Pokémon in Italy: Difference between revisions

|EP001=January 7, 2000

|DP001=September 2007

The Pokémon franchise first reached '''{{wp|Italy}}''' on January 7, 2000, with the first broadcast of ''[[EP001|L'inizio di una grande avventura]]'' in Italian on Italia 1.

[[File:Italia1.PNG|thumb|left|150px|Italia 1 logo]]On January 7th, 2000, '''Italia 1''' ('''Italia Uno'''), a commercial Italian TV channel owned by {{wp|Mediaset}}, started airing the [[Pokémon anime]] from Mondays to Fridays every afternoon, around 5 P.M. The series that year was successful in Italy and it was also broadcast at prime time on Saturdays. From the [[Johto League Champions|fourth season]] on, however, Pokémon lost more and more Italian fans. On Christmas 2001 it was even suspended for one year, possibly for dub problems, and when in the end of 2002 it started again, its popularity was even lower.

In 2003, ''[[Pokémon: Master Quest]]'' began around 4 P.M. With this fifth series, Italia 1 chose to divide the episodes into two halves for the premiere, creating, in this way, two 10-minutes episodes broadcast from Monday through Friday. However, when the episodes were re-aired, they were transmitted fully. Nevertheless, Pokémon started being broadcast later and later ([[Pokémon: Advanced]] at 4:30 P.M., [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge]] at 5 P.M.) until the [[Pokémon: Advanced Battle|eighth season]] started to be broadcast at 6 P.M., always for ten minutes on February 2006. After a few months, Pokémon was moved to Saturdays and Sundays, imitating the TV schedule of [[Kids' WB!]]. The main problem facing this was that Italian children attend school on Saturdays. Due to this choice, some Italian Pokémon sites chose to make together a petition against Italia 1. Perhaps because of this petition or maybe due to the lower audience, Pokémon returned in the afternoon at 5:15 P.M.

With the beginning of ''[[Pokémon Chronicles]]'', however, the show was broadcast once again in the weekend, although later in the morning. The same happened for ''[[Pokémon: Battle Frontier]]'', which was not only was transmitted in the weekends, but also for 10 minutes only. In Summer 2007, Pokémon landed every morning at 8:30 A.M. In September 2007, Italia 1 decided on give another chance to the show and, exploiting the success of {{game|Diamond and Pearl|s}}, Pokémon came back in the afternoon with the new series, ''[[Diamond & Pearl series|Pokémon: Diamante e Perla]]''. The first episodes were successful, similar to the ones of the first seasons, but after a few episodes the success decreased, and so in January 2008 "Diamante e Perla" went back to the weekend.

[[Image:BoingLogo.PNG|right|100px|thumb|Boing and Hiro]]Like most rerunning cartoon series and movies coming from Italia 1, the Pokémon anime has also been aired by Boing and Hiro, two Italian digital television channels, broadcast via DTT technology, owned by {{wp|Mediaset}}.

Only the first five [[Pokémon movie]]s of the [[original series]] have been released in Italy so far. On February 28, March 6 and 13 2004, the first three movies were supposed to be broadcast, for the first time on TV, on Italy 1 in prime time. However, due to the low audience, only the first two movies aired. One year later, finally, the [[M03|third one]] was broadcast, this time on Sunday afternoon. From that day, however, the films have not been transmitted anymore. Some sources affirm that Mediaset has treated for getting the rights of transmission of the all first ten movies.

In 2009, Walt Disney Company's channel, Jetix, obtained the rights for broadcasting the [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension|eleventh season]].

Traditionally, Mediaset, since its origins, has always created openings for cartoons and anime, some independent from the Japanese and North American opening themes. For Pokémon, nine themes have been made (for the first ten seasons and for Pokémon Chronicles). For [[Pokémon: Advanced]] & [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge]], and for [[Pokémon: Advanced Battle]] & [[Pokémon: Battle Frontier]], the same opening themes have been used. This makes Italy one of only three known countries outside of Japan and the United States to create original music for the Pokémon anime, the other two being China and Korea.

Although the Italian dub has its own music, a Italian-language translation of the ''[[Pokémon 2.B.A. Master]]'' soundtrack was also released, entitled ''{{tt|Pokémon: Le Canzoni Autentiche Della Serie TV|Pokémon: The Authentic Songs From The TV Series}}'', including the [[Gotta Catch 'em All! (song)|first Italian opening]] as a bonus track.

===Cast and crew===

The main role of [[Ash Ketchum]] is dubbed by '''Davide Garbolino'''. Other minor roles Garbolino had on Pokémon include [[Jared]]. [[Misty]], the second main character in the series, has been dubbed by '''Alessandra Karpoff''', who also dubbed [[Lilian Meridian]], [[J]], and [[Cynthia]].

[[Brock]]'s role was taken by '''Nicola Bartolini Carrassi''' (also known as '''Nicola Ryan Carrassi'''; born August 1, 1971 in {{wp|La Spezia}}), the man who brought Pokémon to Italy. He is also a journalist, scriptwriter, anime expert and anchor. He has been chosen by Warner Bros, 4Kids, Pokémon INC., Nintendo Games Freak and Buena Vista in order to become the Italian voice of Brock and for this he has been rewarded as the best European voice of Brock. Nicola left the cast after two seasons, and starting the [[Johto]] saga, the role was taken by '''Luca Bottale'''.

The [[Team Rocket]] trio of [[Jessie]], [[James]], and {{MTR}} is has been voiced by '''Emanuela Pacotto''', '''Simone D’Andrea''', and '''Giuseppe Calvetti''' (also known as '''Beppe Calvetti''') respectively. Starting with [[AG041]], the role of Meowth was passed to [[Pietro Ubaldi]].

{{an|May}}, who is named Vera in Italy, was dubbed by '''Serena Clerici''', who also voiced [[Janina]]. May's brother [[Max]] was dubbed by '''Federica Valenti''', who also voiced {{an|Casey}} and {{mov|Melody}}.

The newest main character, {{an|Dawn}}, is called Lucinda in Italy. Her voice actress is '''Tosawi Piovani''', who was also the voice of {{an|Casey}} and {{jo|Marina}}.

Other notable voice actors in the Italian dub include '''Riccardo Rovatti''' as [[Professor Oak]], '''Paolo Sesana''' as [[Gary Oak]] (although he was initially voiced by '''Nicola Bartolini Carrassi''' in [[EP001]]), '''Patrizio Prata''' as [[Tracey Sketchit]], '''Marcella Silvestri''' and '''Monica Bonetto''' as [[Officer Jenny]], '''Sonia Mazza''' and '''Laura Brambilla''' as [[Nurse Joy]], and '''Massimo Di Benedetto''' as [[Paul]] and [[Drew]].

The Pokémon schedule as of January 9th, 2011, is:

{| style="background: #2E83D2; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; {{roundy|10px}} border: 3px solid #81807A"

! style="background: #6AA9E4; {{roundytl|10px}}" | Channel

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Time

! style="background: #6AA9E4; {{roundytr|10px}}" | Series

|-

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge]]

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge ]]

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge]]

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge]]

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Friday

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Advanced Challenge]]

|-

! rowspan=7 style="background: #6AA9E4;" | K-2

! rowspan=7 style="background: #6AA9E4" | 6:05 PM

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Monday

| style="background: #fff" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

| style="background: #fff" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

| style="background: #fff" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

| style="background: #fff" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

|-

| style="background: #fff" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

|-

| style="background: #fff" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

|-

| style="background: #fff;" | 2 episodes of [[Pokémon Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors]]

! rowspan=7 style="background: #6AA9E4;{{roundybl|10px}}" | Hiro

! rowspan=7 style="background: #6AA9E4" | 3:50 PM

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Monday

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

|-

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Wednesday

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

|-

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

|-

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Saturday

| style="background: #fff" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

|-

! style="background: #6AA9E4" | Sunday

| style="background: #fff; {{roundybr|10px}}" | [[Pokémon: Johto League Champions]]

|}

[[File:Get Da Ze volume1.jpg|thumb|right|Cover artwork for volume one of ''Pokémon'']]

[[Pokémon Advanced Action Cards]] were available in Italy in the early 2000s.

===Pokémon manga===

Italy is one of only two countries outside of Japan to publish a translation of the [[Pokémon Get da ze!]] manga series. It is published by Play Press Publishing under the title ''Pokémon''.

== Trivia ==

* {{OBP|Pokémon Day|Italy}} has been celebrated in Italy every year since 2005.

{{Pokémon around the world}}

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