Pokémon in Hungary
Flag of Hungary
Language	Hungarian
Continent	Europe
Original animated series airdates
EP001	June 10, 2000
AG001	2007
DP001	2009
BW001	Not Aired
XY001	Not Aired
SM001	Not Aired
JN001	July 1st, 2021
HZ001

ThePokémon franchise arrived inHungary with the release ofPokémon - A népszerű TV-sorozat zenéje in late 1999. This was followed by the animated series with the airing ofTéged választalak, Pikachu! on June 10, 2000.

Pokémon video games

Pokémon games are sold in Hungary in English. From the 1990s, Hungary was in the distribution network of the Austrian company Stadlbauer, until 2013. From 2014, products are sold by ConQuest Entertainment.^[1]

Pokémon animation

The first three seasons were first broadcast onRTL Club from June 10, 2000 to early 2004, with episodes airing every Saturday and Sunday. The titles for episodes of those seasons were localized with the intros. AfterS03, for unknown reasons, they stopped localizing the episode titles, as well as dubbing the Intros untilPokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl.

During 2001, a controversy similar to those made inthe Arab world andTurkey around the same time, made by ORTT, stated that Pokémon brainwashed children and that it had a negative impact on them and their brain development. This controversy eventually caused the show to be shut down. The show had initially continued to air the show becauseRTL Club believed, at the time, that dropping it would have caused them to lose up to about 50 million Euros in revenue as well a majority of their audience, which were mostly of ages 4-17.^[2]

Beginning in early 2004, a new animated series-specific channel known asA+ began to re-airS01 in its starting lineup. Instead of re-airingS02 andS03,S04 aired from around early to mid-2005 until mid-2006, when the company was sold and changed its name toAnimax.Animax airedS05 andS06 through mid-2007 and mid-2008, respectively, though the exact air dates for these seasons are unknown. These seasons were also broadcasted onRTL Club at around the same time, as well asS07 though after the airing ofAG043, it was removed from TV altogether.

It would not return until early-2009 whenS10 andS11 began to air onJetix (previously namedFox Kids and later renamedDisney Channel) though with most of voice actors having been replaced, which caused great outrage amongst fans, who criticized the poor quality translations. However, whenJetix changed into theDisney Channel,S12 was released with many of the original voice actors reprising their roles. The animated series continued to air until mid-to-late 2011. However, like in Romania,S13 was skipped. Anything beyondS12 hadn’t been dubbed, due to ORTT discontinuing the show. The show made, however, its official return to Hungary on July 1, 2021 with the release ofPokémon Journeys: The Series.

The only opening themes of the animated series that were translated and dubbed into Hungarian were ofS01 throughS03,S10 throughS12 as well asS23 andS24. The intros ofS04 throughS07 were left in English due to ORTT making claims that the theme songs were making product placements via the lyrics since commercial advertising in anime shows were illegal at that time.

Movies

In total,M01 toM08, as well asM10 andM11, were released in Hungary. All of the other movies were skipped due to unknown reasons. On November 9, 2000,M01 saw its theatrical release.M02 was released on April 5, 2001. On March 28, 2004, RTL Club airedM03 before releasing it in theaters. RTL Club airedM04 andM06 on March 19, 2011, which were later re-aired on May 18 and May 25. On June 16, 2011, the same channel airedM05, and it was released and also rerun on August 25.M07 was also made watchable in December 2014 and February 2015. The release dates forM08,M10, andM11 are unknown. Its also unknown as to why there was a big discrepancy betweenM03 andM04. No other movies would be made or released in the country until the showing of the Hungarian dubbed version ofPOKÉMON Detective Pikachu in cinemas on May 9, 2019. Also, a Hungarian dub ofM22 was released on Netflix on February 27, 2020.

Cast and crew

SDI Media Hungary has been responsible for production of the animated series and its movies since around 2011.

Music

The Pokémon soundtracks2.B.A. Master andTotally Pokémon were made and dubbed into Hungarian. The first Pokémon soundtrack2.B.A. Master was made by Gold Stúdió and was distributed by, marketed by, and made available on CD under the name ofPokémon - A népszerű TV-sorozat zenéje by BMG Hungary (formerly known as BMG Ariola Hungary) in 1999.^[3] The lyrics for the 1st soundtrack were written by Székely Anna, engineered by Tőzsér Attila, produced by Berkes Gábor and sung by Németh Attila and Fehér Adrien. Németh Attila and an unknown voice actor also sung the lyrics of the 3rd soundtrack: Totally Pokémon which was released under the namePokémon - Utazások Johto-ba also by BMG Hungary in 2002.

References

Related articles

• List of Hungarian Pokémon themes
• List of international voice actors

This article is part ofProject Globe, aBulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon franchise around the world.

• Pokémon around the world