4Kids Entertainment: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 19:25, 31 December 2007
| The current 4Kids logo | |
| Company type | Public (NYSE: KDE) |
|---|---|
| Industry | TV production, licensing |
| Founded | 1970 (as Leisure Concepts, Inc.) |
| Defunct | 2 February 2017  |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Key people | Norman Grossfeld Alfred R. Kahn |
| Products | 4Sight Licensing Solutions, Inc 4Kids Productions |
| Revenue |  $7.9 million USD (2006) |
Number of employees | 325 (2007) |
| Website | www.4kidsentertainment.com |
4Kids Entertainment (NYSE: KDE) (commonly known as 4Kids) is an American film and television production company specializing in the acquisition, production and licensing of children's entertainment around the world. The company is most well-known for its range of television licenses, which has included the multi-billion dollar Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! media franchises. They also run a program block on Fox stations known as 4Kids TV and aimed at children.[1]
4Kids licenses and productions
4Kids Entertainment licenses, develops, and distributes a wide variety of media products, ranging from video games and television programs to toy lines featuring the British Royal Air Force. These have included such well-known programs as Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
4Kids focuses on licensing content for the children and young-adult market[2], including content for both boys and girls[1]. Many of its licenses come from English dubs of Japanese anime, including Fighting Foodons, and Shaman King, while others are Western animations or properties like Winx Club, Chaotic, or Back to the Future: The Animated Series.
Most programs are either licensed out to local stations, or broadcast on their dedicated programming block 4Kids TV. Typically, 4Kids will retain several properties on hiatus (such as Di-Gata Defenders), or in production to allow for turnover of their existing products. 4Kids also licenses, and merchandises, a number of non-animation based products, such as calendars like The Dog, and toys like Cabbage Patch Kids.
Television
4Kids TV
4Kids Entertainment introduced 4Kids TV, then called the FoxBox on September 14, 2002 after Fox Kids was dissolved following the purchase of Fox Family Worldwide by Disney. The block was re-branded 4Kids TV in January 2005. 4Kids Entertainment is wholly responsible for the content of the block and collects all advertising revenues from it - making it one of the main outlets in the United States for 4Kids licenses and properties.
Many of the licenses distributed by 4Kids Entertainment, and presented on 4Kids TV are managed by 4Kids Productions, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of 4Kids Entertainment. First launched in 1992, 4Kids Productions deals primarily with television, film, home video, and music licenses, and currently manages the programming for 4KidsTV.
Acquisition of Kids' WB
On October 2, 2007, Warner Bros. and CBS announced that the Kids' WB block on their co-owned network, The CW, will be ending in September 2008, and no longer be marketed and produced in-house, due to factors including building children's advertising and marketing restrictions, and cable competition. Rights for the five hour Saturday morning block will bought by 4Kids, and they will begin to program the time with their own programming (possibly mixed in with current Kids' WB originals) in September 2008[3]. Because of this additional deal, 4Kids will be programming for both The CW and Fox in the 2008-09 season, as the current 4KidsTV deal runs until 2009, giving 4KidsTV nine hours of combined children's programming on two broadcast networks, though it is unknown if the change is permanent, or it will end in 2009.
Outside the United States
In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, several 4Kids TV-distributed anime (notably the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon franchises) are currently carried by leading subscription entertainment channel Sky One, generally in early morning slots. (Note that Sky is a corporate relative of Fox, via parent company News Corporation.) Other channels which show or have shown 4Kids properties include CITV, Jetix, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom, and RTÉ 2 in the Republic of Ireland.
Other notable business proceedings
4Sight Licensing Solutions Inc.
On April 18, 2006, 4Kids had announced a new subsidiary entitled 4Sight Licensing Solutions Inc.[4] 4Sight will license and market brands aimed at adults, teenagers and pre-teens. "We have built an impressive roster of captivating and successful children's entertainment properties," said Alfred Kahn.[4] "Given the increased number of brands that we are representing that focus on an older audience, we felt it would be beneficial to organize a new subsidiary primarily devoted to the marketing and licensing of these brands. We believe that we can successfully utilize our marketing and licensing expertise to build brand value for properties targeting an older consumer that are not necessarily media or character driven."[4]
4Kids and Microsoft
On January 17, 2006, 4Kids and Microsoft signed a deal to license children's video games exclusively for the Xbox 360 gaming system, in an effort to put more child-oriented games on the system, whose gaming library is currently dominated by games targeted toward the 13-and-up market.[5] One of the first titles announced was Viva Piñata which would be developed by Rare Ltd.
Criticism and controversy
The management of 4Kids Entertainment has stated that they seek to "westernize anime so that children in English-speaking countries will understand it...",[2] judging that such localization is necessary in order to for their titles to be marketable.[2]
For most titles, the editing 4Kids performs falls into a few broad categories – 4Kids may seek to "Americanize" a program by changing dialog, music, food, or stereotypes which would be unfamiliar, or offensive, to an American audience. They also may remove some materially suggestive objects such as cigarettes or guns, religious symbols, or content deemed too violent or sexually suggestive for children. For example, in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the issue of death is sidestepped in the localized version, with dead characters being sent to the "shadow realm." Other notable examples include removing many instances of violence from One Piece, and the elimination of several episodes from Pokémon.
4Kids has been accused of possessing what appears to be a lack of interest in being faithful to the original artistic vision of an anime, instead focusing on an anime's commercial value. In an interview with Al Kahn, CEO of 4Kids, when asked how the company decides what properties or anime to acquire, his reply was, "We look at things such as popularity, but also if it has a merchandising component; can we license it, can we license products for it? Thats really the main issue for us... the playing pattern, if it's popular and how it merchandises. If we can't merchandise it, it really doesn't have a lot of interest for us." [2] Kahn claimed in the same interview that the reason for this was because otherwise, adapting an anime would not be commercially viable due to the re-dubbing, re-editing, and re-scoring that they find necessary. The corporation's view on prioritizing marketing potential over faithful adaptation is evident in the now-defunct English dub of One Piece, which skipped nearly 40 episodes presumably to introduce Tony Tony Chopper, a character 4Kids had promoted heavily, sooner. These episodes being skipped will create numerous plotholes in future episodes of the revised FUNimation dub, and had even caused inconsistency within the 4Kids adaptation.
This, along with their controversial editing practices, has resulted in a backlash from within the existing fanbase of many of these titles. Adding to their ire is that beyond the 4Kids management, even the 4Kids scriptwriters have appeared at times to be uninterested in understanding the original material, instead displaying non-committal in preserving it faithfully. As 4Kids scriptwriter Michael Haigney admitted in an interview "I’ve never played the game, seen the series or read the comics" when asked about his experience with the Sonic the Hedgehog anime Sonic X.[6] Critics argue that this level of insensitivity to the source material has altered some of these titles to the point where they have lost the qualities that originally made them appealing in Japan. 4Kids Entertainment remains largely unmoved by these claims, stating "...if [anime fans] want this programming to come to the United States then they're going to have to accept the fact that it's going to be available in two styles."[2].
The "two styles" that Kahn referred to in this interview were a reference to cut and uncut versions of anime. Although 4Kids briefly sold uncut DVD's of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King, and were doing so at the time of this interview, they have since discontinued that practice for all of their acquired anime for unknown reasons. This angered many fans of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but also fans of other anime that 4Kids had talked about releasing uncut editions of (including One Piece). Ultimately, save for the very few uncut DVD's of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shaman King, 4Kids has never released uncut editions of their material before or since (save for uncut boxsets of Ultraman Tiga). Hence, many fans have pointed out that although 4Kids promised that the anime would be available in two styles, it would seem they are only available in one.
Despite the edits against violence and other inappropriate content, moral conservative groups criticize the 4Kids dubs. For example, a March 2006 study [7] by the Parents Television Council on violence in children's television programs pointed out the 4Kids dub of Shaman King. L. Brent Bozell also pointed out Shaman King in one of his weekly column as an example of children's media with excess "cultural landmines" that are uncalled for.[8]
More controversy arose with the comments made by Al Kahn on the subject of manga during the ICv2 Graphic Novel Conference. During his comment, he stated that "I think manga is a problem...kids today don't read, they read less today. In every survey, we find that they're watching more television, they're on the Internet more...And manga in my mind is trying to put a square peg in a round hole in the U.S. It will never be a big deal here, for the kids that are in the computer or the Internet generation, because they're not going to read. They haven't read, and they're not going to start now." [9] Kahn later made several questionable observations at the New York Anime Fest, stating that "Japan is over," and that "manga is dying in Japan," seemingly ignoring that manga in Japan remains a billion dollar industry, and that the niche market for graphic novels is increasing in America, including popular manga series such as Naruto. [10]
References
- ^ http://4kidsentertainment.com/services/4kidstv.html
- ^ a b c d e Pennington, Steven. Alfred R. Kahn Anime News Network. Accessed 24 April, 2005.
- ^ Schneider, Michael. CW turns to 4Kids on Saturdays. Variety: Oct. 2, 2007.
- ^ a b c 4Kids Launches 4Sight Licensing Solutins Anime News Network. Accessed April 18, 2006.
- ^ Microsoft and 4Kids Entertainment Form Alliance 4Kids Entertainment.com. Accessed 17 January, 2006.
- ^ Mr. Michael Haigney Interview (4Kids) animeboredom.co.uk. Accessed February 24, 2006.
- ^ New PTC Study Finds More Violence on Children's TV than on Adult-Oriented TV. Parents Television Council. March 2, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2007.
- ^ Bozell, L. Brent III. Poisoning Children, Too? Parents Television Council. March 3, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2007.
- ^ http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/8313.html
- ^ http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/11741.html