Pokémon in Norway

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Pokémon in Norway
Flag of Norway
Language	Norwegian
Continent	Europe
Original anime airdates
EP001	January 9, 2000
AG001	April 3, 2004
DP001	March 30, 2008
BW001	August 21, 2011
XY001	March 30, 2014
SM001	August 26, 2017
JN001	November 27, 2020 January 1st, 2021
HZ001

The Pokémon franchise arrived in Norway with the launch of the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the release of Pokémon Red and Blue. Bergsala A/S is Nintendo's distributor in Scandinavia, and as a result the company also owns the Pokémon franchise in Norway.

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. The only game released in Norwegian is Pokémon Trading Card Game Online, but only the interface had been translated and the cards themselves remained in English.

Events

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

Local events do not occur often in Norway. Events were announced at the official Pokémon forums of Norway before its shutdown in 2013. From March 5 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. Eon Ticket and AuroraTicket have also been distributed in Norway, taking place at several TCG championships. At some national championships, Jirachi has also been given away, although unofficially, via a GameCube bonus disc.

Pokémon anime

The Pokémon anime is broadcasted on Disney XD (a channel that took the place of Fox Kids, later Jetix and Toon Disney) and TV2 Junior. Most of the Johto saga was skipped and never shown on Norwegian television. The ninth season has never been shown on television, but was streamed online on TV 2's streaming service TV 2 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 TV 2 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 aired on TV 2, the series was accused of marketing Pokémon merchandise. Since commercials and marketing towards children is illegal in Norway, per episode 30, TV 2 was forced to edit out Who's That Pokémon?, in addition to the bonus clips 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.

In Norway, the anime is available on Netflix.

Movies

Almost every Pokémon feature film has at some point been distributed to the Norwegian audience. The eighth and the ninth movie have not yet been released in a Norwegian dub. Apart from those two, all movies have been known to be purchasable as home video, either in DVD-format or even VHS for movies prior to Spell of the Unown: Entei. It has not yet been determined whether Blu-ray distributions will arrive in the near future, giving the Norwegian audience access to Pokémon in High Definition. Only the first three movies had a theatrical release, as well as being available on home video later on.

The first four Pokémon movies featured the Norwegian dubbers from the Pokémon anime on television. However, in the next three movies the cast was partly replaced. In the fifth movie, Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias, the protagonist was dubbed by the voice actor known for the narrator in the dub. This followed for the next two movies, where additionally Ash' traveling companion May was voiced by different actors in each movie. None of them were a part of the original cast known from the Pokémon anime. It was not until the tenth movie when the main cast was finally reintroduced. As of today the original Norwegian cast is still responsible for voicing the Pokémon movies.

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 Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, 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. Movie 21 also featured John-Edvard Genius in several minor roles.

Music

In 2000, the soundtrack album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master was translated into Norwegian under the title Pokémon Du må fange dem alle!. The lyrics are most likely based on the Danish translation as some of it are nearly identical. It could also be the other way around as both the Danish and Norwegian albums are the only known to be released in 2000. Pokémon 2.B.A. Master is the only known Pokémon soundtrack that has been adapted and released for the Norwegian audience. The Pokémon Theme song is the only song with an original cast member from the Norwegian anime dub. It is in fact the same vocalist as in the TV-theme. Furthermore, this signifies that the Norwegian rendition of the album version of Double Trouble does not consist of the voices of Team Rocket.

The Pokérap is the only song which have two versions. The one known from the Norwegian anime dub uses the original cast as vocals, whereas the version on the album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master does not. Pikachu's Jukebox in Norway contains songs from the album, just as in the original English dub.

Some Pokémon soundtracks can be bought from a selection of online stores in Norway, but most as a commodity from foreign countries.

Trivia

• In the beginning episodes of the first season, Ash commands Pikachu to use the move Megastøt, which is not a real attack. Thunder Shock, Thunderbolt and Thunder were later on used.
• James from Team Rocket is the main character whose voice has been changed the most. Just two episodes before the finale of the first season, James received a new dubber also known for the Norwegian voice of Goofy. His voice was again given to a new voice actor from season eighth and on.
• With the beginning of the Battle Frontier season, attacks, were not anymore dubbed into Norwegian names. For instance, the move Barberblad got its English name Razor Leaf instead.
• Specials that do not follow the anime timeline have not been adapted with a Norwegian dub, although some have been made.
  • There are only three known Pikachu shorts that have been dubbed to Norwegian. These are the specials included in the Warner Bros. distributions of the Pokémon movies. This ended with the third movie.
  • Mewtwo Returns was released on VHS with a Norwegian dub, using the voice staff from Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back.
• The Norwegian adaptation of the anime has skipped several seasons, partly or entirely. Only 24 episodes from the Adventures in the Orange Islands were dubbed. The Johto Journeys and Johto League Champions were skipped entirely, as well as 52 out of 64 episodes of Master Quest.
  • The reason why Master Quest was skipped except for the last 12 episodes, beginning with EP263, is most likely because these are considered as the first episodes in broadcast order for the sixth dub season, despite not being called Pokémon: Advanced.
  • Because of this huge gap between seasons, the only references to the Johto region are via the last 12 episodes in the fifth season, the movies Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown: Entei, Pokémon 4Ever - Celebi: The Voice of the Forest, Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias, and the special Mewtwo Returns.
• Season nine, Battle Frontier was not aired on television, but was available for free on TV 2's streaming client TV 2 Sumo.
• There is a recognizable dubbing mistake in episode EP263, where the Pokémon Unown was mispelled as Unknown. Due to this the Norwegian dub erronenously translated it to Ukjent.
• The setting of the Pokémon movie Giratina and the Sky Warrior is based on Norway's nature. Three places were used as inspiration; Sognefjorden (the second largest fjord in the world), Jostedalsbreen (the largest glacier in Europe), located in Vestland, and Bergen (the second largest city in Norway). The scene with the Glacier threatening to destroy the town was based on a little town of Geiranger, which is threatened by a collapsing mountainside in real life.
• The song and single Don't Say You Love Me, promoting the official soundtrack for Pokémon the First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back, was performed by the Norwegian group M2M.

External links

• The official Norway Pokémon website (partial website)
• Pokémon at Nintendo.no
• Netflix
• Viaplay

Related articles

• List of Norwegian Pokémon themes
• List of Norwegian Pokémon home video releases

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