Pokémon in Canada: Difference between revisions

|XY001=December 7, 2013{{tt|*|Sneak peak}}<br>February 15, 2014{{tt|*|Original order}}

|SM001=December 31, 2016{{tt|*|Sneak peak}}<br>March 18, 2017{{tt|*|Original order}}

The [[Pokémon]] franchise first reached '''{{wp|Canada}}''' in late 1998 with the release of [[Pokémon Red and Blue Versions]] and airing of the {{pkmn|anime}} began at the same time. Canada is divided into English- and French-speaking regions (the latter consisting mostly of the province of {{wp|Quebec}}), with Pokémon being marketed accordingly. While the English adaptation of the franchise largely shares the same materials and translations as {{pmin|the United States}}, the {{wp|Quebec French}} adaptation of the franchise had a mix of its own French translations and the English translation during its early days (with a small amount of material from {{pmin|France}}), which was eventually phased out in favor of almost entirely importing European French material with a few exceptions such as the ''{{mov|Detective Pikachu}}'' film.

===In English===

All Pokémon games that have been released in {{pmin|the United States}} have also been released in Canada, with the exception of the [[Pokémon mini]]. New games are always released on the same day that they are released in the United States. Pokémon games sold in Canada are direct imports of the American versions, so spelling variations such as ''color'' and ''center'' are not changed to ''colour'' and ''centre'' for the Canadian releases. As in the United States, most Pokémon species names are completely localized from Japanese into English, with some exceptions such as {{p|Pikachu}}. Despite this, some Canadian materials, such as game packaging/manuals and the official Canadian site for ''[[Pokémon Black and White Versions]]'', use Canadian spellings in addition to the metric system for Pokémon height and weight stats.  

Unlike with the U.S. releases, English Canadian games until [[Generation VI]] have featured bilingual (English/French) packaging and manuals, both to comply with federal regulations and in order to market both the English and French versions to Francophone Canadians. Unlike how French-language games and related material fully translate all terms and names using {{pmin|France}}'s localizations, French material related to English games localizes some terms but leaves all proper nouns the same, with France's equivalent provided in brackets for some lesser terms ("{{pkmn|Trainer}}" is translated as "Dresseur", but "{{p|Feraligatr}}" is used instead of "Aligatueur" and [[Castelia City]] is referred to as "la ville Castelia City"). A few games have trilingual packaging, with Spanish as a third language for {{pmin|Latin America}}.

===In French===

While Canadian law requires bilingual packaging and instruction manuals to be included with the sale of all video games in Canada, Pokémon games were available in English only until the release of {{game|HeartGold and SoulSilver|s}}, which received a French release for the province of {{wp|Quebec}} in addition to the regular English release. This was due to an agreement between Quebec's government and major video game publishers requiring any video games in Quebec to be offered in French if available in that language elsewhere in the world.  

{{game|HeartGold and SoulSilver|s}} and all [[Generation V]] games received separate French-language releases in Quebec, which can also be found somewhat rarely in other provinces. These releases contain exactly the same content as those from {{pmin|France}}, with the packaging slightly modified to include elements such as a "Play in French" logo (upper-left corner), although they retain their {{wp|PEGI}} ratings rather than changing them to those of the {{wp|ESRB}}. As they are from France, the games are incompatible with some North American features, such as [[Pal Park]] with North American [[Generation III]] games and [[Poké Transfer]] and [[Pokémon Dream Radar]] with North American copies of {{3v2|Diamond|Pearl|Platinum}}. Despite the content of the games being almost identical to that of the releases from France, the Canadian French versions of the games for Nintendo DS have their own country code in the serial numbers, CDF (instead of USA for English North America, or EUR for Europe, etc.). With some exceptions such as {{p|Pikachu}}, most of the Pokémon species, character and location names are completely localized into the French language. For more information on these translated names, see [[list of French Pokémon names]].

As {{g|X and Y}} feature multilingual support, the need for separate English and French Game Cards from [[Generation VI]] onward appears to have been eliminated, as players may choose their preferred language at the beginning of the game. Most spin-off games include multiple language options, including French and Spanish. ''[[Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U]]'' is a unique case, as its North American French translation is separate from that of France due to it being a Nintendo crossover game, although most Pokémon characters still use European French names and voices to reflect how the games' translations are imported from or identical to those of France.

Canadian players have had access to all Wi-Fi event distributions since the {{si|Secret Key}} in early 2009. The first in-store distribution was the [[List of European language event Pokémon distributions in Generation I#Canada Toys "R" Us Mew|Toys "R" Us Mew]] in 2000. In [[Generation III]], Canada had no [[event Pokémon]] distributions. There were no in-store [[event Pokémon]] distributions again until the 2011 release of the [[Legendary beasts (M13)#In the games|shiny legendary beasts]] at {{wp|EB Games}} and {{wp|GameStop}} stores. Following this, other events have been distributed at EB Games and GameStop stores as well as in {{wp|Toys 'R' Us}} stores. Events are available to all game languages, although they were initially only available to English games followed by English and French only.<ref>[http://www.gamesniped.com/2012/02/13/pokemon-zoroark-distribution-cart-nintendo-ds/ Image of bilingual Zoroark distribution cart @ GameSniped] (retrieved April 9, 2012)</ref>

So far, all [[List of American region Nintendo Network event Pokémon distributions in Generation VI|North American Wi-Fi]] events from Generation VI have been accessible to Canadian players. In-store distributions at EB Games have resumed with the release of the {{DL|List of American region serial code event Pokémon distributions in Generation VI|Gengar|October 2014 shiny Gengar}} and {{DL|List of American region serial code event Pokémon distributions in Generation VI|Diancie}}.

[[File:Teletoon logo.png|thumb|200px|right|Teletoon's logo, in use from 2011 - current]]

The English dub of the [[Pokémon anime]] and the [[Pokémon movie]]s airs in Canada on {{wp|Teletoon|Teletoon}}. The series previously aired on {{wp|YTV (TV channel)|YTV}} from September 1998,  when ''[[EP001|Pokémon - I Choose You!]]'' debuted in Canada, through August 30, 2014. {{wp|Corus Entertainment|Corus Entertainment}} had obtained full ownership of Teletoon in 2014. Since Corus Entertainment had also owned YTV, they decided to shift some of their programming from YTV to Teletoon in the summer and fall of 2014, including the movement of Pokémon from YTV to Teletoon on September 2, 2014.

{{tt|Currently|Last checked: May 10, 2020}}, Teletoon airs ''[[S23|Pokémon Journeys: The Series]]'' every Saturday at 12:00 PM ET/PT. <!--Repeats are shown Monday through Friday, at 3:30 PM ET/PT.-->

{{incomplete|section|needs=Needs history from the Johto episodes and ''[[Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire]]''}}

<!--additional info on Johto/Hoenn airings?

[[S21|Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Adventures]] premiered on Teletoon from March 10, 2018 to February 2, 2019. The last four episodes of the season aired on YTV on February 27, 2019 in commemoration of [[Pokémon Day]], marking Pokémon's return to the channel after its move to Teletoon in 2014. ''[[M21|The Power of Us]]'' aired on the channel on May 10, 2019, the same day that ''{{mov|Detective Pikachu}}'' premiered in North American theatres. On June 28, 2019, and later on November 8, 2019, YTV surprisingly aired select episodes of [[S22|Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon—Ultra Legends]], though the reasoning is unknown. On January 10th, 2020, YTV aired a marathon consisting of two episodes of Ultra Legends and ''[[M01|Mewtwo Strikes Back]]''.

[[S24|Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series]] premiered on Teletoon on June 12, 2021. Once again, YTV aired a "''Catch-Up Marathon''" on Friday September 17, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. , consisting of the most recently dubbed episodes.

As in the United States, the first three [[Pokémon movie]]s were distributed by Warner Brothers.

Pokémon movies have been distributed in Canada by [[VIZ Media]] following their takeover of the movie distributions from ''[[M08|Lucario and the Mystery of Mew]]'' onward in the United States. Subsequent Pokémon movies that received a theatrical release in the United States were also released in Canada via {{wp|Cineplex}}, including the wide-release ''{{mov|Detective Pikachu}}'' film.

The Quebec dub aired on {{wp|Télétoon (Canadian TV channel)|Télétoon}}, a French-language children's network based in {{wp|Montreal}}. Télétoon stopped airing Pokémon after the completion of [[S04|Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]. Following this, [[S05|Pokémon: Master Quest]] was partly aired on a different network, {{wp|V (TV network)|TQS}}. The Canadian French version of Pokémon was cancelled in 2004 for unknown reasons. The Quebec dub was released on VHS and DVD by Imavision Distribution Inc., but their license to distribute the series has expired and their Pokémon titles have gone out of print.

Unlike the series, the [[Pokémon movie]]s were fully redubbed in Quebec with a local cast by the dubbing company '''Covitec'''. They were distributed on VHS and bilingual DVD (with both French and English audio tracks) by {{wp|Warner Brothers}}, although no movies have been released to Canadians in French since [[VIZ Media]] took over the distribution of the films.

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In 2019, the ''[[Detective Pikachu (movie)|Detective Pikachu]]'' movie was the first piece of Pokémon media to get a full dedicated Canadian French dub for Quebec since 2003, albeit using European French Pokémon names for consistency with the rest of the franchise.

In addition to this, some of the newer French manga translations published in {{pmin|France}} by Kurokawa, such as [[List of Pokémon Black and White volumes (France)|Pokémon Noir et Blanc]] (the French translation of the {{chap|Black & White}} of [[Pokémon Adventures]]), have been available in Canada through online retailers such as [http://www.amazon.ca Amazon.ca] and [http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/ Indigo Books & Music].

So far, there have been three performances of [[Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions]] in Canada. The concerts were performed in Vancouver on July 22, 2015; in Toronto on August 28, 2015 and in Montreal on August 30, 2015. A fourth performance will be held in Toronto on May 6, 2017.

* Scott Ramsoomair, the author of the webcomic ''{{OBP|Super Effective|webcomic}}'', is Canadian,<ref>[http://www.animecons.com/guests/bio.shtml/1153/Scott_Ramsoomair Scott Ramsooair Biography @ AnimeCons.com] (retrieved February 18, 2010)</ref> as is {{wp|Ryan Reynolds}}, the voice actor for {{OBP|Detective Pikachu|character|the eponymous character}} in the ''{{mov|Detective Pikachu}}'' film.

==References==