Pokémon USA recasting controversy: Difference between revisions

Because of the Pokémon franchise's waning popularity in the United States, the international Pokémon distributor, [[The Pokémon Company International|Pokémon USA]], began looking for ways to cut costs on production of the English adaptation of the series, and decided to find a new partnering company who could produce the English adaptation for less money. Once [[4Kids Entertainment]]'s contract expired in early 2006, they were outbid by [[TAJ Productions]], who had earlier assisted 4Kids in their production of the English-language version of the series. There was a catch, however: according to statements made Veronica Taylor, and Eric Stuart, the voice actors were to be replaced with different sound-a-like voice actors to keep production costs low. TPCi has made no official statements on these claims. The special episode, which aired on April 29, was used as a testing ground for the new voices.  Because of this, and the discontinuation of anime in their block as they were planning to move to {{wp|The CW Television Network|The CW Network}}, [[Kids' WB!]] decided not to renew the series, and [[Cartoon Network]], the sibling cable network owned by Kids' WB's owners, {{wp|Time Warner}}, started to air the series as of September 8, 2006.