4Kids Entertainment
| 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! Japanese Anime media franchises. They also run two program blocks:4Kids TV on Fox and The CW4Kids on The CW stations, both 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!. Its most successful film to date is Pokemon: The First Movie.
4Kids focuses on licensing content for the children and pre-teen market[2], including content for both boys and girls.[3] 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
In late January 2002, 4Kids Entertainment signed a four-year, US$100 million deal with the Fox Broadcasting Company to program its Saturday morning lineup.[4] It premiered September 14, 2002 as the "FoxBox"[5] after Fox Kids was dissolved following the purchase of Fox Family Worldwide by Disney. The block was re-branded 4Kids TV in January 2005.[6] 4Kids Entertainment is wholly responsible for the content of the block and collects all advertising revenues from it.[7]
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.
The CW4Kids
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 were 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[8]. Because of this additional deal, 4Kids will be programming for both The CW and Fox in the 2008-09 season giving 4Kids nine hours of combined children's programming on two broadcast networks, as the current 4KidsTV deal runs until 2009. The new block is entitled The CW4Kids and started May 24, 2008; however, many former Kids' WB shows are still seen on the lineup.
Outside the United States
In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, several 4Kids TV-distributed anime (notably the Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon franchises) was carried by 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, RTÉ 2 in the Republic of Ireland, and RTL 2 in Germany.[9]
Other notable business proceedings
4Sight Licensing Solutions Inc.
On April 18, 2006, 4Kids had announced a new subsidiary entitled 4Sight Licensing Solutions Inc.[10] 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.[10] "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."[10]
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.[11] One of the first titles announced was Viva Piñata which would be developed by Rare Ltd.
Editorial practices, 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 for these 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 character names[12], dialog, music, food, or stereotypes which would be unfamiliar (or even offensive) to an American audience. They also may remove some materially suggestive objects such as cigarettes or guns (replacing them with lollipops and water 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 examples include removing many instances of violence from One Piece,[13] and the elimination of several episodes from Pokémon.[14]
In most or all the anime in which all the music score and all the sound effects are completely changed, much of the writing in Japanese or English are digitally airbrushed out or replaced with unreadable symbols.
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? That's 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." Kahn claimed in the same interview that this was necessary, because otherwise adapting an anime would not be commercially viable due to the re-dubbing, re-editing, and re-scoring that 4Kids performs. 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]
Despite the edits against violence and other inappropriate content, moral conservative groups have criticized the programs released by 4Kids. For example, a March 2006 study [15] 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 the 4Kids-dubbed Shaman King in one of his weekly column as an example of children's media he perceived as having undue "cultural landmines".[16]
References
- ^ http://4kidsentertainment.com/services/4kidstv.html
- ^ a b c d Pennington, Steven. Alfred R. Kahn Anime News Network. Accessed 24 April, 2005.
- ^ 2004 annual report of 4Kids Entertainment
- ^ McClellan, Steve; Schlosser, Joe (2002-01-28). "4Kids' win-win deal". Broadcasting & Cable.
{{cite web}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Missing or empty|url=(help); Text "url-http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA193178.html" ignored (help) - ^ "The week that was". Broadcasting & Cable. 2002-05-20. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "Fox Box To Be Rebranded 4KIDS TV" (Press release). 4Kids Entertainment. 2005-01-18.
- ^ Downey, Kevin (2002-03-01). "Signs of life for kids television". Media Life Magazine. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ Schneider, Michael. CW turns to 4Kids on Saturdays. Variety: Oct. 2, 2007.
- ^ 4Kids Brings Dinosaur King to European Markets (Updated) - Anime News Network
- ^ 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.
- ^ "4Kids to Premiere Sega's Dinosaur King Anime on Fox". Anime News Network. 2007-08-29. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
- ^ "4Kids Screw Ups". SaveOnePiece.com. 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
- ^ "Pokemon Anime Censorship". Psypoke. 2002. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
- ^ 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 (2006-03-03). "Poisoning Children, Too?". Creators Syndicate. Retrieved 2008-02-18.