So...are the Pokemon movies owned by Universal now?

[Mesousa]

Okay, I've noticed that commercials for the Dialga vs. Palkia Pokemon movie has the Universal logo, and I thought; "when the heck did they license it?"

This is getting outta hand on who's owning the Pokemon movie series now.

Warner Brothers released the first 3 films, Miramax (to this day, I still don't know how they got some of the movies) released 4 and 5, I think, and I also think 4Kids released their remeaning movies.

Can someone try to figure this mess out?

[warnerbroman]

Okay, I've noticed that commercials for the Dialga vs. Palkia Pokemon movie has the Universal logo, and I thought; "when the heck did they license it?"

This is getting outta hand on who's owning the Pokemon movie series now.

Warner Brothers released the first 3 films, Miramax (to this day, I still don't know how they got some of the movies) released 4 and 5, I think, and I also think 4Kids released their remeaning movies.

Can someone try to figure this mess out? I am wondering this myself

[SuperMegaHyper]

Er...um, that is a very good question!?:confused:

[Jeff Harris]

*sigh*

Children.

Universal Home Entertainment does NOT own the license for Pokemon movies. They're currently distributing the movies on the home market in a role not unlike the arrangements Warner Bros. (the first three films and the Mewtwo Returns special), Miramax (the second four films), and Viz (the last three before the current film) had in the past. The Pokemon Company (a Nintendo-led partnership that also includes Nintendo-affiliated studios Game Freak, and Creatures Inc.) owns the property outright while those studios own domestic syndication rights to those films.

4Kids was a distributor of the series for the first eight years of the franchise's history stateside until The Pokemon Company decided to handle their property themselves without relying on a middleman like 4Kids, which had partnered with them on all things Pokemon. That's why they had TAJ and now DuArt producing the series for them.

This might confuse some folks, but hopefully, I've cleared up a few things.

[Racattack!Force]

4Kids was a distributor of the series for the first eight years of the franchise's history stateside until The Pokemon Company decided to handle their property themselves without relying on a middleman like 4Kids, which had partnered with them on all things Pokemon.I always thought that was obvious. :confused:

[Lazerboy5000]

*sigh*

Children.

Universal Home Entertainment does NOT own the license for Pokemon movies. They're currently distributing the movies on the home market in a role not unlike the arrangements Warner Bros. (the first three films and the Mewtwo Returns special), Miramax (the second four films), and Viz (the last three before the current film) had in the past. The Pokemon Company (a Nintendo-led partnership that also includes Nintendo-affiliated studios Game Freak, and Creatures Inc.) owns the property outright while those studios own domestic syndication rights to those films.

4Kids was a distributor of the series for the first eight years of the franchise's history stateside until The Pokemon Company decided to handle their property themselves without relying on a middleman like 4Kids, which had partnered with them on all things Pokemon. That's why they had TAJ and now DuArt producing the series for them.

This might confuse some folks, but hopefully, I've cleared up a few things.
That's a very good explaintion. thanks for clearing that up.

[Light Lucario]

Okay, I've noticed that commercials for the Dialga vs. Palkia Pokemon movie has the Universal logo, and I thought; "when the heck did they license it?"

This is getting outta hand on who's owning the Pokemon movie series now.

Warner Brothers released the first 3 films, Miramax (to this day, I still don't know how they got some of the movies) released 4 and 5, I think, and I also think 4Kids released their remeaning movies.

Can someone try to figure this mess out?

Actually, I believe that you're talking about the Giratina movie, not the Dialga vs. Palkia fight since that was previous movie. Jeff has done a really good job with explaining the different companies who have distributed the movies. As he mentioned, they don't own the rights to the movies, they just release them. While I do agree that having Universal release the movie after Viz has hadled the last couple of movies and all of the series's DVDs feels like an odd choice, but it doesn't feel that confusing. Besides, it's not like knowing who distributes the movies is something that important for most of the kids. I would believe that they're pretty happy with just getting the movies.

[warnerbroman]

my questio is this why not stick to one distributor like warner

[veemonjosh]

my questio is this why not stick to one distributor like warner

Better question is, why aren't they sticking with Viz Media?

Besides the first seven movies and Mewtwo Returns, Viz has had distribution rights to nearly ALL the Pokemon anime since the beginning. It made perfect sense, with the 4Kids/Miramax deal over, for Viz to finally get to distribute some of the movies, creating a bit of consistency.

But now, they go off and give a FOURTH company the chance to release Pokemon movies. The ONLY reason I can see this making any sense is if Universal Pictures eventually gets the films back into theaters. Otherwise, it's just a mind boggling decision on Nintendo's part.

[CyberCubed]

If they were ever going to attempt to put a movie in theaters again, they would have done it with the first DP movie at the start of this generation.

Now its too late. Movie 12 will air on CN and come to DVD like the previous ones.

[bigddan11]

But now, they go off and give a FOURTH company the chance to release Pokemon movies. The ONLY reason I can see this making any sense is if Universal Pictures eventually gets the films back into theaters. Otherwise, it's just a mind boggling decision on Nintendo's part.
It's not Ninetendo. It's Poke'Mon USA. Further more, keep in mind that Viz Media was in the process of changing distributors when this film was announced. It's a much smarter move to assure a release by getting Universal involved than to wait while Viz was in limbo. There's also little factor that Universal was probably willing to pay more money to release the DVD's than Warner was, since it is Warner taking over the DVD Distribution for Viz.

[Light Lucario]

Better question is, why aren't they sticking with Viz Media?

Besides the first seven movies and Mewtwo Returns, Viz has had distribution rights to nearly ALL the Pokemon anime since the beginning. It made perfect sense, with the 4Kids/Miramax deal over, for Viz to finally get to distribute some of the movies, creating a bit of consistency.

But now, they go off and give a FOURTH company the chance to release Pokemon movies. The ONLY reason I can see this making any sense is if Universal Pictures eventually gets the films back into theaters. Otherwise, it's just a mind boggling decision on Nintendo's part.

While I do agree that giving the film to Viz Media to handle would have made sense, I believe that bigddan11 mentioned how they were in the process of changing distributors when the film came out. I actually didn't know about that either, but it does make sense. I just figured that they wanted to get more commercial time for this movie and perhaps Universal would have done that better than Viz.

As for the movies going back into theaters, I seriously doubt that would happen. While I personally wouldn't mind going to a theater to watch a Pokemon movie, I don't think PUSA would want to take the risk. The series is still doing quite well for itself, but I don't think that it would handle well in theaters now since after the first movie, each film performed lower in the box office. Granted, giving the fourth and fifth movies limited releases didn't help them, but there was a reason they were put in limited releases theaters.

At most, they would put a movie in limited releases, but even that feels like it's too much of a push. The movies seem to sell well enough on DVDs so I'm sure that they'll just continue airing the movies on CN before releasing the DVDs.

[Mesousa]

So, in short words, Universal owns everything else.

Seems...like if it was a pun, hence the name "Universal".

[Light Lucario]

So, in short words, Universal owns everything else.

Seems...like if it was a pun, hence the name "Universal".

Actually, I think that Universal only has distribution rights for Movie 11. I don't know if they have anything else at the moment.