer Jenny was taken by Jana Páleníčková, who also reprised her role of Cassidy in DP065 and voiced various other characters, such as Zoey.

Other notable voice actors in DW Agentura's dub were Michal Holán as Paul, Kenny, and Giovanni (only in S10), Klára Šumanová as May and Angie, and Vojtěch Hájek as Barry and Crasher Wake, with all of them voicing several minor characters as well.

In season 11, the role of Giovanni was taken over by Marek Libert, the voice of Meowth, most likely due to it being mistaken for another boss fantasy.

S12 onwards (Barrandov Studio)

Starting season 12, the dub production is handled directly by The Pokémon Company International independently of the animated series releases. Their default studio of choice, SDI Media Czech Republic, was busy at the time, and thus, the recording was handed over to Barrandov Studio, which is in charge of it ever since. The video editing was provided by SDI Media Poland, allowing the Czech version to have written episode titles and ending credits for the first time. This, paradoxically, led to the cast and crew being uncredited during its initial Disney Channel premiere, as the channel used a single English video track for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

While the dub director and the main cast remained unchanged, the rest of the cast varied wildy, with most side characters having two or more voice actors over the course of the season - a trend which would continue in the following seasons as well. There were two translators, Klára Šumová, who already worked on seasons 10 a 11, and Hedvika Humlíčková.

For season 13, the situation was mostly the same. Hovewer, unlike the others, it contained neither localized video nor spoken cast credits, so the specifics remain unknown.

The season 14 marked the arrival of Ivana Korolová as Iris and Pavel Dytrt as Cilan and Trip, the latter eventually taken over by Petr Neskusil. Among the other consistent casting choices were Tomáš Juřička as Don George and Kateřina Petrová as Professor Juniper. Rozita Erbanová also reprised her role of Dawn in season 15. Starting season 14, Klára Šumová became the series' sole translator.

With Season 16, the disparity between the dub production and releases became clearly apparent for the first time. While the dub was produced in 2013, it would not become publicly available until 2020, when it was released on Prime Video.

Season 17 followed its lead, being finished in 2014 but not available until its Netflix release together with season 18 in 2016. This time, most of the new main characters did not warrant new voice actors. Serena was voiced by Rozita Erbanová, who previously performed as Dawn. Petr Neskusil, who previously voiced Trip and various other characters, was cast as Clemont. And the role of Bonnie was taken by Kateřina Peřinová. Ash as well as Team Rocket remained unchanged.

However, after recording Grooming Furfrou!, Eva Spoustová was recast due to her participating in an incident often referred to as the "Czech dubbing crisis", where over 180 Czech voice actors entered an agency that was supposed to help them fight for better working conditions. Most dubbing studios declined any negotiations and instead reacted by recasting all the affected roles. As a result, Radka Stupková was chosen as a replacement voice for Jessie.

Another change in the main cast came with the beginning of season 18, when Radek Škvor became too busy with his other committments and had to be replaced with his older brother Jan Škvor, who previously voiced Tracey.

The advent of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon came with a significant expansion of the voice cast due to the notable amount of new main characters. The new voice actors included Jan Battěk as Kiawe, Klára Nováková as Lana, Sára Nygrýnová as Lillie, Klára's sister Adéla Nováková as Mallow, Jan Köhler as Sophocles and Martin Kubačák as Professor Kukui. While Jan Maxián reprised his role of Brock, Misty was taken over by Jana Páleníčková, as Eva Spoustová left the cast during the 14th season. Starting season 21, Vojtěch Hájek, who voiced minor characters in the previous seasons, took over the position of a dub director.

Music

In 2001, the soundtrack album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master was translated into Czech under the title Pokémon - Chyťte je všechny!. The Totally Pokémon CD was also translated to Czech later that year, titled Pokémon, Johtovy Cesty.

Pokémon manga

In February 2020, a Czech comic and manga publisher Nakladatelství Crew announced it would release the first two arcs of Pokémon Adventures under the title Pokémon Adventures: Red a Blue, with the first book tentatively planned for June 2020. However, partly due to the measures imposed by the Czech government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the release has been postponed. The first volume of the manga was eventually released on September 15, 2020, under the shortened title Pokémon - Red a Blue 1, followed by Volume 2 on November 3. The subsequent volumes were released quarterly.

The first volume of the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc was released on May 17, 2022, continuing the numbering and quarterly schedule from the previous arcs, with the subtitle updated to Gold a Silver. Volume 15 was released on May 21, 2024, subtitled Gold a Silver / Ruby a Sapphire, marking the end of the Gold, Silver & Crystal arc and beginning of the Ruby & Sapphire arc.

The translation and contents of the Czech release are based directly on the Japanese version while adhering to the official English names of Pokémon, characters and cities. The names of moves, abilities, items and some locations are translated into Czech, mostly matching the translations used in the dub of the contemporary seasons of the animated series.

Pokémon merchandise

Czech versions of the first ten books of the Pokémon Chapter Books, as well as The Official Pokémon Handbook by Maria S. Barbo were released in 2001 by Egmont. A monthly magazine titled Pokémon Magazín was also published during 2001 and 2002. However, its focus gradually expanded and shifted to other popular franchises, resulting in a name change to Magazín and its eventual discontinuation.

Pokémon Trading Card Game

The cards of Pokémon Trading Card Game sold in Czech stores are sold in English. The distributor of Pokémon Trading Card Game is ADC Blackfire Entertainment, who also distributes some Pokémon toys in Czech Republic.

External links

References

The Pokémon franchise around the world
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

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

[1] ttp://b2b.cqe.sk/clanky/profil-spolecnosti/

[2] ttps://www.idnes.cz/hry/magazin/konzolim-v-cechach-kraluje-playstation.A010121_trhkonzoliq12k1_bw

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